Organizing

This weekend I decided that my gathered research and materials had outgrown the back pocket of my laptop case. I'd been carting stuff back and forth that way for some weeks. Included in that unruly stack of papers were interviews, email printouts, article printouts, lists of characterizations, and lists of scenes I want to include when I finally do write.

It didn't seem to take long to have too much info to page through easily. So, a cool striped three-ring binder and divider sheets have transformed my unruly stack of papers into nice, neat categories. Thank goodness for a three-hole punch!! What I wish I could find is colored notebook paper; it would be so much easier if I could visually see the different sections of hand-written information at a glance. I haven't had any luck finding any, though.

This is the first time that I'll be using any kind of outline or pre-writing material to do Nano. I've always just kind of gone by the seat of my pants, and researched as I went. Since I'm writing contemporary, much of the research is easy to get to. But because I intend to shop this work of fiction when I'm finished (unlike my previous three, which I just self-published instead), I figured I should have better quality research this time, so that my story has the accuracy it needs.

Ergo, the pages and pages of interviews, printouts, and other research I've accumulated.

The biggest advantage for me in this outlining process is that by having my scenes at least minimally written down before I start, I won't forget to put them in. As things occur to me, I write them down. That's a heck of a lot easier than tucking them into the back of my head and hoping that I'll remember them later.

My Yahoo Group, NanoWriters, has had some extensive discussions about outlining of late, and several people have provided some good links to outlining articles on the web. Many of us are doing the same thing but calling it something different; some are creating extensive, detailed outlines while others of us (like me) are using a more informal system.

I always resisted outlining when I was in college and doing college papers. "Waste of time" I always said. Now I'm not so sure. In this case, I think outlining is what is going to separate this book from my others, and make it the one that gets to the big publishing house. *fingers crossed*