Project 200: Tips and Tricks (The Seeds and Plot Folder)

In the Tips & Tricks posts I be passing along tips and tricks I’ve discovered or found that have helped me and I believe will help you. Also, I invite you to take a look back and see how close you got to your goal of writing 200 words every day.

First, a quick word of apology for readers of Eileen Reads Twilight. Unfortunately, after Christmas my Kindle went missing, I've downloaded the book onto my boyfriend's Kindle (bless him) and will do my best to have a new chapter to you guys soon.

As a writer it is important to stay organized. That awesome book title or character name or other tidbit is useless if you can’t find it amongst your mountain of notes. As someone with ADD, organization is a challenge for me, and I’ve learned you may have to work at it, but it is well worth the initial investment. 

I am in the habit of carrying a pen and notebook wherever I go (a smartphone also works), and while I’m writing I’m always writing ideas for names, titles, quotes or such in the margins. I don’t want to lose these tidbit so I created a separate file on my writing program Scrivener entitled ‘Seeds’ where I put all those little gems I don’t want to lose. 

The Seeds File serves more than one purpose, say I’m working on my rough draft and realize that while this witty shopkeeper is a great character, she is bogging down the plot and really should be removed, I can just put her in the Seeds folder to be re-imagined in another story, or maybe she deserves her own book. Maybe it’s a description of a forest at night that you need to cut from your story; it’s much easier to ruthlessly edit your work if you know that those pieces aren’t necessarily lost forever. 

Combined with the Seeds file is a file entitled Plots. This is pretty self explanatory, here’s where I keep rough ideas for plots I have that aren’t yet fleshed out enough to stand alone in their own folder (or word document). The ‘plot’ may be nothing more than a log line (‘a killer shark terrorizes a small coastal town during the height of the tourist season’) or may be a synopsis that’s several paragraphs long. 

Inspiration can strike at any time, and if you use a Seeds and Plot Folder, you can be sure you are always catching that bolt of lightning in a bottle. 

For those who are following along with Project 200 I'd love to know in the comments how you have been doing!

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