In fact, whenever I do anything - write, make brownies, get dressed - I leave a mess. It has even been said that had I been a band I would have been called "...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Discarded Clothing."
Same with research material. A file here, a clipping there, a picture file on an external hard drive I rarely use.
It's a mess.*So this weekend I did a HUGE fall cleaning. After looking around at the digital notebooks etc. I had been recommended, I didn't really feel wowed by any of them. So I decided to keep it simple - I designed about 10 different templates in my ordinary word processor, using my favorite character sheets, my favorite plotting chart etc. Then I stuck 'em together in one file and suddenly I had a great world building book, tailored to my needs. I suppose you could keep them as separate files in a specific folder, too - depends on how much info you want to cram into it, I suppose.
I spent quite some time copying the info I had spread all over the place, but it was well worth it. Finally I have all the information I need in one place. And it looks pretty too! I feel a lot more inspired just browsing my new WIP book.
All in all it took maybe three hours, including some plot adjustments I made. And I've been putting this off for months! The best thing is, I can use the template for my next WIP. It can even be tailored to the feel of that particular WIP by simply changing fonts.
So tell me, how do you store info for your writing projects?
*Not my desk; image borrowed from sparkle glowplug
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