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You know the saying keep things simple? Well, fuck that. My writing process is messy & complicated. But there is a system. And that system works really well for me. Everyone's brain works differently & I can't promise that my system will work for you.
But I wanted to share my writing journey with you. I know the behind the scenes intrigues writers & non-writers alike. And what I did and maybe you can too is take bits & pieces from a whole bunch of writers. I read dozens of articles & took the pieces I liked best to create my writing process then added my own spin on it.
But before we can go into my process, let's talk about what it is I'm writing. I'm 18 chapters into my epic fantasy novel. I've spent over a year working on world-building & outlining my story. It's a tale of a young elven prince who goes with his crew on an adventure to earn his place as king - battling monsters, unfriendly hybrids & the natural elements. Oh, and he has to fight a dragon. Because dragons are awesome.
I've had ideas for this book since I was a teenager & I actually started writing a whole book for it before deciding that it made more sense as a 2nd book. So, this becomes a planned trilogy.
So now, on to the process. I plan this to be the first in a series that covers how i world build, outline & write the actual book. We'll cover a step in each post. So, come down the winding yellow brick road with me, on a journey from ideas to manuscript. And hopefully, one day I can even tell the tale of how i got my manuscript published.
Where to put it all:
The very first step is deciding where you're going to be doing all this planning & writing. Here's what I tried:
Good old flashcards (get colorful ones here)
You'll find this recommended on a lot of youtube videos & articles on writing. You just dump all your ideas on flashcards. I used colorful flashcards so that things were a little more organized. I assigned a different color to the main character of that scene. If you're putting down worldbuilding ideas, you can assign a color to each aspect of worldbuilding (green for plants, red for animals, etc.). I kept it all in a closed shoebox to keep things in place. I first used my desk. All I'll say about that is, don't do that. You'll end up with a mess of cards on the floor.
I used this method for outlining a different manuscript. Back then, I was in high school so I used what was around the house. I also wasn't savvy enough to know all the different digital options out there.
It's better than a notebook because you can move ideas around & it's more visual. This method also works well for people who get ideas out better on paper.
But what I would recommend is that if you want to get your ideas on paper, start by putting all your ideas down on flashcards. Then type them into a system.
Why? Because especially if you're world-building, you are going to need a lot of flashcards as you expand on your ideas. More flashcards mean things get messy. It means it's more likely they'll get ruined or lost. And that's something you don't want to happen, those precious ideas getting lost or ruined.
You also can't edit things neatly on paper. If you change your ideas, you will need a new flashcard. You can find yourself swimming in flashcards and crossed out lines and messes of paper.
In conclusion: flashcards are a great way to get out some of your original ideas. But they're messy. You'll also want a digital system.
So which digital system to use? I'll share what I use & then some other options.
The software I use: Milanote (not sponsored)
Milanote is the only system I use for world-building, outlining & writing. I use other tools for editing & my beta readers, but that's a different post. Here's why I love it:
Milanote is very visual. It just works very well with my brain & it looks really pretty.
It's very neat & clean.
It's an all in one. You can write entire chapters with the full screen, distraction-free editor. You can create to-do lists. You can literally upload anything you need on there - you can link articles for research, pictures for inspiration, or files.
It's so organized - you can create sub-boards for sub-topics infinitely. So all your ideas about each thing are in one place. So for example, I have a board about my world. On that board, there's a board for each planet. The main planet has boards for each continent. Each continent has boards for each country in it etc.
You'll see exactly how I use it as I showcase my journey, but that's a glimpse of why I love it. Of course, this is what I personally love the best & recommend but I wanted to go over one last option.
I'm going to be upfront with you here: I only ever used the free trial of campfire pro. I was already using Milanote at the time,. but I was curious if I would use it for a different manuscript. I chose to stick with Milanote but I would say this is my #2 pick. Here's why:
The good:
Everything is already put into categories for you, along with several basic templates, including timelines. (there are other more detailed templates but I literally deleted my old work trying to load it.)
You can create & reuse your own templates.
It's very pretty & distraction-free, with several backgrounds to choose from.
The not so great:
The software still has some kinks. It didn't save my work properly & I had to rewrite everything.
This is only for planning. You can not write your actual story here.
You can't copy & paste things on here, which means if you initially wrote things somewhere else you'll need to rewrite it. It also means you can't save links here.
It's just not as neat as Milanote. I found it harder to organize here.
So, there's that. We're at the start of my journey to writing this story, but there are miles to go. I hope we can meet again for my next installment. In the meantime:
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