Organization

Most of the writers I know are painfully disorganized. They either throw everything they write into one giant pile or they leave everything loose in random locations. This is a bad situation that can only get worse.

I admit I shouldn't be talking because I'm not any better. In fact, I have both of the problems simultaneously. On my computer, there are files with scraps of ideas all over my desktop and My Documents. There is also a folder labeled Random Shit where I have thrown most of my ideas and writings. I have about five different documents with the word 'idea' in the title, some of them with several different ideas, others with a single five-word sentence. I have completed stories, first drafts that need revision, and unfinished stories that I've never gotten around to, all lying in that folder with no way to know which is which.

However, the reason I am talking is that I am working on my organization. The fact of the matter is that it isn't even that difficult to do. First you decide how you want to organize your work, then you put your pieces where they belong. Doing this on computers is incredibly easy because you can put folders within folders and never have to worry about bulk. If you are saving physical writings, you still use the same system, but you may want to organize them differently.

Your organization labels are going to depend on how you personally operate. If you leave work unfinished to start on other projects or to give it time to develop, then have folders for ideas, unfinished, rough drafts, and finished work. If you do all different forms of writing, then have a folder for poetry, essays, short fiction, nonfiction, or whatever ones you do.

Whatever your style is, I recommend two things. First of all, give yourself a To Do pile. Sometimes you don't have the time or energy to file everything right away. Sometimes you just don't know where you want to put something. Throw it in the To Do pile and sort through that when you have a clearer head. Second, don't be afraid to make copies. If I write an essay I really like, I will have it in my folder for finished essays. However, if I submit it to a publication, it also needs to be in my folder of works I've submitted to that publication. If I end up doing any editing of a piece to get it in the publication, I now have both versions to look at if needed. There is no reason not to make copies unless you are dealing with several-hundred-page manuscripts. Because short of that, these files just don't take up much space.

However you choose to organize, make sure you get organized. One giant pile is all well and good, and the exploring is fun, but when you are looking for something specifically and you just can't find it anywhere, that is when you will wish you had a better system in place.