How to stay on top of all your projects and never miss a deadline

The Organised Writer is the first productivity system designed for writers, by a writer.

Built upon solid, practical principles like clean mind theory and memory offloading, its purpose is to help you write more, and more easily — by allowing you to relax and forget about everything except writing when you sit down at your keyboard.

Designed and used in the real world for more than a decade by prolific bestselling author Antony Johnston, The Organised Writer is a no-nonsense guide to being more productive — and more organised! — that understands the life and needs of a working writer. It doesn't bamboozle you with lingo, ask the impossible, or saddle you with endless lists and charts.

The Organised Writer is a practical and focused approach to writing in the real world.

How The Organised Writer can help you

“All writers get stressed out over plot, characters, conflict, resolution, backstory, timelines, world building, consistency, editors' notes, cover art, titles, book blurbs, good reviews, bad reviews, you name it.

“That's not the problem. Sweating over those things is what makes you a writer.

“But you shouldn't be stressing out over missed deadlines; reaching the end of another day and wondering where all the time you'd intended to spend writing has gone; trying to remember where you put your notes, your contract, or your cat; worrying about office and admin tasks piling up; or being unable to relax when you should be having fun with friends and family, because your writing is behind schedule.”

— From the Introduction

The Organised Writer gives you the tools to avoid those non-writing stresses with a sensible, easily implemented system:

• Take charge of your schedule and tasks
• Get smart with your email inbox
• File things so you can always locate them again
• Never forget an idea, and never miss a deadline
• Maximise your writing time
• Be at your most creative whenever and wherever you write

Part 1: Get Organised

The first section of the book explains how to organise your time and schedule, making the most of both your writing sessions and your non-writing time. It promotes the value of taking good notes, shows the best way to use and make to-do lists, and explains why you should consider a simple task management system.

Part 2: Write!

The core of The Organised Writer is about what to do with the time you spend writing; how to write more, and better, on any given day. It gives advice on coping with travel so it doesn't ruin your schedule, and explains how a 'just write' attitude is a valuable part of every writer's self-improvement. This section also walks you through Antony's own 'scribbles-to-script' process, showing how the principles and practices described in the book can help you develop an initial idea into a fully-fledged work.

Part 3: Non-Writing Stuff

The final section deals with handling non-writing tasks; finances, spreadsheets, and office admin. It walks you step-by-step through the process of stripping down, assessing, and re-organising your workspace. Finally, it describes what you should look for in the equipment, hardware, and software you use, and makes recommendations.

Every chapter also features a summary of its main points, with checklists and sample job sheet templates included for easy reference.

The Organised Writer is a fascinating and surprisingly entertaining read by an experienced author who truly understands the unique challenges of a writer's life.

The Author

Antony Johnston has been a professional writer for more than twenty-five years, with work spanning books, graphic novels, screenplays, videogames, comic books, and short stories. He's an experienced conference speaker, podcaster, songwriter, and musician. How does he find the time to fit it all in? By being an Organised Writer.

Antony's fiction includes Atomic Blonde, which became a hit movie starring Charlize Theron; the Dog Sitter Detective mysteries, which won the Barker Book Award for fiction; the Brigitte Sharp spy thrillers, which are in development for TV; the multi-million-selling videogame Resident Evil Village; Marvel heroes such as Daredevil, Wolverine, and Shang-Chi; and much more.

His non-fiction includes articles for the Writers' & Artists' Yearbook, Writing Magazine, The Scotsman, Culturefly, Crime Time, Dogs Today, and more. In addition to The Organised Writer, he writes online about productivity and his writing process, and hosts the podcast Writing and Breathing, where he talks with other authors about the writing life.

Find out more about Antony and his work at AntonyJohnston.com. You can follow him on Twitter at @AntonyJohnston, or on other social media platforms under the same @antonyjohnston username.

 

Resources

Job Sheets

This section contains PDF versions of the job sheets included in The Organised Writer book. You can print them out to use as-is, or use them as inspiration to make your own.

(To download, right-click on the underlined link and select ‘Save linked file as...’ )

• Novel job sheet
• Screenplay job sheet
• Graphic Novel job sheet
• Video Game job sheet
• Series job sheet

Accounting spreadsheets

These are spreadsheet templates to help you keep track of your accounts, using the methods described in The Organised Writer. Feel free to adapt them for your own use.

(To download, right-click on the underlined link and select ‘Save linked file as...’ )

• Accounts template for macOS Numbers
• Accounts template for Microsoft Excel

Contact

“Wherever you are, whatever you create, I wrote this book to help you do more of it. Let me know how it goes.”

— From the Afterword

And we mean it. The Organised Writer helps writers of all kinds take control of their workload and schedules; if you're one of them, we'd love to hear from you. You can find Antony on Twitter @AntonyJohnston or email him via his website.