Organizing your work-in-progress

I know authors who outline like crazy before they write. I’m not one of them. I have no idea where the story will take me when I start writing; I’m a true pantser. But I typically hit a point at around 60,000 words (which is where I’m at now) where I start losing track of what I’ve done. (60,000 words for me, by the way, is the point where I know I’m over the hump and that I will actually complete a book-length manuscript. It’s a bit of a turning point.)

So here’s my tip, if like me, you’re a disorganized writer.

At the 60,000 word mark, I create a table with about 80 lines (one for each chapter; all my books have had around 70-80 chapters) and two columns. And then I go through my manuscript, putting each chapter number in the column on  the lefthand side and writing one or two  brief sentences about each chapter on the right.

If I decide I need to an insert a chapter somewhere, I can insert a line (eg. Jigonsaseh finds out that Denonville has doubled crossed the Iroquois and is furious); same if there’s something I want to write about to flesh out the story. It helps me find what I’ve done, which in my kind of writing is important (because I’m so often inserting little tidbits of research after the fact).

And when the time comes to move chapters around as it always does, I can find the chapter without reading through the entire manuscript.

Anyway, I hope it helps!