Keeping Everything Organized

[Myr]

One of the more important items in creating your own world is keeping everything organized.  This applies to all writing to one extent or another, but especially it applies to worlds you create.  I was reviewing my world bible for the Ranger world and noticed I didn't keep it as updated as I need to.  I need to update it for the stuff that has been put into the wild on magic, cultures etc.  Now that I have stories in the wild, I need to make sure things mesh when I release new stuff.  

So, I've been working on updating my world bible.

 

How do you guys keep things organized?  do you?

[Valkyrie]

Nope. I don't have anything even close to resembling organization. I have a pile of notebooks with outlines, character notes, and snippets of hand-written chapters/stories, but if I had to find anything it would take a while, supposing I could even find the notebook I wanted.  After I finish The Hollow Hills I plan on working on a fantasy novel, so I suppose I ought to find some sort of system to keep track of the 'world' I create.  I can't rely on my memory as well as I used to. 

[Brayon]

1 hour ago, Myr said:

How do you guys keep things organized?  do you?

As most here on GA is aware, I'm an avid Role-Player. I have several worlds that I keep track of, and not just for my stories here on GA. Game Worlds and Story World are not that dissimilar. They each follow the same guidelines, but where one is more notes and narrative, the other is that plus game rules for everything from character creation to how spells affect the world. I routinely use Game Worlds as a foundation for my Story Rules.

 

I keep both notebooks, and digital files with my world notes. OneDrive with Office seems to be the best in my opinion, followed by Google Drive and Docs.

[Ron]

3 hours ago, Myr said:

How do you guys keep things organized?  do you?

Yeah, this is something I've been trying to work on... notes here, notes there. I jot down thoughts using the Notability app on my iPad, sometime in the middle of the night (yes, this happens) when things 'pop up' in my mind, and I otherwise use the maybe unorthodox method of whatever is at hand, ie., napkins when they're closest at hand. I definitely use an unorganized, though it ultimately works out to be an organic method (for me) once I consciously colate it all, for keeping track of ideas. Wait a minute... this seems to be working, maybe I shouldn't change anything. *shrugs*

[Disjecta Membra]

I find that OneNote is an extremely handy tool to keep tabs on everything from characters to cities to ideas you want to incorporate into later chapters.  I think it's especially helpful when keeping track of characteristics and physical appearances of my characters, especially when describing minor characters.  (Oh, I initially referred to this character as a redhead but now I've written that they brushed a strand of black hair behind their ear - edit time!)  It lets you have separate tabs for each subject, along with subcategories so you can ultimately create an encyclopedia of everything in your world.  That being said, I too am guilty of falling behind with keeping it up to date.  Sometimes, though, when I find a lull in my writing, I go back through some of my work to update my OneNote file - not only does it keep everything updated, but it also sometimes helps trigger some motivation for new things to add.

 

I also try to create a world map when writing my fantasy stories, as it helps keep the world itself accurate.  I sometimes throw a few towns/cities in there at random, to give it a more realistic feel and so it doesn't have that sense that I created each place specifically for a part in the story.  It also helps when you decide you need to reference a random place, or compare distances to other locales you've mentioned.  I think for me personally, it also keeps me more in tune with my world.  For instance, in an early chapter of one story I referenced a kingdom "far to the east, along the coastline."  However, on my map, there weren't any kingdoms to the east of where my characters were stationed.  So I added one.  The reader wouldn't have known, of course, since they hadn't seen the map.  But it made me feel like I had corrected a personal mistake.  It also opened up an additional tidbit of backstory for one of the characters.  I find that having a map actually speaks to me in letting the story unfold just as much as having all of my details organized.