CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

First of all, I would never write a first draft on the pc. I know that's real common these days; but, I do it the old-fashioned way - I keep a legal pad around, preferably one with white paper, not yellow, and start writing in a mix of long hand and print.

Anyways, I'll give you my two cents on organizing writing projects. This might help you, I sure hope it does. I know its helped me through the years.

First, you have a Legal pad and at the top you write the story or whatever you are working on. Then start writing. Only that story, in whatever order, as long as you title at the top of the page like; Scene between Joe and Tilly - dialogue, or Chapter One - They Meet, or end of book, because maybe you have a great idea of how you want your book to end so you write it down on that page.

After you fill up that legal pad, get another pad.

Second, I get a file folder. I place that legal pad and any printed drafts that I've now placed on the computer, into that file folder. On the side of the file folder I write what work it is, i.e., Juggling Plums, revised edition 2004.

Everytime you have an idea, as you said you might write different parts of the story, it should be on that legal pad, which is now in the file folder. When your work gets too large, then get another file folder and... *drumroll* again write what work is in that file folder.

When do you start writing on the pc? As soon as you have a breadth of work - you know, a few pages - then start typing out the next draft. Always date your material also. It will help years down the road. ~_^

Anyways, there's my two cents and I hope it helps. I'm real disorganized also, so I try to keep my writing as organized as possible; otherwise, it would be totally lost.

I have a few suggestions that may be helpful to you in some way.

As for not wanting to write on a computer terminal:
1) Music in the background often helps me
2) If possible, leave your computer at times when inspiration may strike
3) At times, just force yourself to write. I am working on this and it seems to be relatively effective, if you can overcome the apathy

However, I do all my basic creative work (concepts, scene sketches, outlines) on paper or (more often) in my mind. It generally simply works better there. That way when I sit down at the computer I can be productive.

This is just my own advice, but I would strongly suggest you not write scenes out of order. My tendancy is to not want to write the duller scenes, and I want to get to the more enjoyable ones. If I write all the enjoyable ones when I don't feel like writing a more difficult scene, I often have very little motivation to write them later on. Also, I heavily favor stories that flow well, as if everything was planned, not different parts put together. However, I have seen such styles work.

There are many ways to do so, and people vary greatly in style.

Some people basically write a summary of the plot, in paragraph form. This is a more detailed outline, and most suitable for character-based stories. When dealing with plot, I usually just write out, line by line, what happens. I'll use a real example (ie, something from one of my actual outlines):

Training
1- timid/problems
2- shirt, injury
2.5- travel day
3- club/train
3.5- Chouji
4- couple
5- standard, irony
5.5- smile, info, friends

Does that make any sense to anyone? Probably not, just to me. This was created, however, to organize my thoughts. Let me explain it (though not enough to create spoilers, because I will post the results of this on CAA eventually).

This section of the story is referred to as training. In reference to style and themes, it is discernably different from the parts before and after it. There are a number of different training sessions within this period (several months), each of these receives a full number. Those with a number and a decimal are events that happen outside of the training sessions themselves.

Now, each has only a few words behind it. These represent to my mind what exactly happens during that session. The actual training is made up on the spur of the moment, because what is really important happens between characters. This was my method of organizing what happens when and in what order. You'll notice 3.5 merely says "Chouji" which is a name. An entire scene is based off of one character, so I only need to mention him to bring to mind the event itself.