Plain Lab · planner
Manuscript Planner
Eight project pages for planning a manuscript from draft to submission, eight habit pages for the writing routine, eight reflection pages, and twenty-three ruled for everything else.
Specification
- Trim
- 148 × 210 mm · 5.827 × 8.268 in
- Pages
- 60
- Leaves
- 30
- Sheets
- 15
- Signatures
- 3 × 20pp
- Spine
- 3.43 mm
- Paper
- white
- Ruling
- lined
- Ruling pitch
- 9.17 mm · 26.00 pt
- Rows per page
- 18
A manuscript rarely has one draft. It has a folder of them, each saved under a slightly different name, and by the third revision nobody remembers which version fixed the pacing problem in chapter four. Eight project pages hold one manuscript's plan across the whole arc: structure, word count, what still needs fixing and in which draft it got fixed.
Eight habit pages track the writing routine itself, whatever it turns out to be, kept apart from the manuscript's own structure. Eight reflection pages follow for looking back at a stretch of writing once there is enough of it to say something true about.
Research notes, a line of dialogue overheard somewhere, whatever does not belong in either section yet, go in twenty-three ruled pages at the back. The book gives no editorial advice. It holds the plan and the routine; the writing itself is the part nobody else can do.
What is inside
- Project
- 8pp
- One manuscript's structure and word count, tracked across drafts instead of scattered file names.
- Habit
- 8pp
- The writing routine, kept apart from the manuscript's own structure.
- Reflection
- 8pp
- Looking back at a stretch of writing once there is enough of it to judge.
- Notes
- 23pp
- Research, overheard lines, whatever does not belong in either section yet.
- Reference
- 13pp
- Owner details, unit conversions computed from definitions, and emergency numbers checked against two sources.
The film
Page by page
A vertical film from our own bench — this page contacts nobody's server to play it, and downloads nothing until you press play.
Real pages
Made at the Hibrkraft bindery, Bogor · about the maker
Books that sit alongside it
- Debt Payoff PlannerWorks alongsideshares planning
Questions
What goes on a project page?
One manuscript's structure and word count, tracked across drafts rather than scattered file names.
How big is it?
A5, 148 x 210 mm, 60 pages, 3.43 mm across the spine.
Is it dated?
No. It starts on whichever draft you are working on and does not expire between projects.
Does it give writing or editing advice?
No. It holds the plan and the routine around the writing. The writing itself is not something a printed page can do for you.
What are the habit pages for?
The writing routine, tracked separately from the manuscript's own structure and word count.
Like all youthful efforts, his first designs were crude.
