Organizing Unfinished Manuscripts

Before I leave the legal area, I am in the midst of gathering together a post with links to sites that have a good roundup of definitions and guidelines to keep your blog out of legal scrutiny.  That will be for the next post.

For me organizing is an acquired skill.  I used to toss half finished, some rejected manuscripts at the bottom of my desk drawer.  The only time they were retrieved was when I wanted to lift a particular passage to insert into a new piece. 

While spending hours sifting through my rejections, I thought of a great way to store material. 

The ole file folder in a file cabinet is ideal.  But if you don’t want to hassle with the effort or expense, you could get a file box, or any similar sized box.  Put each manuscript in a freezer quart size baggie.   On the freezer baggie there is a place to identify the work and the date.  

If you really want to save yourself time later, you can cut a CD of the work and place it in the baggie too.  This way, if you decide you would like to lift a whole scene from a previous work, you stick in the CD, cut and paste and modify.  Just dump the baggie into the box.  Voila.  No filing.  And you can easily retrieve old work.  Saves time and energy, both of which we all seem to be short of these days.

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