Productivity and Organization

Greetings, Fearless Readers. I have yet to come to the end of Darklight. I really thought I'd be done before this. I was derailed by insomnia last week, which left me a stumbling, drooling automaton whose desire to write was el zilcho. I did do some outlining for my NaNo, though. The end of the year is coming, and November! I did a shit job of keeping a journal or track of my writing output this year, and I think my productivity suffered. I think it always suffers when I'm not organized. As we head toward the new year (the last quarter of this one will be done before you know it!) I'm all caught up in getting organized.

I don't think anything is more basic organization for a writer than an outline. The first outline I ever did was NaNo '09 and it was very fast and loose - maybe a page and a half of single line paragraphs with plot points. (I entitled it: What I know - Just like Oprah!) I wanted to write write write, with no looking at the wall and contemplating my greatness, just production of words. I wanted to know where I was going, or what I was aiming for that day. It helped a lot. I wish like hell I had done it with Darklight. I would up writing myself into wandering pathways that don't want to connect. I am now doing the outline with the thing almost done, and foreseeing lots of rewrites. The NaNo novel I plan on doing is currently a very detailed outline, lots of paragraphs and structure - I've even got it figured out by "books" or parts, - you know: Book I, Book II, very old school novel structure.

My other thing is with calendars. I didn't have one to keep track of my writing output this year - a mistake. I've kept one for the last five years, but not this year. A testament to how broke I've been! I had one for my "journal" - not a Moleskine like usual, but one of those Border's specials, a daily calendar sandwiched between two plastic flaps with a girly-Ed Hardy-esque pattern on it. I've already picked one out for next year, dammit. It has a calendar page for each day AND a section that has the whole month on one page so I can list word count. I'm also using the Google Calendar - I found it on the Google Docs page. I'm scheduling writing time, blogging time, editing time. I hope being more organized will affect my productivity, and get me in the groove for NaNo!

How about you? Do you organize your writing time? Do your organize your goals? Do you organize your plots? Do you know what you're doing for NaNo? Tell me in the comments. I'm dying to know.