by Kenneth Andrews

Created on: February 26, 2007   Last Updated: November 07, 2009

Good organisation is supposed to be one of the many essentials for success in life. Post-It notes, different colour highlighters, card dividers in your ring binders, actually having a stapler in your drawer, these are the hallmarks of an organised person in the office. But what are the best ways to organise written work in your computer?

It probably isn't a problem for everyone. People use computers for different things, and for many their 'written work' is going to be their CV and the odd letter that they'll probably never need again anyway. But for a writer? A different kettle of gerbils all together. For example, I've owned my current computer for just over four years, and I copied across all the written material from the laptop I owned for four years before that.

Eight years of stories, poems, scripts, translations, reviews, ad copy, articles, essays, web sites, novel proposals, it all mounts up to a huge number of files.

The way I've tackled the organisation of this material probably says more about me than it says about the BEST way to organise written work, but here goes in any case.

First, absolutely everything is saved under the 'My Documents' folder. There seem to be links to that folder all over my computer (currently running the much maligned Windows Vista), so it makes sense to use it.

Documents that I'm actively working on are stored in the root folder 'My Documents'. If they're particularly urgent, I also make a shortcut and stick them on the desktop.

After that, I have a few different folders in which everything else more or less fits:

Fan Fiction: My guilty secret. Fiction based on certain popular science-fiction programmes. I don't do much of this any more, but it's all tucked away safely in here. I tend to save two versions of each story once it's completed - one in a standard book-style layout and one for potential blog posting (ie, without indented paragraphs and double spacing).

Fiction: In here go all the unfinished short stories and novel ideas - all saved by title. There's an embarrassing amount of stuff in here, but it does mean that if I'm ever at a loose end, I know exactly where I can go to find something to work on. I would call it 'work in progress' but that would demotivate me. Seriously, there's tonnes in there.

Fiction - finished: This is where all the short stories and novel attempts go once they're complete to the point where they can be submitted. There's not as much stuff in there as in the 'work in progress' folder, but

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