I religiously keep character sheets up to date. Another frequent entry is a list of time-zones, and travel times between them, so that I can keep track of plausible times of day and night as my characters travel all over the world.Ĭharacters. A common type of note is a timeline of some kind, and I also keep my own question-and-answer documents about plot points, to refer back to. Any and all work-in-progress notes I might need. The book’s back matter usually an Afterword, and an Acknowledgements section. In either case, there’ll potentially also be a Prologue and Epilogue there too.īack Matter. For my thriller novels, I’m fond of using Parts too, so that’ll sometimes be the top-level organisational structure within the Manuscript folder. I write in scenes - one per sheet - and assemble chapters later, based on rhythm and feel. It’ll be further subdivided into Chapter folders, but only once the first draft is complete. This is where the action happens, and is the only group which will have a word target. Author bio, dedication, title page, copyright, half-title, and the jacket blurb which I insert at the front of ebook versions, since it’s easier to access there. The book’s front matter goes here, unsurprisingly. It’s useful to me, and it’s also a future perk for members of my site.įront Matter. This isn’t my master list of ideas or plans, but rather an actual journal that accompanies the work and gives behind-the-scenes insight into the creative process. I keep diary entries about significant thoughts or realisations regarding the project. This makes the editing process much easier, since I can see what’s still to be done, all in one place. This is actually a Ulysses filter, which matches sheets which satisfy any of the following criteria: have the “todo” keyword contain the text “XXX” (which I use as a fill-me-in-later placeholder) or containing any kind of annotation. I’ve developed a filing system I use within a given fiction project, which involves a series of groups at the root of the project: Miscellaneous shorter works of fiction (which are often writing exercises).They’re broadly split into five categories: Beyond that, I keep everything in top-level groups or projects. it doesn’t fall into any larger project), it’ll be in the Inbox. I don’t file projects by state or progress, except that if I’m currently working on something and it’s a standalone piece (i.e. I use an iPad Pro full-time, so I’m always talking about the iOS version of each app.įor most of 2017, though, I’ve done all my writing in Ulysses. I previously used Editorial for blog articles and my weekly newsletter for site members, and Scrivener for long-form fiction, such as my novels. I’m a fairly recent convert to Ulysses - eight months ago - but I’ve moved over to it fully. Matt Gemmell is a writer and author living in Edinburgh, Scotland.
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