Well, on my first book, I didn’t really do much organizing at all. I just started writing and by the end of it, I definitely had areas to cut. I went back in and created an outline detailing characters and events so I could keep track of everything. Now that I’ve managed to land an agent, she had a series of changes she wanted to see in the manuscript so I’ve just now gone through and added more rather than taken away. At first, my book was 90,000 words then it crept to 95,000 and now with the agent’s changes, it’s 115,000.
And I’m sure that won’t be the end of it. If I’m lucky enough to get a publisher interested, I’m sure some scenes will have to go and others will have to be expanded. I’m preparing myself for that.
So, on to my next book–I’ve completely outlined this one. I know what will happen from chapter one to chapter twenty. And I think it will make for much easier writing. I included such things as character traits as well as events in the outline. But, who knows, as I write more, I will probably have to come up with a better way to keep it all organized!