Keep Files Organized

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Today’s post  doesn’t have the most exciting topic: organization.  But if there’s anything I’ve learned, it’s that being able to quickly put my hands on writing-related files makes everything easier.  This post is part of a short series I’m doing on making our lives easier as writers.

Organizing Story Files

Everybody will want to find their own method of keeping their files straight.  What works for me is keeping it all together in a folder on Word.  So, for example, with my current WiP, I have a folder entitled Fit to Be Tied  (the title of the book).  Inside that folder, I have everything relating to that book…its cover (I have my covers made early), the book description, the outline, my ‘things to fix’ document, and the story itself.

After the book’s been edited and published, I make a subfolder inside the main folder and put old files in there (I’m funny about not tossing old files. I want to keep them, but don’t want to get confused).  The latest files (the finished book, etc.) remain in the main folder.

Deleting Revised Covers and Ebook Files 

This could mean drafts of covers, revised ebook files, etc.  If you’re anything like me, I have a ton of these things and they can make life very confusing.  Let’s say I’m formatting a book for PDF…but I’m not happy with the way the finished product is, so I tinker with the original file and reformat it.  Then it’s almost perfect, but I want to make a small change, so I do.  Now I have three different PDF files of the same title.  In the short term, it’s easy enough for me to figure out which one is the final file: the properties will show the time it was created and the latest one would be the one I’d want.  But months or a year later when I’m wanting to update something, it takes time to make sure it’s the correct file.

The same goes for corrected translated books, revised covers, updated mobi and epub files.

To make things easier, I have Word folders for Mobi files by series, epub files by series, PDF files, translations, etc. I put the final files (at least final for the time being) in the corresponding folders and then delete the older ones.

Backing Up Files 

This is my semi-annual reminder, ha!  Backing up your work makes your life easier…it just doesn’t immediately seem that way.  But if we spend three months or more working on a book and then it just disappears, that’s a disaster.  I like the backups that occur automatically (you can search those up online…Dropbox is one of them), but I also manually back up to a server and USBs.  I also upload to Google docs.  In the past, I’ve emailed files to myself, too.  Nothing like a little paranoia to keep from losing content!

I’m a little bit of an organizational nerd, so I’d love to hear how everybody else keeps their stuff straight! How do you make your life easier by managing your files?

Photo on Visual hunt

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