Man, Ben. You're the spiderman of poetry organization. Maybe Racoon-Man? I don't know. I see a pretty strong potential origin story in your illegal butt surgery piece if you rework some things. Seriously though, you're a legend. In an alternate universe where organization and poetry rule, you'd be its heavy-handed, well-intentioned dictator. And you know what, I'm here for it.
Perhaps nobody else had this issue, and I've searched to troubleshoot all to no avail...I can't get your comments to appear when I hover over the text bubbles. I've tried in both Chrome and Safari. Any suggestions?
What a fantastic lesson! I've added a few of your features to my own Google Sheets (which I also agonized over) and it's now even more helpful. Thanks for all the ideas!
This got me thinking that maybe I should use Google Docs to link to a file like this. I currently use Scrivener for writing, and I love it because it does keep me organized, but now I wish I could somehow link it to an Google Sheets file.
I guess my question is...are most people using Google Docs or some sort of cloud based tool? And is there a way to link Scrivener to a Google Sheet?
I use Google Sheets/Docs and then once a week (or so) I download the most important docs onto the hard drive of my computer as a backup. I don't trust having my tracker, my novel manuscript or my final stories only on a machine or only on the cloud. I need both for peace of mind! I don't use Scrivner, so I'm no use to you on that front. :-)
I love this, thank you! I am actually a pretty organized person, but new enough to writing and submitting not to have created my own system yet. So, thanks for saving me that time!
This is so helpful! I currently am using folders on my computer but have been meaning to make a backup on google. Having everything in a spreadsheet instead of spread across folders seems much more efficient.
Thank you for giving me more time to write. What a tremendous time saver. I usually have “submit Fridays” and will load up the organizer with finished pieces. I do hope the construction is over. I feel your pain - last summer our neighbors were renovating. The noise drove me insane.
Really useful spreadsheet, thank you. I was struggling to remember why I use Airtable instead of Sheets and i think it’s because you can only set up drop-down lists on the web version of Sheets, not on the iPad or iPhone versions. As I only work on an iPad, I find Airtable is a good and free option, with the only major limitation that you can’t easily print out.
I'm happy to hear it. On friday there will be a lesson about that. My friend Shannon is going to do it because she's come up with (IMHO) the coolest spreadsheet tracking system ever
This is cool, Ben, though I think it may be a little complicated for your average submitter. I have a very stripped down "Submission Database" (in Excel, though could easily be a Google spreadsheet) that I'm happy to share with folks. It took years to get it in a sensible place... and it still manages to have columns that are not really used for the thing they are supposed to be intended for.
Ah yeah, I don't consider this a submissions related doc necessarily. Just the submit and concealed links make it that way. I use it for nonfiction, blogging, medium, etc. For me it is just a writing organizer with a few additional columns to help with submitting.
hahaha it's the bane of my existence. struggled for years with it. hate. it. so. much. but after losing so much work because of my disorganized BS, I finally worked out a way — though probably major overkill for organized people
I mentioned this before, I created an Excel doc that I use and am contanstly tweaking. I've got one spreadsheet for who I've submitted to, the date, the date when the story was rejected or accepted, if they use Submittable or not and if they charge a fee or not. (I am at the point where I'll only submit to places who use Submittable) and any random notes (mainly how long to expect to hear back)
Tne next sheet in the doc is a list of stories that I've submitted and how many times I've submitted and how many times said pieces are rejected. (Right now once I've hit the 20 submissions, I stop submitting a story)
The third sheet is the same list of stories sorted by genre and word count.
It seems like a lot to keep up with but so far it's what's working for me.
I'll have to take a look, but even the word spreadsheet is intimidating enough to make me say 'well, I'm just disorganized, but I do manage to keep track of most things.....'. But then again there was a time when I had no idea how to cut and paste.
I LOVE this in depth tour, thank you. I also use spreadsheets very similarly, for individual pieces but also for book/length projects (like for my essay collection).
One of the things I don’t see here that I have in mine is tracking who I share it with while I work on it (workshop colleagues, mentors, editors) with dates. I work super collaboratively and I was going crazy trying to track who gave me feedback on what.
I also link to a Google drive folder instead of an individual document because I always end up with lots of versions of an essay (including separate copies I send people for feedback), so instead my spreadsheet sends me to the master folder for that piece, which contains different documents labeled appropriately so I know what they are.
Ahh that's a great addition! I don't collaborate too often but I think it's important. When I have more time I absolutely will. And yeah, whenever I have new docs I add a column or add dirty drafts all into one doc. But I like the idea of a drafts folder. I may add that to mine.
hahahah yup. I am always amazed when I've gone back through old messy files as I've reorganized into this method and finding fully formed pieces where I'm like, "Oh hey, I really liked this one!" (Though more often than not it's like, oh good god, what was I thinking?"
Man, Ben. You're the spiderman of poetry organization. Maybe Racoon-Man? I don't know. I see a pretty strong potential origin story in your illegal butt surgery piece if you rework some things. Seriously though, you're a legend. In an alternate universe where organization and poetry rule, you'd be its heavy-handed, well-intentioned dictator. And you know what, I'm here for it.
Perhaps nobody else had this issue, and I've searched to troubleshoot all to no avail...I can't get your comments to appear when I hover over the text bubbles. I've tried in both Chrome and Safari. Any suggestions?
What a fantastic lesson! I've added a few of your features to my own Google Sheets (which I also agonized over) and it's now even more helpful. Thanks for all the ideas!
This got me thinking that maybe I should use Google Docs to link to a file like this. I currently use Scrivener for writing, and I love it because it does keep me organized, but now I wish I could somehow link it to an Google Sheets file.
I guess my question is...are most people using Google Docs or some sort of cloud based tool? And is there a way to link Scrivener to a Google Sheet?
I use Google Sheets/Docs and then once a week (or so) I download the most important docs onto the hard drive of my computer as a backup. I don't trust having my tracker, my novel manuscript or my final stories only on a machine or only on the cloud. I need both for peace of mind! I don't use Scrivner, so I'm no use to you on that front. :-)
I love this, thank you! I am actually a pretty organized person, but new enough to writing and submitting not to have created my own system yet. So, thanks for saving me that time!
This is so helpful! I currently am using folders on my computer but have been meaning to make a backup on google. Having everything in a spreadsheet instead of spread across folders seems much more efficient.
I've fairly new to the submitting-to-lit-magazine game and wow, this spreadsheet is going to save me a lot of time. THANK YOU!
Thank you for giving me more time to write. What a tremendous time saver. I usually have “submit Fridays” and will load up the organizer with finished pieces. I do hope the construction is over. I feel your pain - last summer our neighbors were renovating. The noise drove me insane.
Really useful spreadsheet, thank you. I was struggling to remember why I use Airtable instead of Sheets and i think it’s because you can only set up drop-down lists on the web version of Sheets, not on the iPad or iPhone versions. As I only work on an iPad, I find Airtable is a good and free option, with the only major limitation that you can’t easily print out.
This was so helpful. I have a spreadsheet but yours is so much more efficient, I'm taking it!! Thank you so much
Yay! I'm so happy to hear it. I put a lot of thought into it over a looong time. Haha probably too much
For someone who jumps around projects often, I love this idea. I only ever had a submission spreadsheet. Thank you for sharing!
I'm happy to hear it. On friday there will be a lesson about that. My friend Shannon is going to do it because she's come up with (IMHO) the coolest spreadsheet tracking system ever
This is cool, Ben, though I think it may be a little complicated for your average submitter. I have a very stripped down "Submission Database" (in Excel, though could easily be a Google spreadsheet) that I'm happy to share with folks. It took years to get it in a sensible place... and it still manages to have columns that are not really used for the thing they are supposed to be intended for.
Ah yeah, I don't consider this a submissions related doc necessarily. Just the submit and concealed links make it that way. I use it for nonfiction, blogging, medium, etc. For me it is just a writing organizer with a few additional columns to help with submitting.
What you're doing is a really good idea, no question. Organization is definitely a writer struggle.
hahaha it's the bane of my existence. struggled for years with it. hate. it. so. much. but after losing so much work because of my disorganized BS, I finally worked out a way — though probably major overkill for organized people
I mentioned this before, I created an Excel doc that I use and am contanstly tweaking. I've got one spreadsheet for who I've submitted to, the date, the date when the story was rejected or accepted, if they use Submittable or not and if they charge a fee or not. (I am at the point where I'll only submit to places who use Submittable) and any random notes (mainly how long to expect to hear back)
Tne next sheet in the doc is a list of stories that I've submitted and how many times I've submitted and how many times said pieces are rejected. (Right now once I've hit the 20 submissions, I stop submitting a story)
The third sheet is the same list of stories sorted by genre and word count.
It seems like a lot to keep up with but so far it's what's working for me.
It's so worth it. On Friday there will be a similar lesson on tracking submissions via spreadsheet. I'll be curious what you think of it.
I'll have to take a look, but even the word spreadsheet is intimidating enough to make me say 'well, I'm just disorganized, but I do manage to keep track of most things.....'. But then again there was a time when I had no idea how to cut and paste.
I LOVE this in depth tour, thank you. I also use spreadsheets very similarly, for individual pieces but also for book/length projects (like for my essay collection).
One of the things I don’t see here that I have in mine is tracking who I share it with while I work on it (workshop colleagues, mentors, editors) with dates. I work super collaboratively and I was going crazy trying to track who gave me feedback on what.
I also link to a Google drive folder instead of an individual document because I always end up with lots of versions of an essay (including separate copies I send people for feedback), so instead my spreadsheet sends me to the master folder for that piece, which contains different documents labeled appropriately so I know what they are.
Ahh that's a great addition! I don't collaborate too often but I think it's important. When I have more time I absolutely will. And yeah, whenever I have new docs I add a column or add dirty drafts all into one doc. But I like the idea of a drafts folder. I may add that to mine.
hahahah yup. I am always amazed when I've gone back through old messy files as I've reorganized into this method and finding fully formed pieces where I'm like, "Oh hey, I really liked this one!" (Though more often than not it's like, oh good god, what was I thinking?"