I have done that. I posted here first, so that my actual email does not read as snarky. (Actually I emailed to Jr. editor to pass on to her.) I don't know. She seems to want authors to take up zero time, gets annoyed every time my Jr. editor passes up a question. But it is all this sort of stuff. I'm asking permission for quotes beyond fair use, and I needed my publishers requirements for that. (And, as I suspected, my publisher has very specific wording they want those permissions in.) I had to ask to get required format for illustrations (Word tables for tables, high res tiff for everything else.) So now I'm asking on illustration count limit. And I'm going to get an email with the answer along with a complaint about how she does not have time to answer these question. And what I won't say is "your company has these requirements. Everytime I ask, you send me what is obviously a standard form. If you had just emailed all the pdfs you are sending me one at a time up front, I would not need to bother you. You would damn well be angrier if I did not ask these question and failed to meet your rquirements."

My junior editor is a problem in his own way. He is ulra-indulgent "I'm sure the way you are doing it will be fine". Except I dealt with this publisher before, and I know they do have requirements and want them stuck to. So I have him pass the questions up the line, and so far along with annoyance I get answers and normally there are specific requirements I need to know. I did a textbook chapter with a word requirement of 5,000 words. And my immediate editor kept asking me to add stuff, and I'd say "this will put us over the word limit" and he said "this is good stuff, they'll let me put it in." And at the end, they told him "sorry, limit is 5,000 words." And he and I had to scramble at the last moment. So with my Jr. editor on the book, I don't take "it'll be OK" for an answer. I make him check with actual decision makers.

I mean he is a good content editor. He gives great feedback that makes my writing better. But he does not seem to get that the publisher he works for has requirements over and above "good content". Word, limits, style requirements and so on. I wish he understood that he needs to pay attention to those too. I mean those requirments are there for good reason. Some of them are to keep printing costs under control Some are there so that there layout people are working with standard formats so that they can do their jobs without constantly being on a learning curve. One of the reasons they have strict style requirements is so copy editors can work with one style guide and not have worry about editing each author with a different style. All these PITA requirements are there for good reason. Why the fork do I understand this better than my Jr. editor? And when I don't have a crucial piece of information to let me meet these requirements, and insist the Jr. editor pass the question along, why does my Sr.editor get angry at me for asking?

I'm not asking for handholding. I'm being proactive and responsible.

Okay, so I'm cruising along on Dorian. (yay!)

It's a completely different genre for me. (eek!)

And I've got a bit of a conundrum. (oh noes!)

You see, normally, I'm a very linear writer. Like super crazy linear, because that's how my mind works. Start at the beginning of the story and write through to the end. Which is also what I'm doing with this MS, in terms of telling the story as I'm imagining it, so that's not the problem. Problem is, it also jumps around in time, which is giving my linear little brain fits. I'm so afraid I'm going to miss something or mess something up. Especially since this has mystery elements, also a new concept for me.

Any tips? Am I going to have to resort to a storyboard? Index cards? March Madness brackets?

HALP

I've always liked Excel spreadsheets. Easy to move around and you can put in columns for "Before X happens, this needs to occur?" and "Who needs to be where?"

What you need is MS Project.

Excel spreadsheets make me twitch, but I can see where they would be helpful.

ita, what's MS Project?

I feel like I should go back to Scrivener and figure out how to use it, since so many folks seem to swear by it, especially with respect to the organizational tools (they even have a virtual cork board and index cards) but the time I tried, it just frustrated me.

I like Excel because it doesn't ask for a lot of formatting. I also use scraps of paper or Notepad if I just want to take a bunch of notes or put down a fast outline.

I'm big with the notebooks and outlining, but I almost feel that for this project, since I have chunks that take place in different time periods, it might be good to have some sort of method by which to keep track of them-- sort of to keep an eye on the balance of scenes.

I cannot do big finales without something to help me keep track of all the characters and converging storylines. I'm very linear too, and I have to know where I'm going before I can move forward with scenes.

I've been playing around with Scrivener a little bit and it's got a lot of potential to be very useful. I like real-life index cards, so the virtual corkboard works well for me. Even so, figuring out exactly how it works and how to use it - well, I'm not there yet.

I use Microsoft OneNote to organize notes. It's fairly flexible and it keeps track of where you've pasted external bit from.