In the previous chapter, I mentioned something called a "Story Portfolio." Creating one isn't completely necessary, however I wanted to show you how to make one in hopes that it will help you build and organize your story.
A STORY PORTFOLIO is a folder of all the assets for your story. Assets such as the actual chapters themselves, research notes, chapter by chapter outlines, character profiles, and more. Anything that pertains to your fanfiction should be saved and backed up in your portfolio.
✖ WHERE TO STORE YOUR PORTFOLIO.
Let's first start on figuring out where to save everything. For me, I save everything on my computer. I have a folder dedicated to my stories and a separate folder for each of my projects. Whenever I finish a chapter, I like to backup my work onto an external hard drive. This of course is not necessary, but having gone through school where I had to write term papers and essays upwards of 12 pages, I was always paranoid about my work being safely stored.
↳ DESKTOP or LAPTOP: Create a new folder for your story and label it accordingly. Then within that folder, there will be more folders. Be sure you label them appropriately. If you're saving gifs, photos, notes, whatever, make sure you label the folder clearly. Here's an example of how I have my story, "You're Dope, Girl" organized:
↳ MOBILE PHONE or iPAD: I understand that not everyone has a laptop or desktop computer to write their stories on. It's a luxury and a blessing that I have my own laptop to work out of. But a lot of you work on phones or iPads — this is perfectly fine. My recommendation is to use the NOTES app on the iPhone. Android users, pick the app that's most equivalent to Apple Notes. Within the app, you can create folders and different notes within that folder. Here's an example:
↳ GOOGLE DOCS: This is my best recommendation for all of you. Whether you're on a computer, an iPad, or a phone, I HIGHLY encourage you all to download GOOGLE DOCS onto your phone. It's free for both Apple and Android users, and is a wonderful way for you to write and organize your portfolio.
The reason why I also recommend Google Docs to computer users, is because it acts similarly to Microsoft Word. Microsoft Word is not free and can cost as much as $150 a year. Luckily, you can purchase it as a subscription for $6.99 a month (or $69.99 a year), but I know not everyone has the money to do this. Which is why I recommend Google Docs.
I believe it's important to be as organized as possible. Sure you can write your chapters and notes then chuck them all into one folder, but if you're as meticulous as I am, then you'll want to keep things organized. It might require a little extra navigation because you have to click through a few folders, but at least you'll know exactly how to save things and where to find them later.
✖ STORY CHAPTERS.
My recommendation is to have TWO folders dedicated to your chapters. One for ROUGH DRAFTS and another for FINAL POSTED works. I know this might be doing too much, but it's always good to copy whatever you've posted on Wattpad to another word document.
I write my chapters in either Microsoft Word or TextEdit on my computer. I edit on my computer before drafting it on Wattpad. From there, I like to read over and edit my chapter before posting. A lot of the time, I end up adding a few sentences or reworking a few paragraphs on the Wattpad app and that final edit is what I publish. So, to keep track of what I've posted, I copy and paste that final edit into my own document to save for my portfolio.
✖ CHARACTER ANALYSIS.
In your story portfolio, create a folder dedicated to just your character profiles. Inside this folder will be any notes about your characters, in addition to important assets such as photographs and inspiration photos.
Inspiration photos are essentially pictures of anything that pertain to your story/character. Whenever I'm describing my character's home, car, or whatever, I like to use photos to help me. I'll dive more in a later chapter where I show you how to build your world.
↳ For example, as I build my character profile, I search for a few photos that encompasses what I imagine my character's home/car/bedroom/etc looks like. I prefer using Pinterest or Google images. Then I save them onto my computer. You can do the same if you're using a phone to build your profile. Save the images on your phone and attach them to a new Note in your phone, or on a Google Document. Something like this:
✖ RESEARCH & NOTES.
As I've mentioned in previous chapters, research and note-taking is one of the most important things you can do for your story. The more research you do the better, and keeping your research notes organized is ideal.
I don't have any special recommendations on organizing within your document because that's subjective to you as a note-taker, but all I suggest is keeping your notes in a folder of its own. I suggest this so you don't get your notes mixed up with your chapters.
✖ CHAPTER PHOTOS & GIFS.
A lot of Wattpad writers like to use media in their stories such as photos, gifs, and videos to supplement their work. Make sure you have a folder dedicated to media in your portfolio in order to stay organized, especially if media content disappears within your story. There's 3 ways you can add media in your chapters.
↳ OPTION #1: If you're on a desktop computer or laptop, you can grab the link of the gif, photo, or video and paste it into the top media bar. You can also save the photo or gif onto your laptop & upload it onto your chapter. Like shown below:
↳ OPTION #2: If you're on a mobile device, you can upload your media of choice into the top bar. If you choose to upload a video, by clicking the camera icon, Wattpad will automatically let you search through YouTube to pick a video.
↳ OPTION #3: This option will work whether you're on a computer or on a phone and honestly, I believe this to be the best option. It only took me a couple of years to figure it out but I wanted to share it with you all in case you're vacillating between the different options. You can upload your photo, gif, or video into the actual body of your story.
Option 1 and 2 are both great, but do know that if the server deletes the media you choose (like if YouTube deletes the video or the person who originally uploaded the gif deletes it), then you'll get something that looks like this:
Which is why I recommend putting the media into the body of your chapter because you're uploading it from your phone or computer.
Creating a story portfolio is optional as mentioned earlier, but I believe it's always important to keep your fanfiction assets as organized as possible. Keeping folders and notes organized for your stories will also help you keep your life outside of Wattpad organized too. I learned to better label and arrange my school work because I put in care to the organization of my fanfictions. I know that sounds crazy, but to me it's dedication. Believe it or not, writing fanfiction has seriously helped me in life besides a point of escapism. I became a sharper story analyst during class; I learned efficient ways to write and edit my essays, and overall a better thinker.
I hope you found this chapter helpful and are able to use any of these tips!!