Hi Everyone! This month I wanted to talk about my organization of my writing tools/resources. I've had so many people ask me that I thought I would dedicate a Wattmag post to the topic! As most writers are, I'm obsessed with anything related to office supplies...and I have a lot of it. I know a lot of you struggle with staying organized while writing and quite honestly, this is the most organized area of my life.

As I'm writing this post, I'm in the midst of packing for my U.K./Europe vacation and my room is a disaster. But my writing stuff; always organized.

One of the most important things to me is to have tons of writing tools. On the shelf you see in the first photo, I have everything I need for writing. I made a makeshift L-Desk using this bookshelf that my Dad got me from Wal-Mart for my birthday in August (let's forget the fact it took him until Christmas Day to build it).

The main focus of the shelf is the top. I keep all the important supplies there. I have two mason jars filled with either markers or colored pencils. In the middle there's a wide pen holder filled with sharpies. The mason jar filled with markers is filled with ones that didn't fit in that cup holder. I also have four mini mason jars that we took from a bridal shower (they had shower gifts in them, but we took more). In these little mason jars I have paper clips, large rubber bands, and binder clips. I use these all the time and they're great little organizing tools.

Now, you're probably looking at my blue crate on my desk and wondering what else is in that crate besides post-it notes. The answer? Nothing. This whole thing is filled with post-it notes. I'm a little post-it crazy. However, I do have a variety of sizes which is super useful. There's probably about 30 or 40 different ones in there. I buy in bulk on Amazon.... 

One of my shelves is dedicated to my writing books. I am always going through Amazon and looking for newer, better ones. Some of these I use religiously. Like Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglist's The Emotion Thesaurus. I have used that book so many times that it's something I will recommend to everyone. If you guys want a list of my writing books, feel free to send me a PM with your email telling me you want me to email you my list. My English major friends always ask for this, so I would be more than happy to send you my list!

I have a giant travel file holder and I am in love. It was my Dad's when he went to school, but since he never finished, it's been sitting around our house collecting dust. A few weeks ago, I wanted to organize all my drafts in one place and this was the best place for me to do this. So this is what I call The J.K. Rowling Box. The reason I call it this is because Rowling is notorious for having hordes of notes about the Potter novels and she had a big box like this one. 

In the manila folders, I have every version of each chapter bundled together. So in the chapter one folder, I have every single version of chapter one available in there. I also dated them for the sake of giggles. I love looking back and seeing how much has changed since 2013. It's crazy because my characters are so different. 

That washi tape covered notebook is where all of my starting notes for Vigilant are. I keep everything about my characters in there. At one point in time, I went through and put down all the character names and cast them. In my notebook, I have Aurelia's face claim as Ginny Gardner, but when I watched The 100, that quickly changed. Most people stayed the same though! I'm really proud of that little notebook. It's gone through a lot with me!

Since I called this my J.K. Rowling Box, you will find the most random things in this box. I have scrapbook pages when I made pages for my characters. These were for my very first draft and Aurelia was named Lysandra and she was face claimed by Lily Collins. That draft was a hot mess. 

Other things you may find are maps. I need to make a better map or rewrite the house because right now it's not making much sense. I may build it on The Sims 4 to get a better idea of how I want things. But the thing is, I have to make it big enough to house almost 30 people. Think of your country's Big Brother and that's how big the house has to be.

Moving on from the box, I have this purple binder. This is my current version of my manuscript printed (single sided). On the cover is my goals. I have a monthly goal of what I want to accomplish. For example, in January, I have the goal to reach through chapter 30. I can tell you right now that this will be highly unlikely, but hey, we'll go with it. I'm in a writing mood, so we'll see what happens from now (January 7) through the eleventh.

The first thing you see when you open it up is the editing checklist. Now, this doesn't pertain to me right now, but as I'm writing the next draft, I know what I should look for. The character names and whatnot aren't going to make much sense now, but they will later. I basically want to check for consistency and make sure that this is where I want to go. It's important for me to have the best book I possibly can.

Each chapter I have tabbed for easy finding. I hate flipping through to find one specific chapter. Don't you?

Out of all the writing tools I have, this one is the one I am most proud of. This binder was inspired by author Kami Garcia because of her video that talks about making a series binder. Her binder for one of her series was so insightful that I knew I wanted to make one myself.

https://youtu.be/0UXCMSGjvSU

My first section when you open up is Timeline. Now, I haven't actually written this section yet, but there is a reason why. I'm someone who doesn't outline my novels. My favorite author Diana Gabaldon says she doesn't write an outline because she doesn't like knowing what's going to happen; she likes for it to be an organic process. I very much agree with her (even before I discovered her books) because as I edit, I know who is coming out into the story more. As I edit, I peel back the layers so the pieces of the story fit in the right way. My timeline is something that will be written after I finish the current draft I'm on because of the fact that I want to be sure this is how I want it to be.

The characters section will be my shortest one. It's also the simplest. I went on a word document and made word boxes for each kind of characters (IE Main Characters, Character's Family Members, etc.). I also have a key at the bottom of the page for death, whether or not they're in book two, if they're a villain, if they die by the end, or if they're siblings. Almost every single character has a red mark of some kind.

This section is definitely one of the harder ones to make, but it's the best to have because you can go back and see who is related to who and who lives in whose neighborhood. It's important to have a list like this.

I also made a playlist for my book! I am an avid music listener so of course my favorite songs or new finds could end up on here. Alongside the title of the actual song, I always make sure to put the reason why this song was chosen and how it fits in with the whole of the story. The two songs I have listed (both from The 100) are both romantic themes and explain two of my arcs/subplots beautifully. I explain why they fit in with certain themes and how they help me advance the story. For example, my go-to fight scene song is Drag Me Down by One Direction.

This is by far the section with the most work. I have some of the characters left to do, but the main characters are done. This section is everything about the characters up until the book starts. I explored their backgrounds, their personalities; everything. As a writer, we have to know our characters inside and out, so this section really helped me with that. One of my favorite backstories was Arrow's and if you read Vigilant, it will make a lot more sense, but most of his backstory isn't even in the draft I have on Wattpad (or the version I'm writing for that matter). 

I always have my characters have a face claim so it makes it easier to describe them. When I started this version, I didn't have anyone cast. So as I began to write Aurelia, I had this clear image in my mind. That's when I chose Ginny Gardner, but something didn't seem right about her. That's why she changed to Eliza Taylor, because when I watched The 100, I knew. I love looking at gifs and getting ideas for where to put my characters.

When I wrote these backstories, I did use some aids. I searched around the internet for character questionnaires and other creating a character kind of thing. I didn't do a question and answer thing, but what I did was try to make it a story and intertwine those questions throughout. I want to know as much as I can about these characters.

The final section of this binder is my resources section. This is where I find all of the information that I found on pinterest and tumblr. I printed out a bunch of different things and this is what my younger sister has dubbed as "the murder section." You know... since it is a dystopian novel. Why not.

The final item is this notebook. I bought this at Walgreens for $5 and I take it everywhere. I have been collecting book two ideas and everything in between. It started out as a journal but then it became a surface for me to write my thoughts for my book down in. I'm taking this to England with me because I always have to write. And yes, I do have a copious amount of stickers. I love stickers.

**

I hope that from this post you will take something away from it. I didn't learn how to organize my writing tools overnight. This took me years to perfect and it's still not perfect. I'm still learning and looking for new and different ways to have a makeshift office. When you live with your parents and have a limited amount of space, it's really hard to find room for all of your things. That's why I made the makeshift L-Desk because I wanted my stuff next to my desk. 

I want to see how you organize your writing space! Share your photos with me on Twitter, I'm ajwinterbooks. Let's have a chat about how amazing we are at organizing our writing lives.