Spreadsheets
I
track my daily and monthly progress by colouring a square in Excel, and seeing
my progress really motivates me to keep it up. I also use the same spread to
keep track of my goals and achievements for that month.
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Index Cards
While
second drafting, I fill out an index card for every scene in my book. On this
card is what characters appear in the scene, what plot (or subplot) the scene
belongs to, and a couple other things like if it moves the plot forward and if
my character is active. This helps me see the shape of my book, and easily find
holes in the plot.
Sticky Notes
I
second draft on paper, and every time I find a problem with plot, character,
setting, or pacing (or any other major issue) I write it down in a notebook. Using
the index cards I mentioned, I put a sticky note for each problem on the scene
that needs changing to fix it. This is based on a method by Susan Dennard,
though I’ve changed it a fair bit.
Notebooks
Like
most authors, I keep a notebook for each book or series I have. In this
notebook I write any random ideas that come to me, keep character notes, but
most importantly I use the notebook to second draft and keep track of major
changes that need to be made.
Pinterest
I
know people who create playlists for each of their books, but I couldn’t live
without the visual aid of Pinterest. When an idea is flitting around my head, I
spill all those images that keep bugging me onto a Pinterest board. The way I
know if I’m really dying to write a story, rather than it just being a
temporary shiny idea, is if my Pinterest board has 50+ pins. I know if a story
has a hundred pins, I really love the idea, and then I move onto the inception
stage of a book where I get to know characters and figure out the world.
