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If I opened up the file to your work in progress...


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What would I see?

 

For example, for each thing I do I have all notes and text stuffed into one Word file. The actual manuscript text will be the first thing in the document, and then wherever that ends (at the end of my current point of progress) I'll have about a half-page separation and then just have a ton of haphazard notes scrawled out over pages. Sometimes they'll be roughly chronologically ordered, but mostly I just hurry to jot down anything that pertains whenever I have an idea. I'll have general story ideas, plot and character details and plans for actual text all mixed in together, but I will bold the latter when I have a sentence, word, or phrase that I know I want to eventually be inserted in that exact form, which serves as a good reminder as I'm scrolling through. Because I work this way I tend to "eat" my notes as I go along, so when I make progress on my word count and either incorporate or abandon those notes, I then delete them, so by the time I get to the end I have no notes left.

 

So how do you guys work? Do you have a separate file for notes and outlines? Or none at all? I know the outline vs. seat-of-the-pants question has been debated before, so this is more about what your "workspace" looks like when your works are in their unfinished state.

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I typically have an outline or character timeline on paper that I'll set up next to my computer, and then work off of that to create a story. Having the outline on paper really helps me concentrate for some reason. My story itself, on the word document, is very organized and matches the outline I have on paper. Beside both the laptop and the notepad, I have my water-bottle, a lamp, and perhaps a diet pepsi. All of which helps me concentrate on the writing itself. Which reminds me, I should post one of ”˜em in here someday”¦

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King Kheldar vos Correlli said:
Sheog, I have to ask, overkill much?
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When I write a chapter of my Advent of Shadows story, I have one Word file where the actual chapter is being put together. Then I'll another Word file where I'll write paragraphs, individually. I basically construct puzzle pieces and then put them together. I'll also have a third file open with random notes where I'll type up the random thoughts and ideas I have. For instance, if I think of something that might make for an awesome line for later in the section, I'll write it down so I can use it down the road.

 

I also have an storyboard/outline for several chapters complete, but I've strayed from it significantly with the last two or three chapters, so I haven't really looked at it lately.

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[Associate of the Illinois Mafia since November 2002.]

Member of the Four Horsemen

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I have all my updates of Torment in one continuous word file, so you would see the dates of past updates, as well as what im working on with the next update, and at the very end you would see my brief outline and the aspects that are going to tie every single update together in the end.

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I ate a hippo. It was delicious.

May the Forth therve you well...

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It depends, very much, on which work in progress. You see, for some of the things I'm working on, I use my Mac and I use Scrivener... so that work in progress would be a file containing a lot of other little files on the sidebar all linked up. Generally, I use this for short stories, or novels where I want to keep a few files of notes linked up. Jandalf and I also use this program when we're writing together... each update of Fen and Raiyn are Chicago Gangsters is its own little file in Scrivener, and then there's a folder called CHICAGO GANGSTERS! and a dozen more files for other things we wrote, including one of notes, for our last visit.

 

If you were to go for one of my NaNoWriMo novels, for almost every year, I have a .txt file labeled "Name - NaNo Year Notes" on my desktop. There are also notes files for a few other longform projects I've done. The actual story file is absolutely free of notations. This year was the only year I did things differently: I wrote primarily on my Mac and kept my notes in a Scrivener file beside the actual story.

 

I write continuously, and do not interrupt my novel string with either notes or split into separate chapters or scenes.

 

Now, none of these "notes" files are storyboards or outlines. I do put down the odd note about how things go, but generally, I make a point of writing my rough draft fast enough that it usually serves as my outline if I want to make a second draft. I find writing an outline beforehand really stifles my ability to put the story down. I'm a pantser, but even a pantser writing a long novel does need to make a few notes occasionally, like "Joe is the bad guy".

 

So, if you were to open my WIP files, either you would see nothing but story, or nothing but story and a connected "notes" file which could have anything from a few sentences to a rough plot outline, but is more likely to have various drabble like:

 

Carmenjia tells them they don't belong there, tells Raiyn she's sullied herself with the darkness and that she is no longer the eyes blah blah blah, and casts them out. "what do you care if my world is destroyed" emoness, etc, blah.

 

Melovad - the druidy guys.

Navar - head engineer.

Jacei - a good name?

 

Robots powered by fairies? Souls? DUSKS.

 

"To you alone it is given to know the truth about the gods and

deities of the sky.....The innermost groves of far-off forests are

your abodes. And it is you who say that the shades of the dead

seek not the silent land of Erebus and the pale halls of Pluto;

rather, you tell us that the same spirit has a body again elsewhere,

and that death, if what you sing is true,

is but the mid-point of long life."

Lucan Pharsalia c.60AD

 

My workspace varies substantially, but there's almost always a water bottle involved. Right now there's some chocolate covered coffee beans, some Cookies and Cream chocolate drops, a small collection of spoons (decorative spoons) and a teacup and a few suckers and chopsabers and hand sanitizer and... I can't actually really FIND my desk.

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Just when I thought it was over, I watched Tiana kick Almira in the head, effectively putting her out of her misery. I did not expect that.
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I rarely outline any of my writing, but I commonly have all kinds of miscellaneous notes. My notes are never in a computer file, though, and are never organized: I save the manuscript in a file but if I have notes for it (random lines, quotes, plot devices, maps, etc.) I actually write them down on a sheet of paper. This may be because I tend to write most of my stuff longhand before converting it to a computer file, at least initially.

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Only after we've lost everything are we free to do anything.

Paper Street Press

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Depends on the story and how long it's going to take. I usually have the story up top, rejected scenes, notes and ideas at the bottom, and in the middle, I'll put plot points if I have to (the rejected scenes are in red, the plot points and notes are in blue, the story is in black).

 

After my recent story deletion *shakes fist* I will also save at least two files until I've posted it online, or until I have a hard copy.

You know the closer you get to something

The tougher it is to see it,

And I'll Never take it for granted,

Let's go!

 

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After my recent story deletion *shakes fist* I will also save at least two files until I've posted it online, or until I have a hard copy.

Oh yeah! Great point to bring up in this thread... back up your things! I can never stress backing up enough. During NaNoWriMo, I email copies to myself and Jandalf (and she does the same) every few days, and I also use Dropbox's free version.

 

Never trust your hard drive. I cannot put in mere words just how much I like Dropbox!

 

I'm lucky (knocks on wood) that I haven't lost a lot. I've lost a few chapters here and there, but never anything really, truly important in a computer fail or power outage because I'm generally quite obsessive about keeping backup copies of everything.

 

My last loss was one scene (1500 words) from a novel, and even that was a burn. D:

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Just when I thought it was over, I watched Tiana kick Almira in the head, effectively putting her out of her misery. I did not expect that.
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For longer stories, like my original novel, I have a Word document with the main story in it, along with comments along the side for things that I notice when I re-read it. All of the notes, planning, things I want to do/change, etc go into a notebook in OneNote (which is one of my favorite programs ever). I don't write from a detailed outline, but I will usually sit down and have a planning session where I jot down what I want to happen in the next section very broadly.

 

I don't plan out individual chapters, I just write. So that means when I'm in a writing phase, I usually just have the Word doc open. I only open the OneNote notebook if I need to check something. It's kind of funny to look back now, because I have all the old pages of planning that I did in the file, and it's crazy to remember how much the story has changed and evolved since the beginning.

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SHE MEANS TO END US ALL!!! DOOOOOOOOMMMMMM!!!!!!!!11eleventyone!
There goes Ami's reputation of being a peaceful, nice person.
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Lol, SH.

 

Hmm... it varies a lot. I actually have a lot of notes jotted down on real, physical paper - crazy, I know! But I work on a laptop all day at work, and usually my brainstorming is done at random times or when multi-tasking and not actually writing, so it's easier to just jot it down on a random scrap of paper for the moment. Sometime I'll actually write on paper, too: I like the feel of it, I'm on the laptop too much, and right now my real writing time is when I'm on the lightrail home from work anyway!

 

The only long-term fic I've had recently, BLU, I've had to be a lot more precise. I have one document with some character information, since I've had to carefully track where characters are at the start of Episode 4 through the end of 6, and not just the really well known ones, either. Also, I have an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of the timeline, since the best way to tell the story is by tracking the past and present simultaneously...otherwise there would be tons of gabs in time. My timeline is linear, and then in the story I choose when to jump back and forth. It's essentially an outline, but a lot messier.

 

I've decided to do a lot of re-writing because I still like the story, but got really stuck on a few characters right near the end of it, after almost all of it was written, and realized that I had to rethink a lot of it to make sure it worked. It was a great way to really work on my editing skills and how to tighten a story by tightening/combining scenes, so I'm planning on keeping yet another document with just a list of scenes - place, characters, POV, and the events which happen or are mentioned in it, to see where I can cut/combine better.

"It's always these little worlds that get you in trouble. Like Tatooine. I'm still living that one down." - Han Solo

Your barnacle has carnivorous salamanders the size of whales.

"Let us hold unswervingly to the faith we profess, for he who promised is faithful." -Heb. 10:23

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