Nathan Bransford - The Forums

I've been writing sparingly for the past year finally counting to roughly 50,000 words so far. The thing is... a good majority of it is in three separate notebooks hand written. Then there's the other half of it which is scattered in various word documents with file names that are pretty vague. Top this off with inconsistent characters and plot points and I have a very big mess to sort through. I don't know why I did it like this but I guess it's the most organic way (at least for me) to get it all out. However, it's also pretty intimidating having to type it up and copy and paste it.

I'm not asking for any miracle solutions, I do know that the only way through this is the obvious way. However, any tips on how I can get through this and keep all my hair? I know we all have different ways of getting things done but I could use some ideas.

Take what you've got, and outline the story, and mark pieces as "written", "unwritten" or "problem". As you outline, you'll find the plot holes, etc. This is the time to fix them-- go in, and write into the outline the better/cooler/more logical scene/character reveal/plot point. Then go and write that scene in.
This is how Michael and I got through our novel (with two authors-- who don't always agree-- and about 95,000 words).

Are you a decent typist? It not, perhaps there is someone you know who is. What you need (I believe) is to see everything all in once place so you can read it all through as a whole. It's difficult to see where the problems are if you are constantly going between notebooks and files. Once you have it all in one file (even if there are glaring mistakes and editing areas) read through it all as if you are seeing it for the first time. Plot holes and inconsistencies will be more evident. Hope that helps. Good luck! :)

OneNote <------------------- get this