When was the last time you scrolled through your files looking for something, only to have your eye caught by some file you know didn’t belong where it was? But, like most of us, when you’re on an errand looking for something else or in the middle of writing and need a particular file, you make yourself a mental note to go back and clean things up — soon.
Today is that “soon” day for me. I just finished going through my main hard drive and separated out short stories from novels, ideas from the general assemblage of files of all sorts. I discovered I needed to create a new list of files including these:
BLOGS
CHARACTER DESCRIPTIONS
E-BOOKS
(TITLE PAGE)
(COPYRIGHT PAGE)
(ABOUT THE AUTHOR)
(HYPER LINKED AVAILABLE E-BOOKS (K) )
(HYPER LINKED AVAILABLE E-BOOKS (SW) )
(HYPER LINKED AVAILABLE E-BOOKS (KO) )
(SAMPLE REVIEW REQUEST)
FICTION
(COVERS)
((NOVELS))
((SHORT STORIES))
(NOVELS)
((ADVENTURE))
((CHILDREN’S STORIES))
((ESPIONAGE))
((FAMILY HISTORY))
((LITERARY)) [this turns out to be one of my smallest — what does that tell you?]
((MYSTERIES))
((PLAYS))
((POLITICAL FICTION))
((SCREENPLAYS))
((VIETNAM))
((WESTERNS))
(SHORT STORIES)
(PLAYS)
(STORY IDEAS)
NAMES
POSSIBLE TITLES,
SPEECHES
TEXTBOOKS
(SCREENWRITING)
(DIRECTING)
WRITING
Of course I’m not including such files as DOWNLOADS, LETTERS, PICTURES and all the other files we all have and need. But within the writing I found that I needed a couple of files under each specific title of works in some stage of development. Those required files were: NOTES, and RESEARCH. Next I found that I needed these files under each project: CHARACTER LIST, NOTES, OUTLINE, and SAMPLE CHAPTER (with the words “Chapter #” the proper number of spaces between the chapter and the first line of text, but I began with the word, “The” indented and ready to go.
For e-novels I know I’m going to need the following items for the finished book: TITLE PAGE, COPYRIGHT PAGE, ABOUT THE AUTHOR, LIST OF AVAILABLE E-BOOKS, SHORT DESCRIPTIVE PARAGRAPH, and LONG DESCRIPTIVE PARAGRAPH. So, I include them in with each project. This list will look like this:
COMPLETE E-BOOK
((ABOUT THE AUTHOR))
((SAMPLE TITLE PAGE))
((SAMPLE COPYRIGHT PAGE))
((AVAILABLE E-BOOKS w/ HYPERLINKS))
((REVIEW REQUEST))
Finally, I’ll need a file where I can put all the chapters together with the title and copyright page, even a dedication page, the book chapter by chapter, an about-the-author page, a list of available e-books with hyperlinks and a request for a review with a hyperlink back to the Kindle, or Smashwords, or Kobo, or whichever site I’m publishing the book.
Now a typical novel will look like this:
FICTION
(WESTERN)
((GONE TO TEXAS))
(((BRIEF DESCRIPTIVE PARAGRAPH)))
(((CHARACTER LIST)))
(((COPYRIGHT PAGE)))
(((LONG DESCRIPTIVE PARAGRAPH)))
(((NOTES)))
(((OUTLINE)))
(((RESEARCH)))
(((SAMPLE CHAPTER)))
(((TITLE PAGE)))
(((Chapter 1)))
(((Chapter 2)))
Now, I’m ready to get back to work with a cleaned up disk drive and file system. Am I not a good boy?
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