By Kris Maze

Writing a novel rarely takes a straight path, processing many drafts before arriving at The End. Many writers focus on crafting their words but lose their work to faulty saving systems. If this has ever happened to you, this post may the remedy needed to finish your novel quicker.

Where's my stuff!?

Let's say that three weeks ago a side character you quietly killed off now needs to be resurrected, but their key details have disappeared in previous edits. Where were those detailed descriptions again? That clever dialogue you spent hours agonizing over? Digging through your draft history can be a pain, if not impossible.

If you add up these changes over the months and years that it takes to bring a novel to completion, a writer could have hundreds of manuscript versions. And a non-sortable, frustrating, mess.

Drowning in Drafts

Sorting through drafts was maddening for me without a version control plan. I often grabbed the wrong copy or found myself editing an old document. At other times, I updated multiple documents, unwilling to part with old versions I could revert to. Shutting down my computer brought on a wave of anxiety as I wondered, where exactly would my stuff go when it isn’t all open on my home screen? 

My experience finishing a novel was circuitous, winding, and dense. And after losing my work enough times due to multiple save points, I got serious about taking control of my manuscript versions.

If you have ever struggled with losing your work, or keeping your novel-related files organized, this post is for you. Join me, my creative writers, and lessen the stress of finding your work.

Controlling Chaos: Manuscript Version Control Set Up

Making Folders that Keep It All Tidy

The first step in managing your drafts is to have clearly designated spaces to keep the various parts of your project. On my laptop I have a core folder for all things writing. Inside that main folder I have a core “Writing Projects” folder, which has folders for each book or short story I’ve worked on. 

Inside that project folder are five sub folders that keep me organized through the whole book process from writing to publishing. Here are the designations I have within that folder:

Early Drafts

1. “Early Drafts” This one has a lot of the junky, messy versions. This one is named with a working title or the nickname the project has before it gets the final book title. 

I recommend that you keep the nickname on the folder and to not update it once the book has an actual title, since it keeps the early work together and out of your way as you progress through your novel.

Final Drafts

2. “Final Edits” This folder is very helpful in the editing stages. Inside this folder are subfolders for beta feedback, professionally edited files, and many, many “final” drafts that I can now sort through with ease.

Social Media

3. “Social Media” This folder has subfolders that house my social media copy. I have a folder for each type of media, short videos and posts, and it has a spreadsheet to help me keep track of which ones I’ve used.

Book Covers & Meta Data

4. “Book Covers & Meta Data” This folder holds all the variations of the key parts of the book outside of the manuscript. Having separate folders helps to keep it all organized.

Upload Files

5. “Upload Files” This folder makes uploading final documents fool-proof, allowing me to have only the final book cover, manuscript, and digital files ready at my fingertips to upload to stores. 

Scrivener Exports

One step for me involves using the “compile” feature in Scrivener, which I will share here. If you don’t use Scrivener, you can apply these organizing ideas with any document system. You will still benefit from saving multiple files that document your progress and setting up a folder system with easy-to-find files. For the purposes of this article, I will focus on using Word as it is the most used software when working with editors.

Instructions for using compile in Scrivener may change over time as the software gets updates, so check the Literature and Latte website (the URL home of Scrivener) or customer service if you have any issues. 

To export Scrivener project to Word follow these steps: 

1. click Compile icon 
2. choose output format 
3. select files to include 
4. click Compile 
5. give document a title 
6. save.

If you prefer to watch a short instructional video, I found this helpful resource by author Kirsten W. Larsen in a YouTube series on using Scrivener. This video explains how to export your manuscript in parts, selecting only the chapters and not the meta data. It also shows how to export in other formats as well. 

Scrivener will default to the last settings used, so once I set mine up to save only the chapters (and not the notes, or metadata) it would compile quickly each time I finished my writing session.

Naming Docs – The Secret Sauce

Now that you have your first draft outlined in Word and it is time to save it on your laptop. Remember those fancy folders we created? Let’s take one more step and craft a name that will not only clearly identify this draft but will also bump the most recently used draft to the top of this folder.

Using “Save As”

There are two options in the main drop “File” menu that we should pay attention to here: “Save” and “Save as.” These do very different actions to your manuscript and it could be easy to lose your work, as I once did long ago.

The difference summed up here is basic:

“Save As” creates a NEW FILE.

“Save” updates the existing file.

For my system, every time I finish a writing session, I hit “Save As” and create a new version of the draft. Even when I write at erratic times and for various durations of time, each change will be traceable, with the most current one located at the top of my Writing Projects folder. This version during this slice in time will be organized by date and time to ensure that I always grab the latest version.

Naming the Files – The Key to My Organized Universe

A file name can be a hindrance if you don’t have a plan. I have many drafts of older novels that include multiple title variants and clues about which manuscript I am looking at with the word “final” or “complete” in them. Be thoughtful about your title and save yourself a lot of stress later when you try to find your latest file.

Instead of using the hodge-podge titles I had been concocting over the years, I began to use a logical system that would order my files for me. Each file has three to four components as follows…

• Title Name
• Date
• Time
• Special Purpose (Beta, Editor, Critique, for example)

Title

It starts with a shortened title, something you will easily recognize that is not like any of your other projects. Once you save your first draft the latest title will come up automatically when saving. Then you can adjust the other parts of the whole file name.

 Date

Next include the date in this format:

251212. [year in two digits, month and day]

Having the year first is the key. Adding it first allows the files to adjust to your drafts and to automatically order them in your folder.

Time

I write at different times throughout the day, as many writers do, so adding the time is an important identifier to include in the file name. You could add the four digits for the time, such as “0914” for 9:14, but that could be in the morning or at night. I prefer to add “am” or “pm” after that. Other writers may prefer using military time or the standard world clock time that uses 24 hour days.

Special Purposes

At times, it may be useful to add a descriptor at the end of the file name to keep this version separate. Maybe you are ready to share a portion of your work with a beta reader, editor, or critique group. By adding a simple word, or person’s name at the end of your normal file name, you will always know which file you gave them. You can easily send the updated file by using this same system and the date and time will make it clear which one is the newest.

Example:  HarryMetSmiley 250622.0407pmFirstRevision

In the example above, I have all the information I need to understand where this file is in the progression of the novel. 

• It has the working title for the project: Harry Met Smiley. 
• It has the date: June 22, 2025.
• It has the time I finished that writing session: 4:07 pm.
• And I have the stage of my writing: a first deep revision.

Here are some variations of this manuscript near the end of this project’s timeline.

ParallelLives 250622.0407pm CharacterArcChanges
ParallelLives 250624.0407pm Part2Rewrite
ParallelLives 250625.0407pm ForBetaReaders
ParallelLives 250807.0407pm BetaFeedbackReconciled
ParallelLives 250810.0407pm ForEditor
ParallelLives 250815.0407pm EditorialChanges
ParallelLives 250901.0407pm FinalCandidate
ParallelLives 251021.0407pm FinalForPublishing 

Adding date and time assures that each draft is always identifiable, but the way to craft this file name has to be consistent. Be sure to check this when using “Save As”  and making a copy to the correct folder. That little extra attention to your file name will make all the difference in finding it later.

New folders for new steps

In the revision process, you will hit certain milestones or turning points in writing your novel. There may be the completed first draft. There may be a time when the book title changes. There are the instances of before getting extensive feedback from editors and beta readers and applying changes from that feedback.

When you need to clarify the latest stage of your novel, create a new folder and save your next update to the new one. Retire the old ones, tucked away in the main folder to avoid clutter and confusion.

It is also important to back up your laptop and files. Here is a recent post on this topic by James R. Preston.

Work Flow – A Satisfying Habit

This may sound like a lot of extra steps to you, but knowing where to find your latest manuscript is worth the effort. For me, I have learned to appreciate the pattern of exporting a copy from Scrivener and saving it on my laptop. Then with a couple of clicks, uploading it to Slack (or another cloud service). This pattern assures me that my work is safe, and retrievable. And that allows me to focus on the creative writing process instead of wondering where the last draft disappeared to. It has become a satisfying routine that marks the end of my writing session. 

My last writing project was Parallel Lives – The Paths Not Taken, a speculative, light romance with sparkle, and I found that the main project folder contains 251,302,948 bytes (255.2 MB on disk) for 598 items related to writing this manuscript. This does not include the handwritten drafts that filled a notebook over the year it took to draft it. That’s work saved and crafted that I can find whenever I need to.

Final tips 

My hope is that you can find some digital file management tricks that work for you. It is terrible to hear the heartbreak of an author who lost any amount of their work. Sometimes the battle for writing just one paragraph can be a complete tragedy if becomes lost, don’t let that happen to you. Organize your files and protect your work. Your novel depends on it! 🙂

• Make it a routine that works for you
• Check your files to see that they saved
• Open the files occasionally in all the places to check

Let's hear from you!

Do you have your own system for keeping track of drafts? What trouble have you had in keeping your files organized? Share your version control tricks…I love learning new ways writers tame the chaos of drafting!

About Kris

Kris Maze is a speculative fiction author who crafts suspenseful, heartfelt stories with twisty plots and a touch of the uncanny. Her work blends science fiction, mystery, and emotional depth, often exploring the big “what-if” questions of life and the universe. She also writes darker fiction under the pen name Krissy Knoxx. When she isn’t writing, she’s likely teaching, traveling, or wandering trails pondering the wisdom of Bob Ross. Follow her author events and join her newsletter found at KrisMaze.com.

Parallel Lives – The Paths Not Taken

Check out my new release!

A speculative time travel with light romance elements!

Harriet Last doesn’t expect much to change in her careful, practical life. That is, until a tech demo lets her revisit the “paths not taken.” What she finds is a glimmer of the person she used to be… and a thread of unexpected connection she can’t quite explain.

As Harriet explores these softly shifting memories, she begins to see where she set her dreams aside and where she might pick them back up again.

A heart warming, hope-filled story about rediscovering yourself, welcoming possibility, and noticing the spark that’s been beside you all along.

Buy it today wherever you purchase your next favorite story!