The centerpiece of my organization system is my Project Notes database, in Microsoft Access. Contrary to appearances, this is a great way to organize information. Everything there is to know about all of my projects can be found here: the names of all my characters and what stories they appear in, books and other reference material I’m inspired by, ideas for new stories, lines of dialogue, settings, etc. I can also run reports from the database, so if I want to see every location mentioned in The Adulterous Woman or every character in the city of Furud, I don’t have to re-read entire novels. Or I can filter out every idea I’ve had for dialogue related to The Valley of Iletupa or every idea inspired by something I read in Heavy Metal magazine. The possibilities are endless.
