How to cope with a long manuscript?

[Trumpspeach]

I'm writing a story at the moment and I'm on around 47k words. I know that this isn't long by many standards but I'm finding it hard to wrestle with so many pages!
Can anyone give me any tips on how to work with a long text, please? It takes me an increasingly long time to find the section I need, or I lose the bit I want or I start to write a scene, then realise that I've already written something very similar!

It sounds like you might need to be a planner. Could you try and have a pyramid of synopsis - outline - chapter plan - manuscript and try and track all the progression. Lots of work but it might ne necessary if you can't easily keep all the story in your head with rolling changes.

What software are you using? I write in Google Docs and use the ‘document outline’ function - there’s a bar at the side with all the chapter headings and I can click to jump between them.

There is a software called Scrivener , which helps with large documents. I always use the outline function in word that lets you put in headers and allows search for the document.

Thanks guys! There's some great ideas there. I simply write in Word and so have ended up with 120 odd pages.
I think the chapter planning idea is a good one. I'm totally new to this, as you can tell, but it's all part of the learning process

I would second Scrivenor , well worth transferring

OP, think of it that you've piloted working 'by the seat of your pants' and are now pivoting to becoming a plotter. All a learning experience. Enjoy and good luck.

I write dual timeline books around 100k words and I use Scrivener the virtual cork board makes life so easy I can see what is in each chapter.

I've set up a 30 day Scrivener account to see how I get on with it. Thank you to everyone who responded to me!

There are some really good YouTube guides to scrivener