Writing Blog

20230226 Sorting My Work

February 26, 2023, 10:15am

Recently, I mentioned I had completed my 1000th short story. I explained that I keep track of things through my use of an Excel spreadsheet. 🌸 pwheeler - love joy peace asked me what headings I use, how I do it, etc.

I was not sure how to go about this... until I recently worked out how to put pictures into my port.

So, here is how I organise my work!



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Those headings stay at the top of the page (I've frozen them in place, no matter how far down the list you go).
Here's what the Headings mean:

ID: made up of the year of completion and then the order of completion for that year. For everything before June 1987, I had to sort of work it out from context, but it is pretty close. The first is 1982, and I was 11. I do not have any written work from before then due to a water-related disaster.

Title: What I called the work

Style: This is based on length or the audience or other ways people classify written works.
         article - odd piece that would most likely find a spot in a magazine like MAD
         book - normally non-fiction or a collection of similar things, a longer work without a narrative
         cartoon - illustration designed to be funny and not realistic at all
         create-your-own... - like the old choose your own adventure books
         D&D - for use with Dungeons & Dragons game
         essay - looking at an aspect of the world, no narrative flow, information-based, even if fiction or humourous
         game - a playable game
         graphic story - a story based around illustrations
         illustration - picture, often serious, sometimes done in an experimental style
         memoir - anecdote or story from my own life
         musical - song series that tells a definite story
         novel - work of 40,000+ words
         novella - work of 12,500 to 39,999 words
         play - work designed to be performed on stage
         poem - normally rhyming (though not always) emotional writing (includes parodies of famous poems)
         poster - cartoon with a sort of a saying attached
         recipe - normally a parody of an actual cooking recipe
         script - work designed to be performed on film (or radio)
         short story - narrative piece up to 12,499 words
         sketch - short performance piece, normally humourous (film, stage or radio)
         song - piece designed to be sung, some with music written
         song satire - comedy parody of a real song

Style 2: Deeper sub-styles of those in Style 1
         dialogue - dialogue only narrative
         drabble - work of exactly 100 words (including title)
         drabble complex - piece of exactly 1000 words, 10 chapters each of exactly 100 words
         epic poem - very long poem
         Every Song Tells A Story - narrative story based on a song's lyrics, but not the original meaning of the song
         Fur Animorum tale - story featuring the character Fur Animorum
         memoir - anecdote or story from my own life
         parody - using an existing poem and making fun of it, or using it to make fun of something else
         Secludos ethos - set in my fantasy world
         Tales Of The Squared Circle- set in the world of professional wrestling
         Uncle Joe's Tales - stories about Australia as if told by Uncle Joe

Dates: Dates a piece was written

Notes: Any explanations that might be needed to understand a piece (for example "written for a university assignment").

Synopsis: What the story is about. Contains spoilers.

Published: If published, and where

Informal Pub.: Sort of published online or elsewhere without being official, or a cobbling together of online writings. Also includes when I read a piece on the radio or at a live event.

Pending: Works that have been accepted but not yet published. If I've submitted a piece somewhere, I type SUB in here. This prevents simultaneous submissions.

Word Count: How many words in a piece (title included)

Rating (/10): How I rate the pieces
         < 3.5 - virtually unreadable
         3.5-4 - very bad
         4-4.5- bad
         5 - mediocre
         5.5-6 - readable at best
         6.5-7 - okay
         7.5-8 - not too bad
         8.5-9 - good
         9.5+ - really good
(for the record, my lowest is 2, my highest is 8.5, my average is 5.1)

Genre 1 & 2: The actual writing style of a piece
         children's - written for pre-teen audiences
         description - narrative is more about describing than telling a story
         detective - standard crime piece
         erotica - sexual content
         fantasy - lots of elements of unreality, usually set in the Secludos ethos or our world twisted
         game - for use in a game of some sort
         horror - designed to set a fear emotion in the reader
         humour - designed to be intentionally funny
         mainstream - just a piece that is general, without a really specific genre
         non-fiction - true, or purporting to be true, but not a memoir
         religious - with a distinct religious (usually Christian) bent, not always positive
         romance - where love is the over-arching theme
         science-fiction - where the future or present is set as technologically plausible
         sociological - looking at an aspect of society, seriously or humourously
         surrealist - where it might not make a whole lot of sense
         thriller - a narrative where there is action and designed to keep the reader enthralled
         western - set in the mythical American old west
         young adult - written for a teenaged to early twenties market (includes 'new adult')

Link: Simply the link to the work on my computer.

So... lots of work, but it makes sense to me, and using the Data -> Sort tools, I can sort by as many of these as I need to (for example, I submitted to an anthology two days ago, so I sorted first by Style 1, then by Genre 1, then by word count, and I found a piece that fits the criteria set by the publisher).