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Hello everyone!
I am wondering if you have any tips or tools for keeping tools organised in your stories. In my current draft (the second one) I am working on, I am finding it hard to keep everything straight. How do you avoid contradicting yourself or forgetting about small things?
I’m in no way an expert on this (most of my stories are honestly not very organized, despite the fact that I’m usually an organized person), but for a couple of my stories, I’ve started keeping a separate document just to list character bios and any other details I want to remember. I’ve found that’s helpful when I’m writing and I go back to that and realize, “Oh, this character hates spiders? She would definitely be responding differently in this scenario.”
That’s just what I’ve started doing to keep track of things I want to remember, rather than making notes all throughout my draft where I can’t find them when I want them. Other people may have better methods, but so far it’s been helpful for me.
"Real love is for your good, not for your comfort." -Justin Whitmel Earley
I have a notebook with lists of characters and roles, descriptions of each character, and random scenes and ideas that I started shortly after I mentioned that a character was rather useless and had a horrified sister remind me that he had a whole subplot. I have found it immensely useful. I’ve also heard Google Sheets is good, but I prefer the portability of a notebook. My only problem with it is that I’m concerned someone will read it if I don’t keep it hidden. XD
There are two types of people in this world. Those who can extrapolate from incomplete data
Lol, I do the exact same thing. And one time my brother did read something, but thankfully he didn’t understand it.
As mentioned before, I keep notebooks to record any ideas for writing later, but I also have a fellow writer friend and we both help each other to remember what’s going on and organizing plots and characters. Or lists work really well, and so do character journals (writing in the perspective of characters).
"No! Monkeys should have pets, all monkeys should have pets!"
I usually keep two documents open on my computer: one is my actual novel project, and the other for saving things. Basically the same as Trailblazer.
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Thank you for your ideas. I am seeing a recurring theme here. Use a notebook/document, and jot down the little things as they come up. Unfortunately, I am not a notetaker, but perhaps it is time I power through that and jot things down. (Which is kind of funny, because my user/pen name here comes from the way I jot down notes.)
Shadow, your journal idea sounds interesting. That would be a good way to get into the mindset of the character, especially for those writing the actual story in the third person. Could you explain some more, please? Do you write down the events from the story in these journals, or do they also feature days that the story does not cover? How many of your characters do you do this for? Also, involving a friend is a good idea as well. My sister is an author as well, perhaps I should get her to check if I am being consistent more.
Abigail/Ducktator, I do understand the secret notebook thing. From 2017-2021, I kept all of my project ideas secret. Some of my ideas in there shall never see the light of day! (I used one summer when the rest of my family was away on vacation and I was home so I could look for a job to throw ideas and drawings out.) Since then, I have come out of my shell more, but I still have the occasional idea I would prefer nobody learns about.
Hey there!
I have a platform for writing called Reedsy, and you can organize everything about your characters! It’s completely free, just go to reedsy.com and you can make an account! It’s super nice because you can share as little or as much of your novel as you want with anybody through a link.
However, I normally just write stuff in a notebook, because my ideas flow better. Reedsy does help keep stuff organized, and you don’t use as much paper as you would tearing cringy stuff out of an old notebook…so it’s up to you what you want to do!
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LEFSE FOREVER!!!!!! <333I can’t really help because I just store everything inside of my head and I haven’t reached the point where I needed an external tool.
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Ha! Organization? Who has time for that? I leave everything up to chance and my own goldfish memory
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Reedsy looks like an interesting tool. I will have to check it out. Thanks for sharing!
@highscribeofaetherium, @loopylinI can’t really help because I just store everything inside of my head and I haven’t reached the point where I needed an external tool.
Ha! Organization? Who has time for that? I leave everything up to chance and my own goldfish memory
That’s the way my sister does it. She always has several stories going through her head at once. I don’t know how she does it. I have trouble with just one.
Shadow, your journal idea sounds interesting. That would be a good way to get into the mindset of the character, especially for those writing the actual story in the third person. Could you explain some more, please? Do you write down the events from the story in these journals, or do they also feature days that the story does not cover? How many of your characters do you do this for? Also, involving a friend is a good idea as well. My sister is an author as well, perhaps I should get her to check if I am being consistent more.
Character journals are something I found out about while reading about how to write a book a few months ago. Basically, you write in the perspective of really any of the characters (whether the story is being written in first person or not) and it can be the main character, the villain, or even the side characters. Depending on when your character journals are written, you can include the character mentioning the events beforehand (I did to understand the plot for my WIP better). There’s really no rules to character journals though, so if you need to, you could have the character go completely in depth with what’s happening, if it helps get things smoothed out!
Mainly, character journals are to get into the head of the character your writing and better understand the world and story. I have only recently started doing this, and so far this has helped me with my two main characters, villain, and side character (and I’m tempted to use this too for my animal character, even though she won’t speak). Additionally, it has helped me brainstorm more ideas for the plot. Hope this answers the question!
Also that’s great your sister is an author too!!
"No! Monkeys should have pets, all monkeys should have pets!"
Sorry forgot the tag
"No! Monkeys should have pets, all monkeys should have pets!"
I might have to try that, it sounds quite interesting. Thank you for sharing!
Update:
I tried out Reedsy and quite liked it. I wish it let me do more with formatting, but I find it very convenient. Thank you again for sharing!
I usually read my siblings what’s in my notebook, but I like bringing it to co-op, and I live in mortal dread of my archnemesis reading it. *shudders* Or one of the other annoying kids. Or…anyone who’s not a sibling, basically.
There are two types of people in this world. Those who can extrapolate from incomplete data
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