Organizing Your Writing Life: Tools
You get this scenario: Setting notes collected so eagerly yesterday for an important chapter disappear beneath the debris of a crowded desktop. The browser has too many tabs open. Searches take forever to load. You’ve recently taken up writing longhand but the pencil sharpener is clogged from another broken pencil point.
When this chaos happens, something inside me degrades. I don’t feel creative when I have to pay too much emergency attention to the stuff of the writing life. The tools I use, the organization I need. I’d love the magic of it all working by itself, without any input from me.
But rarely does that happen. Systems that support the writing life are not magically made.
Over the years of writing and publishing and helping other writers, I’ve distilled a list of what’s absolutely necessary in a writing life to stay organized and supported as you create. Here’s what I’ve learned. (And I hope you will share what works for you.)
How to be organized
I am quite organized in all aspects of my life—until I start creating. The flow of writing takes me over. So I’ve realized that to stay organized and stay in creative flow, I need to plan time and thought for my systems.
My particular systems exist in three areas of my writing life. I find them absolutely necessary.
Tools: what I use to write—laptop, desktop, devices; software; writer’s notebook; reference library; favorite pen or pencils or pads.
Files: what I produce and how it’s stored—electronic and paper documents; filing systems; photos and reference documents; outlines; charts, storyboards; backup systems.
Practice: how I write—the regular practice; ritual; writing space; when I write; support from others; privacy and permission to write; quiet or sound; what inspires.
We’re going to explore all three in bite-sized bits, so hopefully whatever you find worth trying, you have time to put in place.
Today is tools: the devices, supplies, and assists I use in my writing, and how I keep them organized and maintained.
Caveat: As you read what works for me, remember you are not me. Take what makes sense. Let go of the rest. Share your own comments and questions.
My favorite writing tools
I write by hand and on devices, so two tools are essential: my writer’s notebook and my laptop. One warms me up with freewriting. The other is where I make a story.
I start a new writer’s notebook for each new book project. Although I write essays and short stories, books are my main thing. My usual warm-up before a writing session is threefold: (1) I read a poem or a section of an inspiring craft book, (2) I freewrite to a prompt, and (3) I transition to the computer to develop the ideas from the freewrite.
My favorite writer’s notebooks are made by Zen Art Supplies. They are decent-quality paper and they don’t cost much. I can make a mess in them without feeling bad. So I doodle and draw and make charts or whatever calls to me during my freewriting time.
When I transition to the computer, I’m on a 13” MacBook Pro with a blue light screen protector, which eases my eyes. I use Scrivener and Word.
At later stages, I use my iPad as well (or any Kindle reader) to check pacing.
Software
Long ago, I realized an important software truth: I love Word for Windows and hate the Mac version. But I love the Mac operating system overall. I wanted both platforms on one machine. So I use Parallels Desktop (similar to Bootcamp) which creates a Windows virtual machine on my Mac and I toggle between the two.
Not for everybody, but it solves my problem with Word.
On the Mac side (again, my preference) I use Scrivener. I’ve written, edited, and published four books using this program, and I admire its versatility. I was fortunate to have a student at one of my retreats offer to take me through the steps of installing and uploading my manuscript, at the time a true mess in Word, into Scrivener. I’ve never looked back.
When I’m building a book, I start with blank chapters as individual files, giving each a working title. I brainstorm ideas for the chapter on a storyboard (see below) or clustering map. I add character images and bios, setting details, and whatever else the chapter needs. My freewriting notes come forward to flesh out the ideas.
I keep the chapters separate in Scrivener until they are fairly solid hen import them into Word to create the whole manuscript.
What do you use to write?
Editing assists
I find it hard to edit entirely onscreen. I usually print out later versions of the chapters once they are close to being ready for Word. I edit by hand on this hard copy and input corrections back into the Scrivener file.
Hard-copy editing is a habit from decades of working as a professional editor, and I swear by it, but many writers edit with Apple Pen or other methods onscreen. For me, I miss too much onscreen, as I said, and I can’t feel the pace and flow of a scene without reading it from printed hard copy.
Once the manuscript is in Word, as a whole book, printing gets cumbersome, so I import it into my Kindle or Pages to read on the iPad. Often, I read it aloud.
Four other story-building tools
I have a few other assists I use religiously when I’m building a new book or story.
A storyboard on my studio wall. I create a type of cue card describing each scene (one card or Post-It per scene) and place them on a wall board to make sure the flow works. I learned this from screenwriters. You can see this demonstrated in my You Tube tutorial.
Character and setting collages. I like to create a collection of images for each primary character. I use Pinterest or Unsplash images, printed out, or simply pull from magazines. Often these become valuable prompts when I need help expanding a scene.
Questions list and other lists. My creative brain works best from questions. So each day I write a few to spark my next writing session. I might also write lists of scene ideas, overheard lines of dialogue, setting notes, and lists of character traits.
A file called “extras.” When I begin revising, there are bits and pieces that no longer work, but I don’t want to lose them. More times than I anticipate, the pieces end up back into the manuscript in later revision, often in a different place, often reworked. My extras file gets them out of my working document, relieving the clutter, but I feel secure knowing they can re-enter the story when needed. I search by keyword to find them.
You probably have favorite writing tools—I’d love to hear about them!
Reference library
My big bookshelves are crammed. I must have over a hundred craft books on writing and creating, and about twenty-five collections of poetry that I use to jumpstart my writing sessions. Below is a tiny fraction, a few current (and old) favorites.
BuzzFeed has a good list of writing craft books, if you are curious. Here’s another one from The Center for Fiction.
A Swim in a Pond in the Rain (George Saunders)
Ron Carlson Writes a Story (Ron Carlson)
Bird by Bird (Anne Lamott)
On Writing (Steven King)
The Creative Habit (Twila Tharp)
Self-Editing for Fiction Writers (Dave King)
Still Writing (Dani Shapiro)
Making Shapely Fiction (Jerome Stern)
I like having a mix of serious craft books, stories of writers’ lives to give me inspiration and insight, and a few that are simply geared to get a person to sit down and start.
What are your favorites? Share one or two?
Research
I lean on the Internet and libraries for most of my research, although specialized research requires contacting specialists. For my second novel, I interviewed the head of a Search & Rescue team in California and many aviation buddies who help me correct the SAR and flying scenes. When facts online confuse me or seem questionable, I head for my local library and ask the wonderful research librarians for help.
Some of my research involves collecting photographs of places, people, events that either inspire or back up my stories. I use Scrivener’s very handy sidebar to gather and store them. If I want to see them as I write, I’ll print and pin to a wallboard.
Backing up
I’m sure I don’t need to hammer this point home to you, but it’s vital to back up all newly created files every working session.
Sometimes I do this more than once. You can use a cloud program to do it or you can do it manually, like me. I back up three ways: I email a copy to my gmail account; I save to an external drive; and I save to my laptop.
Scrivener has a snapshot feature built in—very simple to capture each version of the file you’re working on, as many times as you need it. I do this at the end of each writing session, religiously. Then back up the Scrivener files as well.
Maintenance of writing tools
Not a sexy or fun part of the writing life, but maintenance is necessary. You want to keep your writing tools working well so they are there when you need them, right?
I dedicate an hour each month to upgrades and updates. I clean up my backlog of files (more on that in a future post), and whatever maintenance my devices need. It saves my sanity—when I’m hot in the middle of a scene and my upgrade notification comes up, I don’t curse it anymore. I just say, I’ll get back to you on the dedicated maintenance day.
Emails about writing come in constantly. I try to ignore those too, when I’m in a writing session, but I often spend fifteen minutes each morning and evening answering. When publication approaches, there’s a lot and more time is needed. Or if my monthly writer’s group is discussing my manuscript or stories, or my writing partner and I exchange chapters, I set aside time to respond.
Maintenance includes correspondence that keeps my writing life alive and well, but it’s definitely not writing. A valued part of my creative life, for sure. But one that needs its own dedicated time, separate from my writing sessions.
Where do you start?
You may have some of these tools in place, you may set aside time for backing up and for maintenance, for correspondence that’s apart from your sacred writing time. But it took me a long time to develop working systems with my writing tools, and all of it was haphazard, happening whenever I had a free moment. It always felt stressed to me.
It was a breakthrough for my writing life when I realized I needed to have working tools, use them well, maintain them well. My productivity and my general happiness as a writer has increased so much since I did.
How planned or haphazard are your support systems in your writing life? Any changes you might make to more easily use your tools and get the most from your writing time?
Your Weekly Writing Exercise
Take time this week to review what tools you use to write.
Think of one item that could use an upgrade. Perhaps something you’ve ignored for a while but is no longer serving you.