Friday Forays In Fiction: File Fiddling

This week I continued the project I talked about in detail in last week's Friday Forays In Fiction post. I took the basic topic outline that I developed with Mobile Hopes WhizFolder during NaNo and placed it into all of my fiction WIP WhizFolders. There are thirteen of them. The first four times I recreated these topics one by one from scratch:

VITAL INFO
>Log
>Tasks
>Reference
>>Links
>>Biblio
>>Quotes
NOTES TO SELF
>INTENT
>On Topic From Archives
>Ramblings and Musings
RANDOM INSIRATION
STORYWORK
>PLOT
>TIMELINE
>THEME
>METAPHOR
>EVENTS
>IMAGES
>CHARACTERS
SCENES

Then I discovered that I could copy the entire list of topics and paste them into the next WhizFolder, preserving their nest heirarchy. So the next ten or so went very quick. Once this basic outline existed in a WIP WhizFolder, I could then use the drag and drop function to place each of the previously existing topics in this nest where they fit the best.

Most of this list seems self-explanitory to me but then I've been working with it for months. The story itself goes under the SCENE section. I work in scenes not chapters or I might have called that section CHAPTERS. In some of the files I changed SCENES to something more specific to the title of the work. In every one, though, any existing scenes were moved inside as child topics.

Everything above the topic SCENES is for storing notes, research, resources, and character sketches. "On Topic From Archives" is where I can copy/paste material I wrote about the WIP in my journal, an email or my blog. Under VITAL INFO the topics "Log" and "Tasks" are where I record and timestamp any encounters with the file that result in a significant change (Log) and keep a todo list (Tasks). During NaNo Mobile Hopes had another topic here for keeping track of Wordcount.

This kind of work on my files can be fitted into the odd moments I find in my current chaotic schedule (now there is an oxymoron if I've ever hear one!). It serves to keep my mind engaged in the story worlds. It also is making my fingers and mind itch to start writing actual scenes--narrative, dialog, description. Maybe eventually I will find a way to fit scene work into the odd moment. If not I will at least have kept the stories' life blood flowing in my heart.