Help! How do you organize your notes?

[lisamarie]

Instead of just writing a screenplay without notes or an outline, then getting stuck half-way through, I did things different this time. I have a notebook filled with notes, scenes, ideas and dialogue. Now I don't even know where to begin.

I'm sure there are others who do it this way. HOw do you organize your stuff? I started a file in MS word with each characters name, then put anything pertaining to them in it. But then I started getting mixed up b/c of the scenes that involve two or more people.

Index cards by scene? I don't know. Help!

[ALLWritety]

You will find that most will have their own way of doing this. I kinda plan it out so that it follows the story. If a scene needs to be else where i make a note. I try to put the scenes in order well at least a very large brush stroke order!!!

Find out which way works best for you and your personality. What works for me or others may not be your cup of tea!

Kevvers

[valen_sinclair]

for me i just kinda go with the flow. Whatever feels right for the character is normally what the character ends up doing.
I have read MANY how to books, and they all say this is a big no no, and in theory I have not had anything expected yet, but I guess it would help to submit stuff...HOWEVER.

My thoughts are....
you don't plan life.
why plan your characters lifes.

[dpaterso]

lake, did you notice the thread in Tech Help forum advising how to keep track of novel chapters, etc. in MS Word? If you change the font of chapter headings to style Heading 1 then switch on Document Map (found in View menu), the chapter headings are listed in a left-hand partition window, and you can select 'em to skip to the desired chapter. You could try the same thing with your character names, so you have all the character history/info in one simple, organized file.

Each to their own approach; whatever works for you is right.

-Derek

[lisamarie]

lake, did you notice the thread in Tech Help forum advising how to keep track of novel chapters, etc. in MS Word? If you change the font of chapter headings to style Heading 1 then switch on Document Map (found in View menu), the chapter headings are listed in a left-hand partition window, and you can select 'em to skip to the desired chapter. You could try the same thing with your character names, so you have all the character history/info in one simple, organized file.

Each to their own approach; whatever works for you is right.

-Derek
Thanks, I'll check this out!

[Hillgate]

You should be able to nail your characters for us on screen in only a few lines of dialogue. Also have a fixed idea of your character before you get heavily into your script. You'll find it'll write itself. Try to be organic: overplanning can lead to a loss of that ole magic. :)

[Plot Device]

I also sometimes reach a point of pre-planning overload.



I personally don't do thing by character though, I do things by scene. So I have a whole slew of MS Word documents that are numbered with arbitrary numbers that wind up sorting everything into chronological order for me:

1. At the House
2. Breakfast at the Diner
3. The Police Chief Shows Up
4. Back to the House Again
5. The Burglar Breaks In


And this is how I do my scenes in MS Word.





Sometimes I find I need to insert a new scene, so I will give it a sub-number like:

4.1 Dinner Time

And so when I file that added document into my file folder, it falls between 4. and 5.





Again, this all works out according to the chronology of my story. But if you're not thinking in a purely chronological mode, this method might not work for you.

[kathyhermy123]

I usually write out an outline, put the chapter headings in Heading 1, and fill them in! I did try the seperate-charecters thing, and the only way to make it work is to put scene x under all the charecters in scene x, ie if Sally, Anne and Sue are in Scene 3, put Scene 3 under all their names.

[zeprosnepsid]

John August suggested Google Notes one time. Or whatever they call it. It's a thing Google has that's cute for organizing.

I figure I'd throw out there what I do though. I make lots of notes in the brainstorming phase. And usually I'll write a little synopsis or vague step outline. But a lot of time I just read them all before writing and then go write without referring back to them. Then all that stuff is sitting around in my brain, but I'm not hamstrung to it. Because sometimes I find trying to work in that scene or line of dialogue I already wrote to be more of a bother than a help.

But yeah, try stuff, see what works. It usually takes a number of screenplays till you figure out what works best for you. Try notecards and if it isn't helping, try formatting a MS word document and if that isn't helping try something else... until you find a good fit. Good luck =)

[dclary]

I use Excel. It's cool, and easy.

[rihannsu]

I start out by writing out an outline, and then fleshing it out scene by scene on notecards.

Then when I'm writing, I have the skeleton of the story and I know where it's headed. Then the magic happens and I come up with all of these cool stories in the meantime.

If I didn't have that skeleton up, I'd go off into a tangent within the first ten pages. I'm just that scatterbrained.