Writing a book is messy.
There are so many things to keep track of, and it’s often hard to stay organized. That is why I’m going to share with you some of my favorite free tools that help keep me and my writing organized.
I’ll be going over the basics of each tool and what I like to use them for, but these will by no means be exhaustive tutorials. I recommend doing further research if you’d like to know more about any of the tools.
1. Trello
This first tool is valuable for keeping track of all the different details of your novel. I especially like to use it for outlining and keeping my plot straight.
With Trello, you can create different boards dedicated to different projects. And within those boards, you can create lists, which are composed of cards. When I’m outlining, I like to make a different list for each act of the story with the second act being split into two lists. I end up with a list for Act 1, Act 2A, Act 2B, and Act 3. You can see this in the screenshot above from the board for one of my novels, Project Gorgon.
In each list, I make cards for every scene in that act. It really helps me when I’m drafting to take a step back and get a bird’s eye view of the story so I can see the entire book at a glance. I like to name each scene so I can easily remember what that scene is about. (These names won’t actually make it into the book. They’re just for my personal reference.)
Within each card, I’m able to write a description of what the scene is about so when I click on it, all the information is ready for me there. You can also add labels to cards for more organization. One way I use these labels is to keep track of the different POVs in my story. For example, in Project Gorgon most of the scenes are told from the POV of my main character, Aria. However, there are a few scenes where my antagonist Queen Rhea is the POV character. I marked those scenes with a purple label as you can see in the picture above.
Another cool thing about Trello is that you can choose an image for the background of your board and add other images to your individual cards. These are more for aesthetics, but I like how I customize each board, and the images help keep me inspired.
One final thing you can do in Trello is make checklists within individual cards. I use these when I’m drafting my story to check off each scene in my outline as I write it.
2. Todoist
Todoist is basically a digital to-do list and I love using it to keep track of my daily tasks—both in my writing and personal life. I’m always afraid I’m going to forget to do something, so I make sure to jot it down right away in Todoist. You can set up tasks that recur every day or only certain days of the week. It’s really easy to add and delete tasks, and there are a ton of other features, but I won’t go into detail about them here.
Some other features include adding sub-tasks, grouping tasks for specific projects, and marking priority tasks.
I prefer Todoist to physical to-do lists because I can write down tasks on the go—even if I don’t have a pen and paper on me. And I type faster than I write by hand. If you’re like me, give Todoist a try!
3. Google Calendar
While I use Todoist to keep track of my day-to-day tasks, I love using Google Calendar to track what I have to do in a given month, such as when I have a blog post due or when I need to reach a certain deadline I’ve given myself. One of my favorite parts about Google Calendar is that I can color code different events in order to organize them. For example, in my calendar, I label all the tasks related to my blog in green and my personal writing in red.
4. Notes App
I use my Notes App every single day—it’s basically my brain stored digitally. But seriously, I use it to jot down just about everything. I have a note entirely dedicated to new book ideas. Sometimes I get ideas at the most random times and just need to get them out of my head so I don’t forget them. I have a note filled with names I love and want to use in a story someday. I also have a note with all my blog post concepts… You get the idea. My favorite thing about this app is that you can pin a few notes to the top of the App, so they appear as soon as you open it. The two notes I have pinned are my book ideas note and my favorite names note, so they’re easy for me to find.
Those are a few of my favorite free organization tools for writers! I hope you found some of these helpful. Are there any resources I missed?
Until next time,
Kayleigh Idea