Fiction Writing Tips: How to Organize Your Writing Practice

Feel overwhelmed when you try to make time to write? Does your to-do list already overflow daily?

The trick is to make writing easier by getting better organized.

photo credit: Pexels

Today, I’m sharing an easy, free technique that will get you better organized. By spending a few minutes once a week, you’ll gain much more time for writing fiction.

Most creatives struggle with organization. There’s a lot of great information out there these days on the right brain and its importance in our creativity.

It’s hard when you depend on that right brain though, to do things it’s not meant to do. Organizing, planning, and scheduling tasks are left-brain activities. Rather than getting frustrated and angry with yourself, because you’re not naturally well organized, try this.

First, take a big, deep breath. Remind yourself of at least 10 things you’re great at. Or at the very least, stop beating yourself up for missed appointments, notes, or a desk that looks like a bomb has recently gone off. (Remember, cluttered desks can be a sign of genius.)

Try this:

Next, I’m going to ask you to set aside 10 minutes. During that time, make a list of every writing-related task you can think of that needs tending to. Your list might look like this:

1. Research deep-water sea creatures
2. Finish outline for a novel
3. Create character bible
4. Contact credit card about the weird charge (book ad?)
5. Write chapter three of novel
6. Start a short story for the anthology

When you have a limited amount of time to write your novel, it means things need to be as streamlined and easy to complete as possible. That’s where my weekly planning system comes into place.

Imagine this: instead of frantically searching through your materials, emptying notebooks, and cursing yourself for being scatterbrained, you calmly pick up your Weekly Goal Sheet and decide which writing task or tasks you can take on in the 10 minutes you have before the kids wake up.

The Weekly Goal Sheet is something that I’ve been using for years as a novelist. Writing thriller books takes a lot of focus and attention to detail. Without having my list, I’d be swimming upstream a lot of the time.

Here’s what this free tool will help you with: getting a handle on the “must do’s” in your fiction writing practice, helping you prioritize the myriad of tasks that you have to tackle, and streamlining your process, making it so simple you won’t procrastinate. Sound good?

The Nuts and Bolts

Here’s how you can benefit from the Weekly Goal Sheet.

Start with your highest priority tasks (these are listed in the first and largest column). Here, you’ll list everything that you’d like to accomplish this week. Let’s use the list above as an example. On your list you had:

1. Research deep-water sea creatures
2. Finish outline for the novel
3. Create character bible
4. Contact credit card about the weird charge (book ad?)
5. Write chapter three of novel
6. Start a short story for the anthology

Which of these is top priority?

For me it would be the last two things on the list: writing a chapter of your current novel and starting a short story. Production is where it’s at! It’s hard to be an author and share your work with others if you don’t, ahem, have anything written.

So, under the Highest Priority Tasks, I’d list those two items. Another might be #4 above: “Contact credit card about the weird charge (book ad?)” because being on top of all your financial stuff is important.

Next on the goal sheet is a section that I labeled, “It would be awesome to complete these tasks”. Again, pulling from our list above, I’d add maybe #2 and/or #1.

Research is important in your fiction writing as is an outline (or not as the case may be). My book for writers, The 15-Minute Novelist: How to Write Your First Novel in Just 15 Minutes a Day, covers things like outlines, breaking writing rules, and research more in-depth.

The last section of the Weekly Goal Sheet is titled, “I don’t want to forget about:” and here I’d list the creation of the character bible. That’s an important task, but it doesn’t rank as highly as writing new work or dealing with a sketchy credit card charge.

Free Fiction Writing Gift for You

So, ready to plunge in and get better organized right away?

If you’d like, get in touch and ask for my Weekly Goal Planning sheet. I think you’ll find it useful.

Joy Choquette loves being outside, sipping hot beverages, and reading great books. . . sometimes all at the same time. She’s been writing professionally for the past 15 years and is the author of 10 atmospheric suspense novels.

She helps frustrated, overwhelmed, time-starved writers to find simple, easy-to-manage systems that support their writing practices. Learn more on her website for writers.