Starting Fresh

One thing I've learned about being a writer is that you're never working on just one book. You've got one book you're doing marketing for because it's about to be released (or just has been), one book you're revising and annoying your editor about, and one book in the pre-planning stages. This is the sort of thing that many people would have no trouble juggling.

I am not one of those people. I am one of those people who won't eat something if it touched one of the other foods on her plate. I am particular. If I'm honest, I am work, okay? On the plus side, organizing things really makes me happy, so the easiest way for me to control stress is often with a trip to an office supply store (in addition to being work, I'm sort of weird. Just go with it. It'll be easier for both of us). If I buy some page dividers, I manage to satisfy my craving for putting things into neatly-marked piles and keep my books clearly separated at the same time.

If you've read my other blog posts, you might be thinking, 'oh, God, she's about to go on about the crap she bought at OfficeMax again.'

And yes. Yes, I am. But at the end I'm gonna include a picture of something adorable and fluffy for all of you lovely people who hang around even though you could give a crap about this stuff.

So a while back I got these binders that are like the Army-surplus, ninja throwing stars of binders. There are pockets and places for folders and D rings and a place for pens and they're just...they're really cool, guys. And these binders have turned out to be amazingly useful for keeping all of my sloppy thoughts organized into neat little pockets. 

So the green binder is going to be for my newest book, which is in the outlining stages. 

See that little case near the rings? That's for pens, man!

I've got my little folder dealies so that whenever I make a random note on a post-it I have some place to put it where it won't get lost. In this case, they're grouped by either book/character, depending on if it's plot or psychology related. And I've just added the first few pages of my character bible for this book. Namely, the breakdown of the main pairing's goals, motivations, conflicts, backstories, physical descriptions, family histories, romantic histories, arcs and so on.

So there's the first page of my character bible for new Main Character 1 (it's three pages long all together). It's even got a few pictures of a dude I found on the internet who looked kind of like the picture I had in my head so I'd be able to start picturing mannerisms and facial expressions and the like. 

I've got another first page for Main Character 2. 

My goal for today was to get these two guys' characters fully outlined. I didn't come up with all of this stuff in one day, I promise--I'm not a magical unicorn, and that would be crazy talk. But it's all been swimming around in my head and laid out on a metric ton of post-its, and it was a hot mess, let me tell you. So getting it all consolidated and typed up neatly was my job for today, and I'm pleased to say that I am tired but successful. 

So in summary: binders are cool. Especially the ones that are full of pockets and awesome. There are all sorts of cool things at office supply stores.

Hey, do you guys remember Trapper Keepers? Is that still a thing? I hope so, because now I sort of want a new Trapper Keeper. 

Oh, and here's your fluffy, adorable animal:

I'm gonna be honest. I have no idea what this thing is. It's maybe possessed. But its ears are cute, right?