5 tips to organize your writing

Jul 16 2007

How much time do you spend actually writing? How much time do you spend doing writing-related activities? For me, the latter seems to take up more time than actual writing, which can suck the fun and creativity out of any project. So I compiled a short list of things you can do to maximize your writing time.

1. Take care of details first. By details I mean the names of characters, setting, maybe a short plot summary (if not a full-blown outline). Getting this stuff out of the way means you can work on your fiction without stopping to think of a character name, or even worse, trying to figure out how your story/novel ends (been there, done that many, many times)

2. A little bit goes a long way. If you’re pressed for time, just write a little each day. If you can spare an hour to work on your fiction, you’ll be surprised how fast things get done. Don’t have an hour? No problem. Use whatever chunk of time works for you (even 15 minutes is better than nothing). The key is to be consistent.

3. Keep a folder. I’m not a very organized person. But one trick I learned early on was to dedicate one file folder for each story I write. That way, all my notes and drafts for a specific story are all in one folder and easy to find. This will keep you from rummaging around your desk, work table, etc. looking for that list of character names (for example).

4. Start a number system. I’ll admit that I really hate numbers (hence my extreme distaste for math), but I have written many short stories. So, to keep them organized (especially before thinking of a title), I assign each of them a number and use that as the file name in my computer, and the number goes on each story folder. All my numbers end with "-07" – the year that the story was written in. This way I can assess my productivity for a given year. But you can use any system that works good for you.

5. Outline your work beforehand. I hesitate to use this as a tip because writers are very divided about whether or not outlining is useful. Some swear by it and won’t write a single page of a novel until they have a clear outline of the story. Others just start writing and let the story "come out" naturally. Either way is fine. There is no right answer to the question of outlining. But whether you write an outline or not, you should at least write down the basic story information (character names, etc) as mentioned in my first tip.

There are many, many more ways to organize your writing. The ones I have outlined above are the ones that work good for me. Remember, writing is first and foremost a creative activity, so having a rigid structure is not required. If you write best at 1am on a headstone in your local cemetary, then by golly, go for it!

2 Responses

I’ve found that if you want to organize your stuff in chronological order, put the year first, then month then day. For example, today’s blog post would be 2007-07-17-here’s-my-post.

miss-susan 7/17/2007 5:58 pm
Indeed, you are correct. There are many ways one can organize their writing. Labeling by the date is another good way. Thank you for your comment!

Brad 7/18/2007 3:51 pm