How do I stay organised when developing a story

Staying organised can be pretty tough as a writer and while I have shown how I organise my files in the past a lot has changed since I moved away from google docs and drive when it comes to my writing. 

I now organise all my finished/ published books on my computer hard drive as well as future book plans on the notes on my phone but while I am still writing my book there can be a lot of files to sort though from my book bible, character development, research and more. 

I now use a writing app called scrivener; I have folders for each of my books. 

Within each of the folders I have research for my books in the research tab. 

I also have each chapter in its own document so that I can easily edit and switch between the different chapters without endless scrolling. 

I also have a document for book parts I have written and don’t know where the parts fit in as well as a document for my plan which also has all my information on my characters. 

tips, tricks and tools that help keep your writing career organised

 

Whether you write for pleasure, part time or full time it can be hard to keep all your work organised. 

- Having a place dedicated to your writing is beneficial because you can keep all your supplies in one place. 

- having your documents in files will be really helpful because then you can just click into the file you want and have all the information you need. Each writing project has a file with everything you need as well as files for ideas, writing, stand down, editing and published etc.

- have a writing routine that works for you

How to write a query letter

 Writing a query letter is always something I have struggled with. I find it so hard to put my books into words that will attract agents, but I think I finally have it down-packed, and I want to share it with you today. 

The elements of a query letter is something I always never understood until I did my research. 

You should Identify where your book would fit into the publishing industry. Mention the genre, sub-category, word count, title, and subtitle. Providing this information allows the agent/editor to quickly grasp what the manuscript is about, especially where the title fits in the big picture.

You can also include examples of best-selling or award-winning published books in that genre or category, but make sure not to sound overly pushy.

Next, include a hook, which is the meat of the query. Approximately 100 to 250 words will be sufficient and then a short synopsis of your book. Then add a brief author's bio. You also want to include any other books you have published and how you published them and close off with a greatful statement 

I like to use this template to help me structure my query letters and remember to always proof read and edit your letter you want to sound as professional as possible. 

My podcast

 

Last year I started a writing podcast. Since then, I have uploaded nine episodes and had 31 total plays. My podcast is called Phoebe M.C., and I have so many plans for it for 2023. 

how to use social media to help promote your books

 

Promoting books can be challenging, but we live in a world where social media can be really a valuable tool to promote your books. 

Using social media for your writing can be difficult but not impossible. I have all my writing social media separate from my main social media. I run a blog, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook page and podcast all to do about writing. 

It can be hard to juggle it all but find what social media will work best for you and go with it, I don’t use tiktok for my writing but I could if I really wanted too. 

The key is be consistent and don’t always promote your work do it sparking and upload content about writing in general and then share your work every now and then. This is the process I have found to work for me the most. 

I post every second day on my Instagram and Facebook page, once a week on my podcast, twice a day on my Twitter as I can. This might be too much for you but what ever schedule you decide make sure you stick to it. 

Do your research on keywords and use them effortlessly so that you can get the most views possible on your work. Don’t use hashtags with a lot of posts but don’t use ones with only a couple because you won’t get seen that way look for the middle ground. 

My last tip is to have fun with it. 

What are your tips for social media promoting and writing? Let me know in the comments. 

Writing update July 2022

 

Hi everyone, it’s been a while since I’ve done a writing update, so I thought I would jump on and write away update on how my writing is going because a lot has happened since my last one.

Where to start is going to be the tricky bit. I think I’m going to start with project hybrid. I have almost finished editing the book. There are only five more days of editing, and then the read-through I have sent it away to 2 different agents, which marks 4 agents in total the book has been sent to The first two declined the book because it wasn’t what they were looking for at the moment but I’m waiting to hear back from the two newest agents.

project endometriosis is being rewritten because a lot has changed with research and also my personal life so I’ve decided to completely re-write the book with the original draft being the basis of the structure  

other than that I’m only working on one other book and that is project gang and I’m really excited ants definitely a different one from my normal writing style but I’m really enjoying writing it I’m doing it for nanowrimo July 2022 and I’m already 3000 words into the first manuscript.

How have you guys booked been going let me know in the comments I am excited for you guys to check in and let me know.

Interview with a book character

Today I decided to give you an inside look at one of my WIP characters with an interview. 

This character is from my WIP titled project hideaway

 1. What is your name?

My name is Anastasia, but I go by Anna.

2. How old are you?

I am twenty human years old but I am really 60.

3. Where were you born?

I was born in a small village called crescent which was wiped out when I was eight years old. 

4. What did your father and mother do for a living?

My father was a slaughterman for one of the local farmers and my mother was a stay at home mum. 

5. Were you well off? Middle class? Impoverished?

We were neither impoverished nor middle class; we did okay for ourselves but couldn’t say we lived any sort of luxurious life. 

6. Do you have siblings? If so, what are their names and ages?

I had an older sister named Camilla who would passed away from illness when she was fifteen. 

7. Where do you fall in the birth order? The oldest, youngest? 

I am the youngest. 

8. Which one of you is your mother’s favourite? 

Camilla was my mother's favourite. 

9. Why?

She was always the golden child and the most intelligent if only she could see me now. 

10. How did you feel about that?

I wasn’t too happy about it, I went out of my way to try and impress my mother but it never worked which was my downfall. 

11. When you were a child, what was one thing you could always be sure of?

When I was younger I could always be sure that I could get away with anything I wanted because no one paid attention to me; not my family or the town. 

12. What was something you were never sure of?

I was never sure if I would ever be noticed by someone until I was ten years old when I was noticed by Jacob. 

13. Where did you grow up? Is this a place you’d go back to now? Or avoid?

I grew up in the town over from Crescent called moonlight I would avoid moonlight at all costs now because if I ever went back I would be stoned. 

14. Do you still have friends there? Or family?

Everyone from my past died a long time ago. 

15. How did you do in school? 

I never actually went to school, I was told I didn’t need to because I would never get anywhere in life but once I grew up and got away from my family I started to teach myself everything I needed to know. 

16. What was your favourite subject?

I loved to learn math it was my favourite thing to learn once I started to teach myself things I needed to know to survive with the ever-changing world. 

17. What was your greatest talent?

My greatest talent is running, I’m like a lightning bolt in the night you see me one second and the next I’m gone. 

18. What did you do badly?

I was never one for art. 

19. What is your life like at the moment?

My life at the moment is something I have pride in, I built myself up over the years to be someone I am happy with. 

How to stay active online while having time for your books.

Staying active between writing and your social media can be extremely stressful, especially if you are a mother like me or working full time and writing, and this is just the thing you do in your spare time for extra money or time to yourself. 

It has been extremely difficult for me to be able to keep up with social media and my books. But I’m going to let you in on my secret on how I manage to update my Twitter six times a day, upload three blog posts a month, make numerous Instagram posts and stories a day, and my weekly YouTube videos while still having enough time for my daughter, housework and writing/ editing my books. 

The first thing to remember is we all have the same 24 hours in a day, and I just make sure that I use mine wisely with the limited time in that 24 hours I get.

Every month I make a note on my phone which outlines everything I have to do in the month. Appointments, what post is going up when on my different Instagrams, every YouTube video I have to film, edit and upload, and every single Twitter post. 

To do this, I put it into sections. The first section is YouTube with the date that it has to be uploaded by and the video title. 

The next section is Twitter. I put every single date of the month in and then under it I write my Twitter posts out for the month. I then write what I’m going to post on my writer's Instagram and on which days and then my main Instagram and the posts I post on my Facebook pages which there are four a month. 

Once everything is planned out, I go on to Twitter online, not the app. the one downfall with Twitter is you cannot schedule tweets on the app. You can only do it on the website. 

I then copy and paste every single post I’m going to make for the month onto Twitter and schedule it for the day I have planned, and just select a random time for each one. 

 I will occasionally have something like a retweet planned or something like an update about my day for them what I do as I go into my phone calendar and put it in for what time I want to do it and then every night before going to bed, I check my calendar and if I have a retweet or an update about my day I then put it in the back my mind to remember to do it the next day which takes a lot of work out if I only have to do it say five times a month.  Every night I also reply to the tweets that I get through the day. I also like every single comment, even if it’s very time-consuming, but that’s okay because my daughter takes an hour to get to sleep on me, so that’s my time to reply to comments and all that kind of stuff across my social media. 

Throughout the month, once I have the plan, I take all the photos from my Instagram, and then I use the Facebook suite app because my Instagrams are linked to Facebook pages.  I schedule all my posts that way, including what I’m going to be posting on the Facebook pages themselves.  You can schedule stories, but I don’t. I just do three stories a day on my main Instagram. I like to get them out in the mornings so that I don’t have to worry about them for the rest of the day. They are just part of my life; if I go for a walk, I take a photo, dishes, I take a picture, I just take whatever I’m doing, and I don’t really care too much, but I have noticed that stories have improved my engagement. 

Now that’s all done and scheduled, I don’t have to worry about posting anything other than whatever I need to on the day for stories, TikTok's, which are pre-filmed, and then the occasional Twitter post. So for the rest of the month, I just write and edit my book each day.  I don’t put pressure on myself if I can’t get it done. I don’t push myself, but I make sure to write my blog posts first because it is the most important part, and then I can focus on the rest. 

I do a week of writing and a week of editing to keep it separate, and each week is working on a different book until it’s finished, so at the moment, I am editing my endometriosis story and writing one of my love stories. 

It can be hard work, but most months have 30 or 31 days except for February.  But having only 30 to 31 days to get everything done is really easy, and I can get everything done in 15 days. I only spend maybe 10 minutes on it each day, so the rest of the time, I have plenty of time for writing or whatever I need to do when my child is allowing me to while still enjoying time with my child and getting all the housework that needs to be done and me most crucial time you can’t neglect yourself in this if you are then you need to take a stand back from social media because it can ruin your life if you let it. 

I hope you enjoy this blog post. Let me know how you keep up with all your responsibilities and comments, so other people for who my method might not work have different ideas. In the writing community, we value our work, but it can be time-consuming. 

I hope you have a wonderful day, and I’ll see you next month for a fantastic blog post. 

Ways to not loose any work

 The worst feeling in the world is you are halfway through a chapter or a book and your computer crashes, you didn't save the last four thousand words, and now you have to rewrite it all over again, or god forbid your laptop dies, and you can't get any of your books back, all those months spent writing for nothing. 

This has happened to me more times than I can count, tears are shred, and sometimes I never rewrite that book again. Because of this, over the years, I have made a system to make sure I never lose any of my hard work, and I am going to let you in on how I make sure not to lose any of my work.

I thought after years of my laptop going flat or completely dying on me while I was writing that I had it completely under wraps on what to do to best protect my writing. Still, during Camp NaNoWriMo 2021, I found out how wrong I was when three times throughout the thirty days, my wifi glitched out as well as google docs. Google docs refused to save my work because I was writing so fast it couldn't keep up. My wifi would glitch right as it tried to, so it would come up with an error message, one that if you dismissed it would refresh the page, but you couldn't even copy and paste any of the words before they disappeared; it was a writer's worst nightmare.

That was the real reason I decided to make this blog post because when I went searching for ways around it, It in the past and even now, I could only find one other blog post touching on this topic which really surprised me; I don't know if I was using the wrong search terms or what but whatever it was I knew I needed to let you guys in on how I protect my work.

So now, let's get down to the real answer on how to protect your work as much as possible as to not lose any words.

The answer comes in many different stages, from the saving process to the backing upstage.

The backing up stage I have completely figured out, it sounds extreme, and it can be, but since doing this, I haven't lost any of my books.

I invested in a hard drive, and I make sure after every writing session my book gets backed up to that, so if my laptop was to die, I have my work not only saved but easy to put onto my new laptop when I get one.

I also back up to google docs/google drive; that way, I can work on my books on the go as well as when my laptop blows up and not have to wait ages or lose motivation.

Now the saving process is a bit harder because you never know when you will lose work, and if you were to save your work after each word,, you oud get nothing done, that's why I thought google docs was the good place to write because it automatically backs up your work.

Now I automatically manually save my work whenever I stop writing, if that's because I am thinking of what needs to happen next or whatever the reason I stop is. There are plenty of websites you can write on that will save your writing for you, but after my experience with google docs, I don't trust it. I will also copy and paste any work I have just done onto a note pad on my laptop and save that, so if something was to happen, I have a backup.

Sadly no way is foolproof, and I know I will still lose work, but I try and do everything I can to prevent that.

How do you save your work? let me know in the comments

Writing advice

Writing can be rough at times; sometimes, we need a little extra helping hand and don't know who to turn to. Some of the best advice out there is from other authors. I went searching my brain and the web to find writing advice that I think every writer new or old needs to hear and remember.

• Beginnings matter.
• Let the story take you on adventures
• It’s supposed to be difficult.
• Write what you want to read
• Write as often as you can
• Eliminate distractions
• Just write to write
• Write now, edit later
• When writing dialogue say it out loud
• Always carry a notebook
• Don't give up
• Abandon the idea that you will ever finish but keep writing
• Skip over and come back on parts that you are strugllign with
• Know your characters

What is your writing advice? Let me know in the comments.

Links to websites I used to make this list:

https://lithub.com/i-talked-to-150-writers-and-heres-the-best-advice-they-had/

https://self-publishingschool.com/writing-tips/

https://getfreewrite.com/blogs/writing-success/writing-tips-from-famous-writers

https://www.pinterest.nz/chittockphoebe/writing/writing-tipsadvice/

Mishaps in writing: Hybrid trilogy mistake

Writing is a process; no matter how long you have been writing, you will make mistakes that can feel like the biggest thing when you realize you made a mistake, but it isn't the mistake that matters. It how you go about fixing it.

In the years I have been writing, I have made both minor mistakes and major mistakes, and recently I realized I had made a mistake while working on my hybrid trilogy, tears were shed but now that I have a plan on how to fix my mistake I decided to write a blog post on how I worked out my mistake and how I plan to fix it as well as what I have learned from making this mistake. 

While I was working on my plan for making the most out of Aprils' Camp NaNoWriMo to finish the third book in the series, I noticed that I have been stuck on a certain part of the book for ages. When I started writing Project Banshee, I struggled a lot, but by the time I hit 11k words, I was officially at a standstill.

I started looking into why this had happened, and I noticed it stems into a bigger issue—the first two books. I had so poorly planned and written Tosha that I had actually made it impossible to write a whole book for her. This is probably the biggest mistake I have made to date when writing or planning one of my books. 

The first thing I realized when I made a mistake is that I need to find a way to fix it. I could start all over again and completely start from scratch with all three books, but I have the first book almost perfect, and I would hate to have to start all over again when my goal was to have the first draft of all three books done by July. 

My first thought was I need to start from scratch but not on my books but on Toshas' book plan; I then need to think of Toshas' story as a stand-alone book and completely start the first draft over once I have finished writing the book I can then go through and edit project hybrid and project choice and fix it up so that Tosha has room to grow and fix any plot holes that form.

This will make life harder on me when it comes to editing, but it's a small price to pay compared to how it could have turned out if it didn't work out. This was a plausible way to fix the issue without completely rewriting all three books and putting years of hard work down the drain.

From this is I have learned the right amount to actually plan for a character. You don't want to under plan and be stuck on developing and writing your character, but you don't want to over-plan so that you have no room for improvising. I also learned that while the book order might be different, its best to write the books in order of age. While project banshee is the last book, its also the youngest any of the characters are in the books.

Misconceptions about writing a book

A lot of people don't understand how hard it can be to write a book. when you talk about having a job as a writer/author people think it is so easy and when you try and explain to people how difficult it actually is people don't really understand so this blog post is here to educate people so that they can see how hard it can be. this isn't a full list of everything but this is just a just a look into two of the biggest things I have found people don't understand.

One of the major misconceptions I hear about is how fast it takes to write a book and get published and I think this comes from how many established authors there are with their turn around rate like Stephen King.

This definitely isn't true especially for new writers trying to get published, as an example I started writing Wrongful Love around the 24th of February 2019 and I wasn't able to publish until November 17th 2020 that's about a year and nine months between when i wrote the first ever word to when I self published the novella. this is still considered fast to some authors. I have heard of authors  still working on there first novel ten years later. There is no perfect time frame to write a book and that's okay and normal.

Another example is i started writing project hyrid in July 2019 and i am still working on it now in march 2021  which just shows some books take longer then others because each writer and book is different and works in different time frames.

Another misconception is about how easy it is to write but there is so much that goes into a book its not as easy as sitting down and writing and then publishing, you have to make sure it flows, no plotholes, make sure everything is perfect, no mistakes. 

When you start writing it is also hard to get going at times because of blocks in your brain that stop you being able to think of where to go next and other times its hard to  work out what is wrong with your work, you can sit staring at the same sentence wondering whats wrong with it and nothing is clicking in your brain saying this is how you fix it.

If you are a writer what would like you the general public to know?

Writing goals for 2021

 I always try and set goals at the end of the year for the future year, but this year instead of just doing overall goals for the year I also set just writing goals, and this is my list of what I hope to achieve with writing this year.

• Finish writing and editing my books from 2020
• Publish Three books
• Write 200k by march (June at the latest)
• write a total of 500k in the year
• get at least ten sales on Wrongful Love
• upload at least one blog post a month on writing blog
• keep twitter and writing page up to date on my work
• upload twice a month minimum on Wattpad to get more exposure.
• Make my writing blog more appealing to readers.

While some of these goals are probably far fetched and I won't achieve them, I still want to try my hardest and at the end of the year as long as I tried my best I will feel like I've accomplished a lot even if I haven't really.

What are your writing goals for 2021? 

How many words I wrote in 2020

Back in 2019, I started tracking how many words I could write in a year. I wasn't really keeping an eye on what days I was writing and how many words I was actually writing I just went off the books I had started that year to work out how many words I wrote and as you all know in 2019 I wrote 300,000 words in total.  

In 2020 I was all over the place, I went through a terrible breakup and lost all interest in writing. The world went into lockdown, and I failed all three NaNoWriMos. 

I focused a lot on editing my hybrid series as well as getting Wrongful Love ready for publishing (out now) I also moved three times in the span of fourish months, so I wasn't really writing many words. I failed almost all my writing goals, but I did write a total of 189,447. It wasn't how many words I wanted to get written, but it is better than nothing.

How many words if you were tracking did you write last year? Last year was a challenging year for everyone, so no matter how many words you wrote, it is one step closer to the end game.

If you would like to purchase Wrongful Love, the paperback is available on Lulu, and paperback and ebook are available on amazon.

Buy on Amazon

Buy on Lulu

Writing Sprints

Writing sprints are very useful things to do as a writer but when you don't know what they are you can get quite confused on how to do them so I am here to help.

First, let's talk about what a writing sprint is.

A writing sprint or a word sprint is when you have to sit down for a length of time and write as much as you can in that time without stopping. you then take a five-minute break and do it again. the sprints can be for any length of time but most writers pick somewhere between five minutes and half an hour.

The benefit of writing sprints varies from increasing how many words you can write, getting your story done faster and more.

you can do word sprints on anything. there are websites like mywriteclub where you can do your sprints with friends or by yourself that will time you or you can set up a timer on your phone. during NaNoWriMo and Camp NaNoWriMo you can do writing sprints on twitter. 

if you search up @NaNoWordSprints they hold word sprints every April, July and November. AuthorTubers also randomly hold live streams where word sprints are done so just do some research and you'll find the best way for you after some experimenting.

My Writing Routine

I think there comes a point in every writer's life that they decide they need a writing schedule. it can be very handy to make sure you have all the time you need to do other things as well as get as many words down as possible.

I myself have been the victim many times to overworking and hitting the block and it wasn't until recently i decided to make a Writing Routine and this is it.

Before i start i want to point out that i have two writing routines, one for wattpad and one for my book writing. i will be splitting this post into two so you can see both my schedules.

My Book Routine

Since dropping out of school i normally wake up at around 11am to 1pm depending on what time i go to bed, i never set an alarm unless i have an early start for travelling or appointments so i wake up when either my animals wake me or my body does.

Once awake i make coffee to wake myself up and i just plot around until 2pm, this is when i start writing. i like to write around three pages of words a day which for me is normally 1,500 words. i work on multiple projects at one time so it maybe 300 words on one project and 800 words on another project and 400 on another or it may be the full 1,500 words on one project. i also sometimes write more than three pages it just depends on how much i am in the mood to write and how the words are flowing because sometimes that's a half an hour job and other times its a three-hour job it just depends. 

Now i know a lot of writers give themselves a day break but i don't i write every single day of the year. After i have written i log into Wattpad four days a week but i spend Wednesday and Saturday editing a book that has just come out of what i call the stand-down period which is where my books, once they are finished, go into for three months before i start to edit them.

My Wattpad Routine

Once i have finished with my three pages with my normal writing i log into my Wattpad and start writing, i am always writing across two books on wattpad every Wednesday and Saturday a new part goes up.

Now i do just want to point out i only spend four days writing on wattpad and i write four parts across two days. so every Monday and Tuesday i write for Wednesday uploads and every Thursday and Friday i write for Saturdays upload. i do it this way so that i know i always have parts and so i know i can upload when i am meant to and it also gives me time to build up parts before a new book is started.

On Sundays i edit one of my older books on wattpad, normally only one part a week but if its two shorter chapters i will do two.

My parts vary from 500 to 2,500 words per part so i don't set a goal other then i have to write eight parts in total in the week.

Starting A New Book: What You Need To Know

I am no stranger to starting new books and while I am no expert in writing and all of that I would say I know a fair bit about the drafting process and getting those first 500 words on the page.

starting a new book for me depends on two key factors, is it a solo book or a series? I will be getting into how I do both.

solo book: 

now solo books are the easiest for me because I have less preparation to do. typically I start out with my idea and do the quickest brainstorm ever literally all I have for a new book is this
project name
blurb
main characters
key info

an actual example from one of my plans

and then I just start writing.

series:

Now for me when it comes to series I have to be on the ball with it. I typically start with a
book idea,
then I make a book bible,
write out a small book plan,
project name
do what I do for solo books
then I start writing. 

things to know before starting a new book are:

• what you want the book to be about
• who your main characters are and there relationships to one another
• a ballpoint of how many words you want it to be  
• what the genre is 

that's really all there is to it, everyone has there own way of writing and that's okay you just have to find out how you do it and you'll be set

What I do when I am not writing

I talk a lot about my writing (the whole point of this blog) but some people forget that no matter what you do for work from the police to teachers that we are all people and we do have lives outside of work, and while I don't have an eventful life out of writing I decided to dedicate this blog post to things I do outside of writing.

the main thing I do when I am not writing is my other jobs like my youtube, my business making dreamcatchers and modelling. I also spend a lot of time sleeping.

outside of work though you will find me watching movies or tv-shows, listening to podcasts or music. researching different things (i love to research) you will catch me at doctors appointments or in my back garden taking photos of the sky, flowers and animals. I am also a very big gamer.

as I said nothing eventful but it works for me. 

what do you do in your spare time?

How to make a book bible/ series bible

making a book bible was foreign to me not that long ago, I didn't even know what they were but now I have made five-book bibles for different stories and they are amazing so here is some information on them and how to make your own.

A book bible also known as a series bible is a place like a folder or a notebook where you keep all books information. so this is the place where to write their names, what they look like hobbies and all of that so it doesn't randomly change in the middle of book one or even in the third book of your series.

even if you are a Panster like me it can be really beneficial to have one of these, you don't need to have a book outline in this just the small details you need to remember so you dont randomly change something like eye colour throughout the books.

things you should have/what I have in a book/series bible are

• series name
• start and end date of the book
• mini blurb about each book
• word count per chapter
• goals for the book (word/chapter etc.)
• key information like things that need to go into the next book

• characters name
• age
• race/kind 
• hair/eye/skin colour
• height/ build
• marks on the body (tattoos, scars etc.)
• skills and abilities
• personality
• living situation
• family
• occupation
• history
• life experience
• education
• history

and there you have it, I book these now for all my book series and even just some of my stand-alone books that I am forgetting a lot of information. these can be done digitally or even physically all up to you.

How i outline my books

outlining books can be a daunting experience, i pride myself in my Panster ways but for writing challenges like NaNoWriMo i do a brief outline and in today's post, i am going to talk over how i do my brief outlines.

first, i get a clean piece of paper in a book. i like to have a physical copy for if im travelling and don't have internet. i then like to write my characters names on one piece of paper, just there names so that i know the names off by heart and not have to scroll halfway up my book to find the name. i do make book bibles which i will get into in the future but i don't write my plans in my book bible.

i then get my black pen and start writing, any idea i can think of for my book i write down. i don't do it in any particular order nor by chapter because i feel that limits me in my writing.

by the end of it, my plan will look a lot like this

things to write in project {what ever the project name is} 

• meet Andrew
• kill beast
• date night
• get to know Andrew
• the fight scene with hunters
• learn magic powers
• find out about the supernatural world
• find out she is magic

characters

• Andrew
• Emily
• Sofia
• jack
• Patrick
• baby Ashley

that is literally it, normally my plans and one to two pages along in a 2B5 lecture book. i really do try and keep it as simple as possible so that i have the freedom to add more and move things around as needed.