This may come as a bit of a surprise to you, but I am not an organized person. (Okay, that will only surprise you if you don’t know me in real life.)
One of the things I’ve been meaning to do for a while is to go through all my notebooks (of which there are many) and all my scraps of paper (of which there are also many) and find all the little snippets I’ve written pertaining to the various WIP. Some people might actually have a notebook for each WIP but not me. I grab whatever is handy, write in it, leave it somewhere in the house and usually misplace it for a few days to a few weeks to even longer. It was a recent “misplacement” of a notebook that sent me into a panic trying to find what I had written about Plant Kid and Flyboy and Max. (which turned out to be spread across 5 different notebooks.)
You’ll be happy to know that I did find said notebook. (I wanted to set your mind at ease on that right away. I could sense your worry across the virtual space.) I spent most of yesterday curled up in a chair in my office reading old notebooks and getting reacquainted with various trains of my writing mind. At the end of the day I realized I had 7 books that I was still passionate about writing. (Not all at the same time.) 4 middle grades, 2 YAs and 1 historical picture book. A couple of traces of “found words” reminded me how much I had been in love with a particular historical story that I had originally written as a picture book but now plan to do as a novel. It was like meeting an old friend I hadn’t seen in a long time. A couple of the other books were ideas that are loosely based on incidents from my childhood which reminded me to mention the book Old Friend from Far Away: The Practice of Writing Memoir by Natalie Goldberg. I don’t plan on writing mine as a memoir but I believe the prods in this book will help me remember things about my childhood that I have long forgotten.
This morning I went through much of the files on my computer and moved more of those snippets into folders associated with the various WIPs. I’ve really got no excuse left. It’s time to generate more words, messy first and second and third drafts and get further along into the stories.
But it was something I had to do first, to get ready.
How do you organize all the various pieces of a book as you are writing it?
YAY you and YAY progress! 🙂
I’m pretty disorganized and tend to jot stuff on Post-it notes and then stick them everywhere. Ever so often, I’ll go and round them all up and stick them in the primary notebook all over the section for that particular book. So I guess it’s sort of organized chaos 🙂
Oh yes, the Post-it notes are everywhere too. I’m always sure that after I finish a book I’m going to find a wonderful line that I should have included on a stray Post-it somewhere. 🙂
So you’re one of those primary notebook people, eh? LOL
I am the same way but I am so far from being organized enough to go through my notebooks or even finding them all. I am impressed by you!
Don’t be so impressed. You actually finish writing books. I seem to be good at starting, really good at procrastinating, and not so good at the actual finishing.
Lol! I’m in the same predicament . . . this last month, I have lots of writing thoughts, but no time to do more than jot them down. In the fall, when I can finally go through them, each note is like a little present . . . an ah-ha! moment.
Thank goodness you found your notebook! And seven books . . .how wonderful!
I don’t know how you manage to do it, going back and forth with time you can’t really writing to total immersion!
Seven books – wonderful if I actually FINISH them. 🙂
It all has to be on the computer. And on a back-up drive. And then, of course, I print a hard copy of everything, in case both the computer & the hard drive fail, I can retype.
Everytime I try long hand, it just goes away. Even if I keep the notebook, it seems to become nothing to me but scribbles. I think it has something to do with having everything in one place and definitely not trusting my brain to rememeber or read (in my awful writing) anything without seeing in 12 point Times New Roman. 🙂
I’m with you on the scribbles. There were some of those scribbles that I just couldn’t decipher. Sigh.
My problem is not being in the same place all the time. When I have ideas at work I scribble them down. I can email them to myself but then I lose them in my email box.
You sound VERY organized. Maybe you’ll rub off on me? 🙂
In my brain, organized is just a nice word for anal and paranoid. If you want that to rub-off, it’s all yours! 🙂
Oh well, I already AM anal and paranoid, just about different things. LOL.
Did you get my email about next week?
I’m sure your email is sitting on my computer at home, where I’ll get it tomorrow night. Son is currently sharing my modem–when he downloads his emails, mine come, too, and I can’t see them from the laptop! But its’ there, I’m sure.
Ah, I was wondering what was going on with you traveling. 🙂
Think Friday.
Oh I love you and all of us…you know, the unorganized lot!
xo
Mona
I should have taken a picture of the mess of papers and notebooks before I started.
No, maybe not.It was a wee bit scary. I always say I write in spite of myself. It would be amazing if I could just get out of my own way.
1. I do it Box By Box.
During a major move planning on getting rid of stuff, and seeing all these flashes of inspiration and fun ideas, there was no way I could get rid of them. So they’re in boxes of all types, organized chronologically by accident, when I fill a new one w/ notebooks.
2. But now it’s computer. (Reminder to back up our work!!!)
3. For the 3 major works from the past 20 years, they each have a notebook with a title on the spine and a place in my bookcase.
Oh, and thanks for the laugh:
I wanted to set your mind at ease on that right away. I could sense your worry across the virtual space.
Oh, and glad I could make you laugh consider you being stuck in bed and all. 🙂
Oh wow, you sound VERY organized. I’ve come to realize that going through the notebooks is just my way of soaking up the words I need in order to write. It never works for me to keep an idea folder on the computer – I need to touch the paper.
I think it’s all relative
I don’t feel organized – I keep getting IKEA organizers, and still want to organize more….ai!
I don’t know, take it to the next level.
It’s the accountant in me.
🙂
sometimes I get so tired of paper scraps, I toss them
of course, then I just start saving them again. . .lol!