Who cares if you’re organized?

Staying organized is kind of a boring topic, but a practical and essential part of writing—especially if you‘re working on a book project. I’m talking about organization of writing material with all these different Word docs or Google docs or storing files on Dropbox.

This came up in a conversation I had with a woman at AWP who booked one of my 15-minute book-coaching sessions. She’s working on an essay collection, she has 12 essays so far, all in varying stages of completeness or needing revision, and in varying stages of being submitted individually. In addition to this essay collection, she has a full time job, she’s also a visual artist, and she regularly applies for grants for both writers and artists. She was feeling very scattered.

In this episode:

• how easy it is to lose track of material when it’s stored digitally

• how I recommend approaching a problem like keeping track of writing material at different stages of a project

• why I like to use Google Docs, specifically Google Sheets, for this kind of organization

• tips for how to set up a tracking spreadsheet, including how many sheets, what each sheet is for, and columns for tacking specific date in those sheets

• how to evaluate when an essay collection is done, and using the spreadsheet to determine how much more material might be needed for a complete manuscript

• when using a program like Scrivener would be a helpful organization tool

• why organization of material is essential for writers & why helping with organization is an important part of a book coach’s job

Links mentioned in this episode:

• Get 10% off your first order of whole bean coffee from a boutique Northern California coffee roastery.

• More about Under the Gum Tree

• More about my coaching & editing services

• Scrivener, the project management software for writers (affiliate link)

• Follow, subscribe & find show notes for this episode at moretothestorypodcast.substack.com

• follow me on Instagram @jannamarlies

• follow Under the Gum Tree on Instagram @undergumtree

Question for you:

How are you with organization of your writing materials? If you struggle, drop a question or a challenge, and let’s help each other out. If you’re a pro: what are your best tips & tricks? Share in the comments!

Thanks so much for listening and for being here!