“Where” is a relative term, since I write at my desk, in my bed, and on the couch. So is “write” since I never actually write anything, I type it. What a terrible title! What I actually mean is: The Tools I Use to Organize Writing Stuff on My PC. But that would have been a terrible title.

I start with OneNote which is a Microsoft program. I began using it when I was a post-graduate student getting my credential and a classmate had all his files on one screen. I had my documents in an organized file, but got tired of opening and closing the wrong thing constantly. OneNote is amazing!

Here is a screen shot of how I organize my outlining notebook for one book series, within the binder of Writing on the side. I also have work binders for each school year I teach for writing lessons and pacing, I cropped those out since they have my school’s name on them. You can see there is all the options within Word for editing and formatting, but you can drop text boxes anywhere.

 

You can see there are sections along the top, those are notebooks. You can add as many pages as you want within them. Below is the notebook for chapter organization. I moved the writing to the bottom, I love that I can move the chapters around so easily without loosing information. You can also add text anywhere.

After I have my outlining, characters, research, and chapters organized how I want them, I start writing. When I had a few chapters done, I moved it to a word document so I could send it to my editor.

I’ve heard that there is a thing called Scrivener, and I even saved the link: http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.php

Perhaps I’ll try out that site or another in the future, but for right now, it’s OneNote for me! Do you outline and write on paper, all in word docs, or with a giant cork board? Leave a comment with how you write!