I mainly use Evernote, Pinterest and a hard drive for that. xD
I use Evernote whenever I have new ideas or concepts that I want to write down. It's useful because it's in multiple platforms, so I can check them on my computer or on my phone. Everything gets synced up. So basically, I have no excuse to forget to write something when inspiration hits.
But for visual-related stuff, I keep secret pinboards on Pinterest. Stuff like character development, or environments are put there. Whenever I see interesting photos, I immediately keep them in a Pinboard so I don't forget it.
Everything else, such as my old works and important offline photos are kept in my hard drive.
Hmmm, tbh I was expecting a fair amount more of organization with all the cool comics we have! I think I can help people out here with the organization part. I use google documents for all of my organization. I will make a template anyone can copy and paste to fill out in their own google drive. You may see some missing pieces in your characters when you're done. Here's a sample of my spreadsheet work I guess.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ESGmto9GgDWtVACGh-6PSikLL46rXfvB_JMjXDq87oU/edit#gid=20625644528
I used to use PBWiki (back when that was a thing, I guess - I think they've changed names?) because I liked the idea of having a wiki for my projects - but these days, I use a complex system of scribbly notebooks, even scribblier sketchbooks, a big folder on my computer labelled Grassblades6 (in which dwells an infinite number of subfolders within subfolders - it's subfolders all the way down), and an ever-growing word-document dubbed, and I'm not even joking, "Masahiro-plotnotes-FORREALSIES". It shares a subfolder with other documents named "Character-list", "Important-scenes", "Outline" and "Main plotpoints", because why keep one document to refer to when you can keep several?
But really, it lives mostly in my head.
I've toyed with the idea of getting a Pinterest-board to organise my visual references, but then I realise that no, I don't have to do that, because I've got a meticulously organised reference-library sitting right there on my harddrive - and backed up to my external harddrives. It is sorted by type (buildings, animals, costume, landscapes, textures, etc.,), further divided by type - or time-period, in the case of the costumes - and then further divided by specifics (The "Birds" folder divides into "Owls", "Corvids", "Passerines", etc., etc., and the Owl-folder is further divided into "Barn owls", "Horned owls", etc., etc.). Some pictures are even saved in multiple places - both in the big reference folder, and in the folder dedicated to the project I'm using it for, so that I don't have to go digging through an entire library when I'm working on a specific project.
I am my very own librarian.
If anyone would like to try filling out my character sheet, here it is. BAM15
I might adapt one so people can put every story arc in one page.
honestly, mine is chaotic. i have a stickynote where ive copy/pasted this one conversation that sets out dates and timeline (its out of date already) and i keep a charahub4 but the rest is in my brain, which is best usually because things move around a lot before theyre published, but also means i can forget crucial details. if i think something is golddust and i might forget it i probably have it buried in my phones notes under piles of fic and script. haha.
Also Ishould note that for Dan's Voyage and Rebel Cowgirls we have a massive amount of extras on our site taht contains lore and behind the scenes information, not lying when I say you could probably get lost for days in it all.
http://www.future-bound-entertainment.com/dans-voyage/category/extras/2
http://www.future-bound-entertainment.com/rebel-cowgirls/category/extras/
I have like an 11 gig folder of scripts, concept art, plot directions, random dialogue, character descriptions, outlines, etc. I back it up on a few different mediums but mainly my hard drives. It didn't start out so big but as the story of R:ILPERSONA1 grew from my original idea everything became more comprehensive and detailed. Once my first collected volumes goes on sale in September I'll probably start making a behind the scenes page on my website to give people insight on the whole process.
It's kind of fun to go back and sort through everything because every now and then I find ideas that I jotted down that I forgot about XD
I keep a lot of lore on my site, and have been using various Word Press plug ins to organise it. Here's a link to my Background Information1. I will never have it fully updated, as there is never enough time to get it all done, but I do try to add to it several times a week.
Eagle
(Where do all the hours go?)
When I first started planning, I scribbled everything into a notebook. Now I keep my lore in Pages documents stored on iCloud, so I can access them from my computer or phone whenever I like (I have backups as well, just in case). I have one document with notes on each of the countries in the comic (climate, geography, wildlife, diet, religion, politics, all sorts of things) organised under appropriate headings. I have another with chapter summaries and character bios. I also several documents with vocabulary and grammar for the constructed languages I created for the comic.
I also have more visual lore, including alphabets for the constructed languages, concept art and other planning documents in a series of sub-folders on my computer, alongside the actual comic pages and other art for it.
For mine I have a folder in my Google Drive for the narrative I was writing, character list (so I don't forget who's who), list of key places, elements to incorporate in the story, key elements and messages that I want the story to transmit (so I can check it when I'm lost and I don't know what to do next - helps moving the story further; it's basically an answer to "why am I writing this anyway?").
I also have an Evernote folder for ideas I have and I don't want to forget and the most important materials form Google Drive are kept on my phone as well, so I can check them anywhere regardless of internet connection.
I have a Pintetest, DeviantART folders and some in my computer for references too.