When I started writing I was totally unorganised. By my second novel I was merely disorganised and now I mainly reorganise or keep track of the details as I go along…
It seems, reading the other blogs that many writers start out the same way, as full blown pantsers: with a burning desire to get that story down on paper, they rush off and hit the keyboard with no planning. For my first novel, I just rushed off and wrote the story. It sounds like a great idea, but I spent a ton of wasted hours trying to remember things like whether Tom (or whoever) had blue eyes, his address, how the characters met and other small details which took hours to locate in the story.
Since my first attempt, I’ve learnt a lot. Now I am a hybrid – part pantster and part plotser/planner. I start with a basic outline of chapters and sequence, but so far no story has stuck with the plan – my characters normally surprise me by going off in directions I never expected – but I love that about writing. I also start an excel file when I start the book and as my characters interact or grow, I add all the details to their character sheets – I open a separate tab for each character. It seemed tedious at first to go and jot down the receptionists eye colour but it’s saved me loads of time in the long run.