How do you organize your lore?

[Pandastrophic]

For my comic, I have a separate A5 sketchbook for the storyboards as well as some sketches and notes of the characters but nothing too much. However I tend to change the stuff in my storyboard so much to the point where it became so messy I had to create a word document with like a summary of what goes into each page (I work in webtoon strips so a lot of stuff happen in a page) and that helped me organize my ideas. I also started writing out in details future scenes so that I don't forget them.

[allenthomas]

For my comic I have everything stored in one folder. It used to be very unorganized but I took the time to create folders for the various aspects of my comic. (pages, scans, scripts, banners, drawings, etc) I has been a huge lifesaver. Now anything I create something pertaining to my comic I have somewhere to put it without clutter or confusing myself.

[zoonland]

Scripts, scans, finished pages etc. are stored on my pc hard drive and also on an external hard drive.
Layouts, character designs, original panels etc. are in a -more or less- well organized portfolio.
I need to write down everything, I'll never could keep all in mind. I have a very short memory, like an old grey lady.

[SethJH]

I've got 3 separate 150pg sketchbooks, a full 3-ring binder, and a folder with 1gb of picture files/text docs on my computer desktop. The content that has been put on paper is shamefully sparse compared to the 10 years of development I've gone through for the story in my head. Not to mention that a lot of things change as I learn more about art style, people, culture, and the world. The story I have today is really nothing like the story I had 10 years ago. I'd love to pull it all together into one big well-organized repository that I can manage. I can usually remember most of what I need while working, but it'd be nice to have for my readers if I somehow end up with a fan-base.

[iddqd]

Cool! Can you please give me a few examples of such software? The program I used to use is no longer supported.

[purrlpankras]

Ohhh right, well it's just on paper, and in notebooks, I must seem messy to all you people.

[winglesscomic]

I keep a grimoire of stuff concentrated in a Word doc. That's where most of my info goes. Then, I have a single text file where I write down various small ideas, which is generally snippets of dialogue, a chapter idea or a scene.

My Word doc is my baby though. I keep it neatly organized as I can (well with lots of TODO notes) so the navigation sidebar looks nice... （´＿｀）And so my writer can actually find shit! It pretty much has all info about the world in it.

Doesn't that look nice? I'm way too into aesthetics of a sidebar. But, that's how I organize my stuff.

My actual concept art though is all over the place. It sits in my general art folder with the 5000 pieces I've done. Not good with that. I've recently started to organize my character design folders so I'm getting there.

[joannekwan]

Lots of folders, lots of Word docs.

[nobody]

Sketchbooks, notebooks, word documents (and everything digital is on dropbox as well as external hard disks).

I think it's smart for creators to make sure to write things down and have all that kind of information stored elsewhere than just your own head. If you should be very unfortunate and end up in an accident of some sort that would do serious damage to your head, you could be at risk of losing that information. You would probably have bigger worries if something like that happened of course, but it's nice to know that at the very least I have a copy of all comic-related information safely stored outside my brain, so I don't risk losing it forever if something should happen. Not that you should walk around and constantly worry about hitting your head though

[jessiepolfliet]

I am curently in the making of a book that contains all the information on the world of Stormspectrum, divided in races, countries, laws, foliage etc. Along with that there are pictures to explain everything. It has a index and all, so if I need something but can't remember it from the top of my head, I search in The World of Stormspectrum. Wich I constantly add stuff to.

[serenitysquirrel]

It's all in my head. Have tried writing the world info out as a supplement for my players for Pathfinder. It's far more organized in my head.

[SpavVy]

Most of it is all in my head but I do use a website called Charahub to help me not forget stuff.

[UzukiCheverie]

I record ideas i need to keep in mind, but I'm not neat or tidy about it in any way xD I literally have a libre office filed called "time gate shit" that just has a list of things I don't want myself to forget to do as I progress the story (just important events and interactions that I may or may not forget about). When I'm not in "time gate shit", I just track quick thoughts and ideas in Notepad, then move them to the libre office file where I save the ideas if they're good enough xD

[theseasick]

I chew it up then spit it out all over the page. Funny you ask. I'm working on a huge idea right now. So huge that I filled an 80 page notebook with lore.

[ghostnxs]

I use a notebook, write in it that's about it.

[Aloredd]

I use google sites to organize my lore. (Partially because I needed to be able to share it with others and didn't know of any other free ways to do it that easily, buuut.....)

https://sites.google.com/site/adestria2/ is the site. Feel free to look through and see if it looks like something you could do easily

[Cielle]

I have a jillion word documents filled with notes...it's not very organized but I guess it's worked for me so far. I also have a weird self-socratic seminar file where I list what I know about my world's "lore" and what I need to elaborate on. For example, "Character A does X. But WHY do they do that? Because character B stole their lunch money? That doesn't make sense! You're right. They probably did it because 10 years ago, Character C did blah blah blah" and in this way I flesh out character and plot in a way that informs each other. I nail down the specifics when I do the scripting. I have notes in every medium though--on napkins, in notebooks, on my digital doodles. Everywhere. I'm not very organized >.< but I never have been. I also spend every night thinking through/about my story as I fall asleep. The idea for my comic came from a dream, so I figure my subconscious has all the answers I need.

[Raven_C]

SCRIVENER is the way to go. Such a great writing program that packs a punch.

[mg78]

if u want to do the job as a badass.. go with dreamweaver! u have to do all by yourself, but u can do as u want. and then, u have everythin as u want. if u have not the html skill (& patience!) u can try Scrivener.
(both are NOT freeware)
ps: there re many freeware software like dreamweaver. pick your best.
for a freeware version of Scrivener, there re not good news. alll the programs i tried was quite bad.

an alternative, it s to "draw" your story. in PS or similar.
im doing a big file "*.TIFF" with alll the connection draw on the storyline like in the story. it help, but it s to easy to do a mess.

[Cairas]

I don't use a specific program but I have different files for every thing. I used a character creation template to help develop characters then I store all of the characters info in a file for them. Anything involving that character goes in there (sketches, lore, etc).
Then all of my individual character files are put into a file labeled "characters"
All of my story writing is in a "Story" file
All of my reference pictures are in "Reference pictures" in different files. I organize those by different locations (I use real places in my story so I organize by city so I don't get confused) or by what they are (like clothing and what not).
page originals are in a different file than finished pages which are in a different file than the pages for tapastic (I have to shrink them to post them here).

All of these files are stored in yet another file labeled by the comic's title.

Long story short, File-ception the crap out of it.