Tuesday, September 21, 2010

More on project binders

According to Blogger's new little stats feature, my post on organizing my ideas is the most popular of all my posts.  At least, it's the most-viewed.  (Followed closely by the post on memorable character introductions.)

So I thought today I'd talk a little more about my project binders.

Aren't they pretty?

The one on the far left is actually the binder where I keep my negatives and prints from my photography.  So ignore that one.  (And that grey thing on the end?  That's the file box I mentioned in the first organization post linked at the top of this one.  It's empty now because I sent all of my notes and such for Oracles Promise home for storage.)

Moving from there it's Lodestar, my poetry collections, my Shattered Secrets trilogy that I've worked with from time to time over the last few years, an untitled MG fantasy that a dream I had inspired, my adventure novel that I've been world-building for, Clockworks and Cogs, and a vampire story that I'll never develop or write.

Next to those are sketch books for my adventure novel and for Clockworks and Cogs.  (For maps, diagrams, etc.)  Then a bunch of spiral notebooks for various and sundry purposes, not all of which are writing related.

This is the front interior of my Lodestar project binder.  In the pocket on the left is some typed up mythology stuff that I did.  It was typed instead of handwritten because I was doing research on the internet as I wrote that particular bit of world-building.  It was just easier to type it all and move from window to window than writing it down.  (Which makes no sense, I realize, but I'm going with it.)

On the right is the outline I did, maybe halfway through the book.  The very initial outline I had was not much to go on and the story evolved so much as I wrote it that I did have to keep re-outlining it so I could stay on top of the changes and keep on track.

You can just start to see the dividers off on the right-hand side.  The sections are labelled with things such as "Characters," or "Research notes."  The one at the end, I believe, says "Miscellaneous."  I'm nothing if not obvious.

This is the inside of my project binder for the poetry collections I'm working on.  Inside the pocket on the left is research notes, an obituary I needed to reference when writing one poem, etc.  The pocket in the divider on the right contains feedback specific to poems in the collection in that section.  There are four dividers, one for each collection.

Each divider is the same.  It contains feedback specific to the poems in the collection that follows.


So, I hope that helps a little.  (Assuming there was some sort of lingering question that caused the original organization post to be so popular.)

If there's anything more you'd like to know, please just ask.  I'll gladly answer in the comments or do another follow-up post to this one.

5 comments:

  1. It's so organized Stephanie! I'm in complete awe of your organization! I'm definitely looking for some better storage ideas for all my novels and in the new place (January) I am going to start something like this!!!

    Love this post, and all your binder related posts! No wonder it's popular!

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  2. I don't think I could ever be that organized. I just don't have it in me. :-)

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  3. Ohhhh, I love that! You're so organized. I put everything on my compy. I have so many files, sometimes it's hard to find anything.

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  4. Wow! If you could only see the pile of loose papers on my desk. They block my view of the computer screen. I should learn from your organization.

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  5. I use binders, too! Plus I have a million excel files to boot. I just love excel. =]

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