Organized

Eight years ago, with the help of my tech-savvy stepdad, my grandmother bought me a Dell Inspiron 1520 with all the bells and whistles. It was the Cadillac of affordable laptops, which is why it lasted me so long. I can still use it, but the thing is so beat up now. The memory is so full I don't have room for Spotify. The Z and B keys don't lock into place, so I can't name characters things that start with those two letters unless I want to stop each time I type in a character and force down the key. The hinges were busted so the lid wobbled.

Anyway, I was trying to ear enough credit card points to get a new computer for free. It took me a decade to earn half the points I need, so, you know, I was getting there. Then I got a check for some overpaid stuff and it was just enough to go to Best Buy in Hollywood and then home to research and then to Best Buy in Burbank where I finally committed to an HP Envy.

So, new computer. I spent a day transferring everything and loading all the software, like you do. In the process, I decided to take the opportunity to organize my documents folders.

When I first started writing screenplays it was sort of chaos - a file called "My Scripts" where I threw every draft. But sometimes drafts would end up in the Movie Magic folder instead. And sometimes I'd change up the method I used for identifying titles. I had started to organize a little better with the last script, but I'd never really cleaned it up completely

So with this transfer of things to my brand new shiny toy, I put it all on my external hard drive and then moved everything over one bit at a time so I could put it right. Now everything that wasn't organized is finally in place.

I have a folder for screenplays, and there's nothing in it but other folders. I have a folder for abandoned projects, a file for story ideas, a file for development stuff like cute lines of dialogue I heard someone say or an article I might want to think about using for inspiration. Then each script has its own file. Within each file is everything I used to develop the project, like a character sketch or an outline, or the other outline, or the final outline (I outline a lot). Then I have each draft of the script, always titled Name Of Project1, NameOfProject2, etc. Whatever is the last number is the most recent draft. I've never really needed to go back more than one version for any reason, but I keep all the drafts just in case.

I like being organized. I like being able to find things when I need them. So now I have a neatly organized desk and a neatly organized computer. Next up, I tackle the crap on Beefcake's desk behind me and all that random stuff on the floor that I don't want to look at.

How do you organize your stuff?