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One file or many?

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WeaselFire

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Just curious... do you prefer to store your WIP in one long document or multiple files?
Absolutely! Beats not storing them and having to rewrite the entire work every session. :)

Seriously, does it really matter? If I choose to store them by chapter, by scene, in one file or whatever, how does that affect the way you work best? Do what works for you and forget about anyone else, other than your agent.

FWIW, I usually do chapters. I also use Dropbox so the files are available everywhere.

Jeff
 

Kimmy84

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note to self: must try Scrivener...

I use one Word doc, and insert bookmarks where each chapter starts... easy to find what I want when I want it. But I do have trouble keeping my chapter's in some kind of range as far as word counts, so I might make a liar of myself after trying Scrivener...
 

Hydrogen

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note to self: must try Scrivener...

I use one Word doc, and insert bookmarks where each chapter starts... easy to find what I want when I want it. But I do have trouble keeping my chapter's in some kind of range as far as word counts, so I might make a liar of myself after trying Scrivener...

They have a free trial. I think it's for 30 days.
 

Kimmy84

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Kewl, will do that today!
Additionally, I use Google Drive to back up all my work. Plus its available anywhere, even on my phone! So if im out and about and get struck by an idea I can just add a document to the drive and it will be here when i get home! It also helps for people reading the book. They download the file, add comments, then load it back again. I can just download the latest version here to read them all.
 

Kimmy84

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Kewl, will do that today!
Additionally, I use Google Drive to back up all my work. Plus its available anywhere, even on my phone! So if im out and about and get struck by an idea I can just add a document to the drive and it will be here when i get home! It also helps for people reading the book. They download the file, add comments, then load it back again. I can just download the latest version here to read them all.
 

Blinkk

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Additionally, I use Google Drive to back up all my work. Plus its available anywhere, even on my phone! So if im out and about and get struck by an idea I can just add a document to the drive and it will be here when i get home!

I do the same thing. I like it much better. I always have many back ups, of course. I like to keep everything in one file, though. It's just how I organize things. To each their own.
 

blacbird

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I use one Word doc, and insert bookmarks where each chapter starts... easy to find what I want when I want it. But I do have trouble keeping my chapter's in some kind of range as far as word counts, so I might make a liar of myself after trying Scrivener...

That's a curious problem. It's ridiculously easy to count words through a selected portion of an MS-Word document. Why would having things in a single big file make chapter word counts difficult to keep track of?

caw
 

TheaBlowsKisses

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I keep one main document, and then write parts/sections/chunks in others. I edit about every 10K words or so (blasphemy, I know!), and once something is edited, it goes into the main document. Then once I'm all done and all the pieces are in place, the whole shebang gets edited again.
 

Mukavetz

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I fully intended to use one file in Word 2007, but started using two when I skipped ahead to write another section. My WIP is non-fiction though, and it made the files easier to work with.

They will probably stay separate until I make quite a bit more progress, then get merged back together. I don't like the idea of writing in the middle of a document for a long period of time.

I might have to give Scrivener a try. Word works well after all the various tweaks and settings are made, but obviously isn't made to format and produce eBooks.
 

eyebee14

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I start out as one file/document. But for my edits, I break it down by chapter. It's less intimidating for me. Once I am done with an edit, I merge the chapters together again. I always have a working draft that is a complete document for reference.​
 

BradCarsten

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I have multiple files of about 2000 words each, which is about as much as I can handle at a time without completely losing my mind. Once I finish each, it feels like I have achieved something- which does wonders for motivation.

I'll number each file, so I'll start with steal_car_01. Every time I rework the file I increment that number, so I could eventually end up with steal_car_20. And all the older files are dropped in an "Old" folder
This makes it easy if I ever want to reference an older version, or reuse something I cut out.

This is also great if I want to juggle scenes. Something I've been doing often of late.

I use Libre Office, and if I ever need larger sections, I just create a master document, select all the files and I have a complete document in a few clicks. Works for me.
 

ChristinaLayton

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I prefer to put all my chapters in one single file, if that's what you mean.

I find it's a pain in the rear end to have to look through another file chapter just to look up a character's name or last name you've forgotten. All I have to do is go up a little bit, or do a search of the name, if I forgot the last name, for example, and it's right there.
 

Myrealana

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I have one rough draft file. Then I do re-writes a chapter at a time. Each chapter has its own file in Word. As I finish each one, I paste it into my clean manuscript formatted file for printing and editing.
 

furiousferret

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Each Chapter in its own file, all linked via a Master Document in Word. It just seems easier to work in measurable chunks.
 

benbenberi

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A Master Document in Word? You like to live dangerously! (It may have been fixed in recent iterations, but for a very long time the Master Document was a seductive but notoriously buggy and broken feature. Recommended safety measure - keep backups of all the files that are NOT linked. That way if the MD goes kaplooey without warning, you don't lose all your work.)
 

Becky Black

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One file for me. Though if I'm having a quick session on my netbook at lunchtime on the WIP I'll often just open a new file and start typing in that, then copy and paste it into the main file later. Just saves me a precious few minutes getting the current version of the WIP off my backup stick and onto the netbook - assuming that my previous session was on my home machine.
 

Dodici

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It depends, if the novel is very long I use to create a file for each chapter, even if it's kind of messy when I have to put them all together.
Recently I managed to use a single file with summary of the chapters so I can keep track of the actual lenght of the story, I think it's better for novellas and similar :)
 
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