The BALL is in your court. Get Organized!
The Walking by Inner Vision Personal Journal
Writing Assignment # 29
Organize your Writing Projects
At the beginning of 2015, I started to give my readers some writing Lessons and assignments throughout the year. We started writing our personal Walking by Inner Vision Journal together.
We discussed different forms of writing in the past eleven months. We will have THIRTY lessons completed by the end of the year. Look over your “Writing by Inner Vision Personal Journal” today. It is now a good time for us to talk about how to organize your writing projects.
In the AUTUMN we can expect to gather a HARVEST from our labors during the year. Let’s begin to get your writing organized.
Just this past week, I have been updating my own writing projects. I organize my work periodically throughout the year. The more often I do it, the easier it is to stay organized. My writing goes out to publishers regularly. I have to know what I have sent and to whom. I have to be able to find a particular piece of work quickly and send it out on time.
Why is it important to be an organized writer?
When you are writing regularly, you’ll eventually begin to think of having your work published. You will need to be able to find the pieces as you need them. If they are not organized, you will become frustrated because you will be wasting a lot of time hunting them down.
Begin NOW and make it a HABIT to be organized.
I developed a SYSTEM to keep accurate records on the computer AND in BINDERS for hard copies of records.
Here is how I do it.
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On the computer:
I created 3 individual COMPUTER folders for my archives.
Folder 1 – Title of the piece is listed by Year/Date it was written
Folder 2 – Title of the pieces is listed Alphabetically
Folder 3 – Works Published, in which you will list each published piece ALPHABETICALLY by TITLE (I list the poem or essay, alphabetically, and below the TITLE, I list all publications where that particular piece appeared, with dates, and any other information necessary per each publication.
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Save each of your writing pieces!
Here is HOW my Computer list will LOOK as I save it:
First, record the kind of writing (poem, essay, memoir, etc.)
Second, year created.
Third, a title of the piece.
Example: Poem_15_title
It will look like this:
Poem_15_August Afternoon
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STEP ONE – created your COMPUTER FOLDERS. See Above information.
STEP TWO – will help you CREATE binders that will hold your HARD COPIES of EACH work just as you have saved IT on the computer. This is your BACK-UP.
For hard copies, I created five (5) binders to hold hard copies of each different kind of writing that I do. I put each writing piece into a transparent page protector. Also in the binder is a copy CD that has all the documentation back-up for each category. Note: you can purchase the page protectors at Staples or Office Max.
Your BINDERS will NOT be the same as mine – but will be according to your own NEEDS. You will have more or less binders than I have, most likely.
EXAMPLE: Here is a list of my five binders:
#1 Binder is for my poems.
#2 Binder is exclusively for Japanese tanka and haiku.
#3 Binder is for essays and memoirs.
#4 Binder is for blog articles in Walking by Inner Vision.
#5 Binder is for blog articles in SCANdalous – Recollections
IMPORTANT: EACH binder holds a hard copy in transparent sheet protectors and a CD on which I have another backup of my computer files.
I cannot stress hoe vital it is to have several back-ups of your work.
Writing Assignment #29:
Organize your writing.
Use my system to get organized and you will be so glad you took the time to do this.
Make it personal to fit YOUR needs.
My information will help you get started, but you will fashion it for your own purposes.
BE ORGANIZED and SAVE TIME
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This article is written by Lynda McKinney Lambert. Copyright, 2015. All rights reserved.