In a comment after my last post I was asked how I organize my work to keep from losing drafts as I go along. This is how I do it. There are probably a hundred other ways.<\/p>\n
This is an important topic. Your storytelling is you. The way you tell and revise a story is as much you as the way you chew your food or walk or laugh, and your storytelling can last; the rest is fleeting.<\/p>\n
I write exclusively on the computer, so I have no longhand drafts. When I begin a new project, I name a folder for it based on what I think the book is going to be about. For example, I just finished a book in the Disney Fairies series. The folder is called Mother Dove, although the story turned out not to be about her. I should rename it, but I haven\u2019t and probably never will, which will mean that a few years from now, I\u2019ll waste time hunting for it. So if you name your folder and the name stops applying, change it. Don\u2019t be like me.<\/p>\n
Before I write a book, I write notes. I keep a separate file (or document) of notes for each book. Be like me that way. Don\u2019t let your notes for one book run into your notes for another. The notes file goes in the folder for the book. I\u2019ve posted about my notes, so I\u2019ll say here only that sometimes I copy a few sentences or a paragraph that I\u2019m not happy with from my manuscript itself into my notes. Then I copy that section over and over, improving as I go. When I\u2019m satisfied, I copy the revised version into my manuscript and overwrite the original, which is gone from my manuscript but preserved in my notes. Even better, the evolution is preserved, step by step. This will simplify the work of my and your future biographers. And it\u2019s gratifying to have a record of what I went through.<\/p>\n
When I start the manuscript itself, it becomes a file in the folder too. I name it and follow the name with a version number, obviously 1 initially. (The file name has nothing to do with the book\u2019s title.) Whenever I change the direction of the story, I save the old version with its old version number and then save it again with a subsequent number. I wouldn\u2019t have to do this if I were just going to keep writing forward, but I\u2019m probably going to go back and revise some of what I\u2019ve already written to support the new direction. If I don\u2019t save the old version, I\u2019ll lose it, and what if my new path turns out to be a dead end? When I make a really radical departure, like shifting POV, I rename the file entirely and number it 1 again, although I keep it in the same folder. The reason for the new name is for me to be able to spot where I took such a different tack.<\/p>\n
The result is that I have many truncated versions of all my books. Fairest was a ridiculously hard book to write. A minute ago I counted, just to see: eighty-nine versions and five names before I finished the first draft.<\/p>\n
After I\u2019ve sent the manuscript to my editor and have gotten back her edits and her astonishingly long editorial letter (eighteen single-spaced pages for Fairest), I rename the file again. I usually call it edit at that point, edit1. I\u2019m revising now for my editor, but also for me, so I may still veer off into unexplored territory.<\/p>\n
Even with this elaborate method, I lose small revisions, but I don\u2019t care about those. Nothing important is lost.<\/p>\n
On the downside, gems from an earlier version that I want to use later can be hard to find. So I have another file called extra. When I delete something I like, I copy it into my extra file. The bit I like doesn\u2019t have to be a whole scene, although it can be. It can also be a neat phrase, or anything I think I might need at some point. My extra file is shorter than a whole version, more manageable. Usually I remember a phrase or key word from the bit I want that I can search on. My extra file gives me a huge sense of security.<\/p>\n
And speaking of security, you do back everything up, right? (Kids, if you don’t know what it means to “back up,” ask your parents.) Because there\u2019s no point to an elaborate version system if you\u2019re going to lose your precious work anyway. So save what you write!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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