Several of you had excellent comments on my post from yesterday.
Mick noted that he uses GMail as a free online storage system. He just zips up various files (so they’ll be tidy and small) and mails them to his own GMail account. I know a number of other novelists who do the same. It’s a good idea.
Lynda asked what I meant about buying back my book from my publisher. When a book goes out of print, the publisher is relinquishing all rights to publish the book. (It’s actually a little more complicated than that–there is often some sort of time span during which they can bring it back into print, depending on how your contract is written.) They will typically offer you any remaining books in their warehouse at dirt-cheap prices. They will also offer the art-work and the electronic files of the text, in case you want to republish the book yourself. This generally costs around 100 bucks, and is worth it, in my opinion. This was what I was referring to in my post.
Karri claimed that DOUBLE VISION is just about the best book ever written. Thanks, Karri! I guess I owe you a fee for that endorsement. It was a fun book to write, and I hope it’s a fun book to read. One of the main characters has Asperger’s Syndrome. One of my writer friends is a clinical psychologist, and after she read DOUBLE VISION, she asked if I have Asperger’s. I took that as a compliment. I don’t have Asperger’s, but I know perfectly well what it’s like to not be a Normal.
A few closing thoughts on organization: I’m not naturally very organized. I made it through high school and halfway through college living my life pretty randomly. When I hit upper-division physics in college, I had a professor for several courses who was probably the most meticulous person alive. And I learned from him that if I was going to get anywhere in physics (or anything else) I had to learn how to write neatly, to take good notes, to put dates on papers so I’d know when they were written, and all sorts of other things.
I’m still not great at keeping things tidy. My desk is NEVER all squared away and clean, but I’ve learned to periodically take a few minutes and put away some of the mess. If I don’t, then inevitably my productivity goes down and down until I can’t get anything done.
Those of you who listened to the “Clean Up Your Act” teleseminars that I did with Allison Bottke know that Allison is super-good at keeping things organized, and that she doesn’t come by it naturally–she has ADD and is totally right-brained and if she didn’t constantly stay on top of the mess, she wouldn’t be able to get ANYTHING done. Allison is a poster girl for the idea that good organization can be learned by anybody.
Tomorrow, I’ll talk some about time-management, which seems to be a common bugaboo for most writers. For the past year, I’ve been working hard at learning to use my time effectively, and I have a few thoughts on the matter.
Randy,
I’m glad you mention organization regularly, as I constantly battle with the clutter monster. I convince myself that it’s a sign of genius if I work from a messy desk, but I secretly wonder if I would be more creative with a clean slate. I just posted my back-to-school resolutions and “get organized!!” was at the top of the list!
http://sallyswords.braveblog.com
Hiya Randy, I’m a classic clutter bub. I love getting organised – it’s at least a creative activity – staying organised. Urggggg. For me having places to put stuff is half the battle. A couple of weeks ago I moved into my home office where my husband had built floor to ceiling bookshelves for me. What a joy it was filling them up with all my research books. I’m trying so hard to put things back where they belong. Oh, and not inport into the office anything that I no longer need. That’s perhaps the hardest thing. We have a scanner now and for ages I’ve been planning to scan the boxes of articles etc that I want to keep….
Anyway, looking forward to the next installment.
Waiting with anticipation for the Telleseminar CD to arrive.
Oops. that shoule be clutter bug and import. Why is it I don’t see the errors until they’re posted. 🙁
I don’t have an “office” at home. Well, I do sort of, but I use it as a library/sewing room. Since I have a laptop, I set up on a TableMate and lounge on my couch. It does mean that my couch occasionally gets cluttered, but the mess gets annoying quick, and I clean up more often than I would with a desk. Of course, I’m single, so I can get away with working in just about any room in my house. My whole house is my sanctum.
My problem truly is time management. Since I have a full time job and freelance as a publication designer on the side, it’s hard to develop a schedule to write. I definitely can’t rely on being able to do it every day. This is hard because I lose focus so easily.
I’ve decided to put my WiP (second draft) on hold and start something new. I think it will be good for me to actually write for while, instead of edit and rewrite. I’ve only completed a single first draft and that was mostly during NaNoWriMo last year. I still haven’t made writing a habit though. By starting something new, I get to use the recently discovered snowflake method (thanks, Randy) to flesh out a new idea. My WiP was too far gone to be revitalized with snow (at least for now).
Thanks for the reminder that I need to get organised. I am sitting at the computer looking at the chaos of my place and wondering why I can’t get into my writing. I have my computer work station in my lounge-room and it is only clean and tidy when my boyfriend comes over because he is a very tidy person and motivates me to be the same, at least while he’s here.
Time management. I’ll be interested in reading that blog post!
Right now I’m juggling my job, my personal life, a website I’m designing, a coding project and my writing. On top of that, several friends keep drawing me in to do stuff with them!
There just isn’t enough time in a day!
I vote for 72-day hours and no need for sleep!
Obviously I meant 72-hour days…
Although 72-day hours don’t sound that bad either :p
I just got through reading both of these new posts and now I’m not sure if I’m coming or going. I’m a VERY organized person, but that doesn’t seem to apply to my writing stuff. Technology actually seems to hinder me more than anything else, and I’ll tell you why. My hubby is one of those people who always has to have the “new” computer, and so we end up getting all new stuff every couple of years, at most. It seems like every time I get all of my writing stuff in one place, then the “new” stuff either can’t open it, or it takes an arm and a leg to pry it open.
For example, I’ve been working to burn all my floppies (yep, still have some of those) onto CD, but I know some of them are so old they’ll never open. Thankfully it’s all old stuff, but still. I do have my new stuff on CD, but I even have a couple of those that won’t open on our new computer. Maybe I’m just not computer savvy enough to know how to force them to open, but to me all this technology is frustrating. I mean, a few years from now they’ll have something even newer, and then all these Cd’s I’ve worked so hard on will be obsolete.
I joked the other day, that if it wasn’t for all the typing, I really would just get several fireproof boxes and save hard copies of everything in them. At least that way, I’ll always have it, no matter what kind of technology we have.
I just got through reading both of these new posts and now I’m not sure if I’m coming or going. I’m a VERY organized person, but that doesn’t seem to apply to my writing stuff. Technology actually seems to hinder me more than anything else, and I’ll tell you why. My hubby is one of those people who always has to have the “new” computer, and so we end up getting all new stuff every couple of years, at most. It seems like every time I get all of my writing stuff in one place, then the “new” stuff either can’t open it, or it takes an arm and a leg to pry it open.
For example, I’ve been working to burn all my floppies (yep, still have some of those) onto CD, but I know some of them are so old they’ll never open. Thankfully it’s all old stuff, but still. I do have my new stuff on CD, but I even have a couple of those that won’t open on our new computer. Maybe I’m just not computer savvy enough to know how to force them to open, but to me all this technology is frustrating. I mean, a few years from now they’ll have something even newer, and then all these Cd’s I’ve worked so hard on will be obsolete.
I joked the other day, that if it wasn’t for all the typing, I really would just get several fireproof boxes and save hard copies of everything in them. At least that way, I’ll always have it, no matter what kind of technology we have.
DE: a weak ‘hear, hear!’, since nothing can be done to stop the madness, and no one wants to (…yet, until AI launches a hostile take-over via a japanese art student’s computer in Tokoyo).
During this talk of storing, saving and organizing — sound, wise ideas, thanks — my mind wanders to an image of Mark Twain, Jane Austen or Tolstoy trying to stuff stacks of pages into a tiny thumb drive with ink stained fingers. I just wonder what kind of writers we’d be without the fancy stuff, and the writing software (what the heck is that??? What next?)
With every concievable improvement man has come up with to make our lives easier (it IS easier, right?) they have yet to come up with a replacement for imagination, heart and talent.
I write my Story on a PDA on the Bus ride in and out of Uni, when it’s term time. I’m a one of those Techie “kids” who always have a gadget on hand. (I’m 21 and counting.)
Those who have used a PDA and a Pc with sync software should know this. By Syncing you may get Instant Backup on PC, or PDA, depending on which was edited last.
Currently, I have two PC’s with my current story on it, with the Master copy on the PDA.
As My PDA is a “Cell phone” and email capabilities, I’ve been known to sent emails to one of my other accounts. One Back up of important Document done, on two Servers.
Since there was a recent Pen Drive Theft (TWICE), I now sent all my important “paper work” to the Computing and Electronics Tech. Dept. via e-mail.