Getting Really Organized…
I Mean Really, Really Organized…
So I am writing all these new stories. And they are in bunches of different series. At the moment they are just printed out and stacked by the day and month I wrote it. Yeah, that’s stupid.
And I have two file cabinet drawers full of manuscripts I’m not sure where they go, or have gone, or even what they are.
And I have a spreadsheet of all the stories that have been in the sixty-seven issues of Smith’s Monthly, along with in some cases the collections they have been in. Some cases.
So I was having issues getting started on a story tonight because it just felt too much disorganization. (Getting me in the “What’s the Point?” area. (Some will know what I am talking about.)
So I finally tonight said “Screw it!” And started entering into the Smith’s Monthly spreadsheet all the manuscripts that are in the drawers. And then stacking them in piles by series.
I found about seven stories (a couple already in Smith’s Monthly, five not) that I had used as part of the RESCUE TWO Seeders novel. A whole mess of Thunder Mountain stories not published anywhere. And so on.
And I am about half way through one file drawer. When I finish both drawers I will then do the same with the stories I have written so far this year. Get them entered on the spread sheet and organized by series.
The totals by series are going to be interesting. When this is all done. But I know for a fact it will free up my brain and creative voice to just go strong again through April. Which will be great fun.
But at the moment data entry is great fun. Who knew that could ever be the case.
My 50th Kickstarter Is Doing Great!!
We funded in just over an hour, which is stunning considering we had stopped promoting it was coming a week ahead because of issues (which got resolved at 10 am before we launched.) And we hit the first stretch goal in about 14 hours. Wow! Thanks to you who have backed. it already.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/403649867/poker-boy?ref=2uys1x
In this campaign there are fun new special workshops in how to write Superhero Stories and also How to Write Games of all Types into Your Fiction. You can only get these on the Kickstarter.
I am also offering to write you into a Poker Boy story for a new anthology. You can be a superhero or a god. Of any area you pick. That’s going to be fun and even if I don’t get anyone or only a few, I’m going to fill out the ten stories in a really fun way. So the collection will happen.
There is also fun mugs, puzzles, and playing cards. The Poker Boy playing cards are just stunningly beautiful and cool.
And there is even one reward (a very large one) that you can get every issue of Smith’s Monthly. In trade paperback and every issue signed by me. Amazing collection that also comes with a Lifetime Subscription to Smith’s Monthly in trade paperback when it starts back up. Got to keep the set up, you know. (grin)
And in the stretch goals, you get electronic issues of Smith’s Monthly, plus some quarters of Creative Survival worth $500 if we get far enough. Pass the word if you don’t mind.
Watch the fun video that Kris did. Might have to click it twice to start.
3 Comments
LM
You remind me that I’ve never hit on a system that seems to fully work for tracking both my inventory of poems and publishing of them that works with their varying states of stored, since I have a tendency to write them in exorbitant untitled quantities. obv. an id will work as unique identifier but looking them up, logging them in, publishing them from are all separate things to reduce the friction of.
Which is to say, I really need to do what you just did for my currently unwieldy monstrous pile of poetry.
Kate Pavelle
The Pokerboy KS is fabulous and if I didn’t have a moratorium on mugs, I would get one specific one. Congratulations!
But more importantly, congratulations on getting organized. I am struggling with loncsting all my old stories, be ause thet were never printed out. So the pop up under alternate names, in backup folders, in autosaves…it’s a mess! I would love to have a stack of printouts. Those can be scanned and converted into text nowadays. No need to retype!
OTOH, I emptied a closet in my office and all my IP folders will go into file boxes on wire shelves. Didn’t go on a printing and filing spree because I haven’t yet decided how to organize them. Probably by series, genre, and length as appropriate.
Dean, when you put a collection together, do you file it under collections, or some other variable? (Not Smith’s Monthly I mean other collections.) I feel like I should have a cross-reference rubric on the OP pub sheet.
dwsmith
Just list the story, the series, then the issue of Smith’s Monthly, and then if it has been in a collection. Some of my stories have made it into three collections and also Kris and I do the Colliding Series every year and stories make it into those as well. So on the spreadsheet I try to list where each story has been in a collection.
Good luck. I found this organization actually fun and energizing, which is just strange for me. (grin)