Recently I’ve had a lot more source-heavy articles. In the past two weeks, I’ve written articles involving a total of fifteen sources. This may not sound like much to people who work in newspapers (all two of you), but it does take some wrangling and organizing.

It took me awhile to work out a system for organizing my research and shaping that research into an article, so I thought I’d share my process. Obviously, there are as many ways to get organized as there are writers, but here’s what works for me.

1. Create folders for each publication. Each time I get an assignment from a new publication, I create a new folder on my computer for that publication, and once I get a repeat assignment, I create subfolders for each assignment to keep the invoice, research, any photos, and the finished article together. Periodically, I move around these folders, so if I haven’t worked with a publication for several months, I’ll move their folder into a sub-folder called “Inactive Pubs.” Still with me?

2. Set up a master document with your interview questions. Often I’m asking the same questions to multiple sources, so if I wrote up my questions and filled in the answers on the same document, I wouldn’t have another set of questions for the next person. Instead, I use a master version of the interview questions (which sometimes get emailed to my editor for approval first) and do a copy/paste or save as for each interview subject. Then I save the document with the source’s name in the file name (or some other keyword to jog my memory). I also use Google desktop so if I know a key word or phrase from the interview but don’t remember the source’s name, I can find it up that way.

3. NEVER delete anything from your interview notes. I don’t record interviews because that makes some sources nervous, plus the laws vary by state. Instead, I use my Skype headset and type up my notes in shorthand. When I started writing features and profiles, I used to edit the document where I typed all my notes and shape that into the finished article. This is a bad idea for several reasons. First, if your editor has a question, you don’t have your notes for back-up. Second, you might delete something and then decide you need that really great quote after all. Third, you might be able to repurpose some of the extra information into a new article. Now I keep those documents separate.

4. Keep track of what quotes you’re using. Sometimes I print out my interview notes and mark up the sections that I find most interesting. More often, I go through the document and as I copy and paste quotes into my article, I italicize those sections so I can see what I’ve already used to avoid duplication. That also shows what I can use for other articles without overlapping. For one article involving six different sources, I used tick marks in a separate document to ensure that the number of quotes was roughly equal. I didn’t do this to protect their egos; I did it because I didn’t want one source’s opinion to appear dominant to the reader.

5. Avoid over-promising to sources. Lots of times sources want to know when the article will run, and I always try to be vague. Sometimes I know when it’s supposed to run, but other times I have no freaking idea. Better to say, “this is tentatively scheduled for June” than to promise them the June cover story. Or just say, “my editor hasn’t scheduled this yet, but I’ll send you link once it goes live.” And if you’re collecting photos, tell them you’ll forward their photos to the art department, but you don’t have any control over what they decide to use. That way you’re not setting yourself up for an angry source.

How do you handle source material? Any tips I’ve missed?

Flickr photo courtesy of Brandon Cirillo