Has it seriously been a month since I last posted?

*shifty eyes* Whoops *guilty face*

Hmm. Lets see if we can remedy that.

Now what have I writing about recently....

*mumbling* Tag...linkup...tag...tag...update....update...tag....updates....*lapses into silence*

I think that it's high time for a "real" blog post, don't you?



At the end of my last couple of posts, a few people asked me: how in the world do I manage to keep track of 8 Works in Progress?

Honestly, I have wondered the same thing some days....because it feels like I'm a mom with 8 kids or something. Even though I know each story in and out down the the last quirk in my mind, the belongings to each of those "kids" are being scattered all over the Internet. No wonder everyone is getting so confused! 

So...I'm going to try (note the word, TRY) to explain this little quirk of my ever complicated, unconventional, and very rebellious Muse. And it looks like it will be in two parts instead of just one....

Are you all ready?

Then please buckle your seatbelts and enjoy the ride!

(and PLEASE don't feed the animals on the way. I had a rather rough time keeping them in their corrals this morning....LOL.) 


Being of a melancholic temperament (or if you prefer the MBTI code, INFJ), I live on organization. Depending on the "thing" that I'm organizing, it is not unusual for me to have sub-folders of sub-folders of sub-folders. I tend to hyper-organize documents the most - literally, no one can find things in my jump drive. LOL. 

Being hyper-organized is probably the most obvious trick in the book for keeping track of more than one WIP, but I cannot stress how important this is. To coin a phrase, disorganized notes equals a disorganized book. Not to mention one stressed out author. (Unless said author thrives on chaos.) 

Now that I've said that, I will proceed to destroy that idealized picture that I've placed in everyone's heads....and show how I REALLY organize this mess.   

Each of my WIPs has it's own:

Shaxpir File and Notebook
Word Folder - containing various related files, and backups of the Shaxpir files.
Spotify Playlist - centered around a main musical influence.
Pinterest Board
Image Folder on my Computer - all those blog post aesthetics, and avatars.
Note App File on my phone
Section in my Trapper Keeper - which will be explained in a minute.

This list does not include the materials that are in physical notebooks, on Google Docs, Blogger, YouTube or on my Kindle for any specific WIP. 

Right now, I'm in the process of streamlining my method of organization in an effort to keep everything on the same page when writing. Which, to be frankly honest, has been easier said than done. For those who followed my Camp NaNo project this past July, and were wondering why I even attempted such a monstrosity in the first place, this may explain a few things...... 

So now, I'm going to explain how I'm organizing all my story materials at the moment, and then I'll show the potential post-consolidation system. 

To start off, all of my physical notebooks are kept in a huge blue binder: 

It's basically another binder, with special dividers

Each WIP is separated by a color divider, and all the pieces of paper are collected into 1-3 sheet protectors. The number of sheet protectors is determined by the number of paper scraps that I can stuff in there.



This Note app is really great for when I'm away from home and can't take a notebook with me. Everything from little character quirks to major plot points can be quickly jotted down, and then looked at later.

As you can see, materials for my WIPs could potentially be found in up to 11 different places! That is a lot of windows to keep open. This is a perfect recipe for writer burnout as well as the dreaded plot-hole plague.

Hence the absolute NEED for a One-Stop-Shop. One that would house all the notes, all the manuscript, and even some of the media.

Enter Shaxpir.


I know that I've mentioned this program at least a dozen times, and have teased about a review of the software for the future. (I'm working on it...I promise....) 

Shaxpir is in the same league as Scrivener, but it's not really the same. To put it simply, it's a word processor that has a built-in Notebook, so all the notes and manuscript are in one spot. Great for flipping back and forth when writing.

Now, I'm using the free version, so I can only write with it. But if I pay money towards it, I could use it to create an e-book file of my book, as well as other cool options.

So, you remember that list I had at the beginning? Once all the notes are consolidated, the list will look more like this:

Shaxpir File and Notebook
Word Folder - containing various related files, and backups of the Shaxpir files.
Spotify Playlist - centered around a main musical influence.
Pinterest Board

Google Docs will still be used for Alpha/Beta readers, and the Image folders will also remain and used as a storage/backup place. Once backups are made of the rest, they will be erased or stored away for conveniences' sake. I'm also going to working towards all digital notes instead of the half and half digital and hard copy system (with the occasional notebook for offline writing).

Even though I can't consolidate everything WIP-related into one program, reducing the windows will help the psyche tremendously.

*looks up at this monstrous ramble*

Maybe I should have waited to attempt to make this post until AFTER I finished my Note Consolidation project....*sigh*

In the next part, I'll (attempt) to show how my aesthetics and themes also help me keep my WIPs straight!

Did I lose anyone in that mess? (I'll be happy to clarify anything!) Has this helped to explain things, or has it totally convinced you that I've lost my mind entirely? Have you got any strategies that could help me simplify this mess? Chat with me in the comments! 

Scribbingly yours,

Catherine


P.S. Some of you already know this, but I've recently dropped from full-time (50 hours a week) to part time (30 hours a week) at my job. Once I finish catching up on sleep and things outside of blogging, I hope to be off my comment hiatus entirely (which will be wonderful since I really miss chatting with y'all!)

It's so hard to believe that 31 days have just whizzed by. And yet, it's happened again.

We've come to the end of another Camp NaNo session. And what a wonderful session it has been.

First things first, I have a few shout-outs to make:

First to Jane Maree for allowing me to participate in The Fellowship again (for the third time :) ).

Second to all of my Cabin mates, especially MiddleEarthMusician, Tesariel, Kendra Lynne, Bria Snow, and J.A Penrose. Y'all have been awesome, as always :). I hope to have many more adventures with all of you in the future!

Third to my Alpha Squad, Lia and MK, for keeping me sane throughout all the craziness that happened during July. *sends lots of hugs*

And lastly, I really want to give a huge shout-out and lots of thanks to all of you readers especially for your uplifting comments throughout the month. I'm sure y'all thought I was nuts when I took this project on and for attempting a log (and you would be right...). Every single one of those comments was the juice that kept me slogging through. And I can't thank you enough for that....*wipes eyes*.


Best parts of Camp: 

- All the encouraging comments that I got on ALL my logs. (Again, thank you!)

- Creating all the mock covers. I think that was my favorite out of all the things I did for Camp.

- Seeing my wonderful cabin buddies again :).

- Shaxpir cooperated wonderfully and is proving to be a great asset to my writing madness!!

- I managed to reach my goal - legitimately!!!!




What I learned 

- Tackling 8 story ideas at once was an extremely bad idea.

- That I tend to do better when I have a decent chunk of time to write instead of breaking it up into smaller portions throughout the week.

- When discouraged, aesthetics make me feel much better.

- It takes a lot more time to transcribe notes and create than I originally thought.

- That I should have done this project a long, long, LONG time ago.




With that said, how did "writing" go?

It began super well. After my now-traditional writing break on the first day, I managed to work for at least an hour each day for 11 days straight. For once, I was actually ahead of schedule!

And then things slowed down majorly in the third week.

At first the break was only for a couple of days, and then for one week I stopped work entirely. During that week, I was dealing with a lot of physical fatigue, anxiety, and a major adjustment at work and so needed some recovery time.
(Things have come to a somewhat even keel again....for now. That may change at the end of summer for better or worse....)

After that week long break, I did get some very decent progress done in the last week of camp. And I'm very happy to say that I got to my hours goal - without lowering it! I feel a lot more accomplished that I won "legitimately" for the first time and during my 3rd Camp NaNo to boot :).

However, if you look at my "actual" task list:





Especially towards the end, I wanted to drop the project all together because I was getting excited to work on/frustrated with the one WIP that I was working on that day.

So....what's next? 

I'm taking a break from all of my WIPs for at least the month of August, and work on catching up on some of my other blogging that I've neglected (read: tags....and RW's blogoversary!).

After that, I think I'm going to try to work on one WIP for a month each time and see how that goes. A lot of that depends on how my muse cooperates...and that LIFE doesn't pull a fast one on me. Seeing as I don't have a good track record in that, I'm trying to be as optimistic as possible. That being said, comments are still going to be very helter-skelter, and blog posts will be irregular again. At least, as long as I'm working at that dairy....*SIGH*

How did your Camp NaNo go (if you participated)? What was one of your "best moments" or "lessons learned"? Feel free to share!