Scraps + Storage

[kaolin]

Here's a question for the group--do you keep your scraps? Do you keep your exercises? How do you organize your writing?

I pretty much have one folder for prose, one folder for poetry. Versioning is done in the filenames. MyStory.0.txt, MyStory.1.txt, etc. It's a very weak system.

But I really only go in there when I need to print something out to submit, or revise something, or submit in a different file format or with very specific formatting. For the most part, I only know about whatever I've entered into writersplanner--and I keep meaning to implement a nicer system for sorting through that, but nothing's "gelled" yet.

Scraps tend to be discarded unless I post them in my livejournal (at which point they're essentially lost/forgotten anyway).

[mmSeason]

I don't organise, i lose.

That's oversimplifying a little, but truly, serendipity plays a large part in what i find n revise when. Since giving up the worry about being orderly, i've been both happier and more creative.

There are a couple of pieces i Know Are In This House Somewhere but on the whole i don't mind that, and it's lovely rediscovering something i'd forgotten i wrote.

In the last few months i've started buying those cheapo exercise books (WHSmith's are 165x203 mm, 48 pages, but you can get 40-page ones for much less) - plain paper only so i can write whichever way up i feel like - and when one is full i number the pages so as to make a kind of Contents inside the cover, and stick the dates on the front eg 'May-Jun 09'. I may have a couple of those on the go at once but not more than that, and being so little they slip in a bag and go everywhere, so i avoid the back-of-envelope chaos that i used to live in.

With the long fiction i'm in the middle of, i use a similar book twice the size, or i'd get through them too quickly.

Once typed up, i generally only have one version saved and if i really don't want to lose something about an earlier draft - say, trying different line breaks or a prose-poem go at something that wasn't that to start with - i keep both in the one file. I haven't yet ever done this with anything long, so it doesn't cause a problem of giant documents.

You have gathered i write by hand! Except with non-fiction, which i can produce by keyboard.

When other people are involved (editors etc), of course the muddle i'm cheerful about in my own filing 'system' isn't acceptable. I keep track of submissions with Duotrope's Digest; i could make a spreadsheet to do the same job, but no need while Duotrope exists. (Btw how does Writer's Planner compare with that? Have you tried both?)

I would love to hear that other writers are similarly in a constant state of Aaagh and yet succeeding (ie published, more or less regularly) as writers!

[Debbie]

kaolin created Writer's Planner

I keep stuff I cut out in "out" files, and sometimes it goes back in, and sometimes it goes somewhere else, and sometimes it sits. I am so not organised.

[skankityspence]

I most certainly do keep everything I write. I've been known to take things from pieces I've labeled "not good at all" and combine with ideas I'm thinking about writing and such and such.

[kaolin]

I don't organise, i lose.

:hehe: Well, with two folders, I effectively lose a lot. Especially when I get into modes where I'm doing one or two flash challenges a weak. Lots of potential. Little developed.

keep track of submissions with Duotrope's Digest; i could make a spreadsheet to do the same job, but no need while Duotrope exists. (Btw how does Writer's Planner compare with that? Have you tried both?)

:hehe: I hated duotrope's interface and needed something a little more fully-featured, and Writer's Planner was my answer to that (or what I could do in a long weekend, at least). In the last year or two, Duotrope's come a ways with their system, adding in nice ajax calls to streamline the process, but I still don't like adding things into their system for some reason. I really, REALLY wish they provided an API. Even if they just had an "import spreadsheet" option. And export, ideally. (writers planner has an export).

The major downside to using writer's planner is you then have to jump through extra hoops if you also want to be nice to duotrope and the mags and report response times...

the upside to using it is I'm pretty responsive to feature requests when I can find the time... okay, maybe not responsive so much as very open to ideas, and ... and...

I would love to hear that other writers are similarly in a constant state of Aaagh and yet succeeding (ie published, more or less regularly) as writers!

So far it sounds like a resounding Aaagh.

[jei_toh]

I write most of my stuff on the computer, or type it up pretty quickly if I do happen to write by hand. I have folders for Agents, Poetry, Nonfiction, Fiction, Sold, and Remnants. I keep all of my little scraps in Remnants, and sometimes when I'm feeling particularly antsy, but not particularly inspired, I'll go in there and cruise around. Sometimes I'm delighted by what I find, and sometimes I'm crying, "For shame!" and pretending that I never wrote such drivel! If it's particularly uninspiring (and has been for quite some time) I'll delete it, but usually I'll combine a couple Remnants together and come up with something new.

I'll try Writer's Planner! I keep track on Duotrope, but one day it'll fall from the sky and I won't know where anything is. I'm looking for an alternative.

[kaolin]

I'll try Writer's Planner! I keep track on Duotrope, but one day it'll fall from the sky and I won't know where anything is. I'm looking for an alternative.

There's also Sonar, which I've heard a lot of good things about, if you use Windows:

http://www.spacejock.com/Sonar3.html

[jei_toh]

There's also Sonar, which I've heard a lot of good things about, if you use Windows:

Thanks! I'll check it out, too.