#15: On Organising Your Drafts
I used to be a very organized person. That's not a sad statement, because since last year I've learned that getting organized can be a huge distraction. Most people aren't organized, and they're mostly doing fine. But I can't speak on their behalf. What I know is that organising feels good, but isn't really useful in most cases to get the work done. Writing is somewhere in the middle of that spectrum. You don't need to be an organized person to be a writer--indeed, some prefer disorganization and set up their workspaces such that mess will inevitably accumulate--but it's easier to have a rudimentary system of keeping your drafts sorted. Here's the current one I use, with the caveat that I do not use it as intended all the time--because, again, putting my drafts into the correct folder doesn't help me become a writer. Only writing does that.
I have no name for my system, not that it needs one. I used to have several folders when I was younger. I used to have folders not just for incomplete drafts that I was "supposed" to return to later, but also for drafts of concepts I think could be improved upon, and even drafts that I was so indecisive about their folder was literally called "Is It Good Is It Bad IDK".
I've stopped being so precious about my words now. If something isn't working, I hit delete (not while writing the first draft, but when it's been a long time since I wrote it and even after two or three revisits I can't see anything good in it). It's better to focus on drafts that include completed stories and essays and add to or trim them.
To make things easier to make sense of, sometime last year I took all my drafts out of their various folders and put them in a single place. Then I started making my way through them alphabetically (so that I couldn't avoid the drafts I recognized by name and wasn't in the mood to go through). Depending on the state of the draft, I put each into one of the following folders:
- Fiction to Edit
- Nonfiction to Edit
- Published
- Submitted
- Worldbuilding (scenes and lore and ideas rather than complete stories)
I still haven't read many of my drafts, so they're waiting to be sent into the correct folder.
When I had the time to edit or saw a call for submissions for fiction/nonfiction, I could quickly head to the correct folder, choose a piece and work on it.
Of course it's not as easy as that; editing sometimes is exhausting and even boring. But because I know what's where, I spend less time clicking on drafts and more on actually doing something with them.
Recently I've been focused on writing articles, so I've not been able to give time to my stories and essays. I plan to get all my drafts printed then work on them with a red fountain pen in hand. Screens are tiring, and although it sounds contradictory, I find editing on paper to be much easier and flexible.
Until you've written a dozen or so drafts, you probably won't need a system. I don't remember if I had one so early on after I started writing. I was too scared of breaking my streak to worry about anything else. My system isn't the best (as evidenced by the drafts waiting to be read and edited) and might not work for you. You can make something that suits you better. But, as I learned too late, don't waste your time trying to have the perfect organizing system for your writing. Just write, as it all seems to boil down to, at the end of every essay.