Writer Wednesday: How Many Documents Does It Take To Draft A Novel?

Last week, I buckled down and finished drafting my sequel. I had been struggling with it because I wasn't able to fast draft for a while. Why? It's a sequel and I needed a ton of info in front of me to write it. So...here's what my workspace ended up looking like.

First, I opened my spiral notebook and made a chart listing chapter number, POV Character (it's dual POV), page number, and major event that happens. I also kept a list of trademarks I mentioned since my publisher requires that.

Second, I opened my synopsis I had to submit to my publisher.

Third, I opened my Scrivener planning document.

Fourth, I opened the previous book in a Word document.

Fifth, I opened the Word document I was drafting in.

Yup, five documents to draft one book. Am I crazy? Well, at first I thought so, but then I went from writing about 5K a day to writing anywhere between 10k-12k a day. That's a big difference. By the end of the week, I had the draft finished. I should mention I had 30K before the week began, but still, that's almost 50K in one week. 

So my organized chaos of a work area was important for me to succeed because I had everything I needed at my fingertips. What else was important was my friend and fellow author, Beth Fred. We were constantly challenging each other to word wars, which is really seeing how much you can write in a designated time. Look at that! We found a productive way to use the Facebook chat feature. :)

Has your writing space ever looked like organized chaos? Do you have things you need in order to draft?