How to Remind Yourself of Your Next Writing Steps
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
Whether you’re in the middle of writing your first draft or revising your seventh, remembering what you were thinking the last time you worked on your MG or YA novel can be challenging.
Becoming—and staying—organized with your writing files takes a little effort, but once you get a simple system in place and maintain that system, it gets easier. (See How to Organize Your Writing Files So You Can Find What You Need.)
The same is true for helping you remember what you were writing and thinking the last time you worked on your draft. The key is to find a simple, repeatable approach that works for YOU.
I’ve nicknamed this the Goldilocks approach because it needs to be “just right” for you so you’ll stick with it.
So here are a few simple, quick approaches to try:
Stop writing in the middle of a sentence or in the middle of a scene.
For some writers, that verbal cliff helps them pick right up the next time.
For me, stopping in the middle of a sentence is not helpful. It feels like a crossword puzzle clue, and I’m terrible at crosswords.
But stopping in the middle of a scene is something I do often. (This is because I write for an hour a day or 500 words, whichever comes first.) When this happens, I usually reread the previous half page or so to remind myself of where I was going.
Rereading can be a danger for some writers because they want to stop and edit and NOT make any forward progress. This can be a form of procrastination.
If you know you have that editing tendency, try setting a 5- or 6-minute timer to remind you to stop reading/editing and get back to drafting/revising.
Leave yourself a short note about what comes next.
No need to get detailed here. A one-sentence description of what happens in the next scene can be enough.
One writer I know likes to put the main character’s goal and actions at the beginning of a scene. For example:
“Abby’s scene goal: find the site supervisor; wipe away the bad feelings Samantha left behind
Actions: interacting with the dog; cleaning the beacon which triggers more of its functions”
I use the comments feature in Word to leave myself notes. Since comments show up in the right margin, they attract my attention more.
Create a spreadsheet for a high-level overview.
Again, keep this as simple as possible to start with. So far in my MG zoo mystery, this is what I’m tracking:
The chapter number.
The scene number. I numbered my scenes within my spreadsheet so I can see at a glance how many scenes I have in each chapter. So far it ranges from 2 to 4 scenes per chapter.
The name of the point-of-view character in each scene. Most scenes are from the POV of one or the other of my two main detective characters.
The day and time of the scene. Since I’m writing a mystery, knowing when things occur is important for me.
A one-sentence scene summary about the main action.
For a revision spreadsheet, I think I’ll want to add a column for clues. Another column could be a “What I last revised” summary.
What are your strategies for reminding yourself of where you were in drafting or revising your novel?