Organizing my book with Microsoft OneNote

I fired up Microsoft Onenote this morning after I realized I was keeping a lot of files for notes. I had found my self with 3 documents with segments of the book, 2 documents with notes, 2 documents with descriptions of settings, one document was a bit of a journal about the piece and 1 mind map. It was my first contact with the program so I took the time to walk through the tutorial and I am glad I did because I learned a ton and am totally convinced that this is the right way for me to organize a novel in progress.

OneNote allowed me to create a table of contents I could embed all the documents in, On other pages I could build up notes, and in it's own tab I could build the chapters page by page.

Why was this a wild success?

• The thoughts of the book are organized to be seen in a pleasant way that encourages creativity
• I can see a representation of where the chapters will be cutting out many resistance fostering unknowns.
• I wrote my first plot description due to finally being able to see how my elements related to each other. This may not be the final plot but it will definitely help me move forward because I have a direction I can go.
• I also enjoyed that I could draw in one note with my wacom table.

One of the qualities I have liked about this book is that it is alive. It is writing itself more than I am writing it. Organizing it into compartments with Onenote just makes sense in that Onenote allows me to create organic notes as quick as I can think and organize them using an intuitive interface which makes as much sense as a school notebook without the resistance caused by actually having to write and note being able to move things around. I can even draw notes, doodles, storyboards, etc! and all of my hand drawn notes are searchable.