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Get Organized: What Your Book Needs

110315-OrganizeForYourBookWhen people talk about book organization, you usually hear things like “front and back matter”, table of contents, foreword, about the author, etc. But have you thought about how you actually organize your writing?

Something that one of the experts on the Brew Your Book Telesummit, Jeanne Demers, said really stuck with me in our interview…

Jeanne shared that her biggest obstacle to overcome in the writing wasn’t how to put the book together but how to organize the pieces of the writing AS she was writing. After the recording was over, I thanked her for her candor and honesty around this – and she promptly became embarrassed about being “that author who didn’t know how to organize!”

But let’s think about this…

Where are we TAUGHT how to organize our thoughts?

Were you taught how to organize your thoughts and ideas? Here's how to do it for your #book! Click To Tweet

The other place where I saw this idea of needing to be taught a process for something that people THINK should be just known is Marie Kondo’s book on tidying. Once she points out that being tidy isn’t something we’re magically born knowing how to do (or figure out) it was a huge relief.
So let’s talk about organizing your book! This is a big, meaty topic so I’ll be covering it in a multi-part article. Today, let’s just focus on what “things” are you going to need to organize.

Next week, I’ll be diving deep into the HOWS of organizing for your book – now that you know what you’ll be organizing!

1. Ideas

You’re going to have ideas that you know you want to include but you’re not ready to write about NOW. If you think you’ll just magically remember them, think again!

110315-OrganizeForYourBook22. Research

Books ALWAYS have research. Period. It’s more than just reading a bunch of books in your genre – you need to know what you got from what source. (Even in you aren’t planning on putting in quotes!)

3. Notes

This is more expansive than an idea but not developed into a draft yet. Depending on where you are when you have time to make notes, you might need different capture and organizing systems!

The five things you need to organize when #writing your #book. #amwriting Click To Tweet

4. Drafts

Some books you might write start to finish, others you’ll write a piece at a time. Still others you’ll do re-writes as you’re going along (as opposed to a complete draft and THEN a re-write). It’s easy to get overwhelmed with where you’re at in the writing process.

5. “Other” materials

These can be interviews, pictures, illustrations, supporting documents that don’t fit neatly into one of the other 4 categories.

So here’s your homework for this week:

Do you want/need a virtual system, physical system, or combination thereof?

Kim Galloway
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