Backing up, the disease is spreading.

There seems to be a trend spreading around the blogosphere surrounding the golden rule - thou shalt back up your work!

I'm not going to list the different options you have in backing up your MS because a)you probably already know, and b)other people have said it so much better than me.

Check out the links:

http://lydiakang.blogspot.com/2010/03/backing-up-your-writing-is-it-secret-is.html

http://querytracker.blogspot.com/2010/03/backing-up-know-your-options.html

Up till now my basic knowledge on saving my work has been a USB stick, my hard drive and a printed copy of my MS.

I have two USB sticks and I save on both. Why? Well I have this panic that I may loose one, or it could get corrupted or the million other things that can go wrong. Plus my parents bought me an 8GB one last Christmas which puts my 2GB one to shame.

The printed copy scares me. Do I really want to go through the trauma of developing carpal tunnel syndrome by re-typing it or scanning it back into the computer, no.

Did I even know you can send your MS to yourself via email? Nope, but I do now and I have done. I'm loving the extra space on Gmail right about now, thanks Lydia for that info.

I'm probably preaching to the converted but I'm going to repeat the mantra. Back up, back up, back up. The disease spreads quickly folks, prevention is always better than cure.


Now I'm off to back up.

The one where I am inspired...

Is it just me are are the pay it forward author interviews inspiring?

Having some downtime I've spent a carefree afternoon reading through the various blogs soaking up the words of wisdom from some interesting people.

It's nice to know I'm not the only one who suffers doubts about my writing or the fact that everyone at some stage ponders about throwing in the towel.

So I arm myself with their words of wisdom and push myself towards the small shard of light, twinkling at the prospect of one day securing an agent and my dream of publishing becoming a reality.

Cold hands on cheeks as I slap myself awake. Now, back to my current reality of revisions.

Query Tracker Blog contest

Yesterday was the contest on the QT blog. Open to 100 entries there will be five winners, announced on April 9th, who will receive a critique on their query and first ten pages by Jason Yarn of Paradigm Agency.

http://querytracker.blogspot.com/


To enter you had to submit a pith and first paragraph of your MS.

Now, I'm not the luckiest person in the world. I don't play the lottery, I don't gamble (unless it's closing my eyes after opening a pack of assorted chocolates and picking one) but I entered.

Arrggghhhhhhhhh.

I'm a downbeat kinda gal so I'm not gonna big myself up and say I'll win or anything like that but what I am proud of is that I entered. Baby steps yes but with each new day I feel myself getting braver.

A few years ago I never would have imagined I'd write a novel. I didn't know I'd join QT and meet so many amazing authors and people who inspire me. I didn't even dream I'd have my own blog with followers and everything!

So that made me wonder...What was the turning point that made you feel brave?

Illness and Medical Mondays...

Sorry for the lack of blogging last week but I was struck down by an evil bug from hell that demanded I stay in bed neglecting my poor MS revisions, crit buddies (sorry again guys) and blog.

Anyway, germ free I return with a timely post about Medical Mondays.

Each Monday Lydia and Laura are posting answers to medical and mental health questions to help in our writing. Okay, how great is this idea?

After spending hours searching the Internet for a drug to use in my MS and writing in a placeholder drug that I still have no real idea what it does. lol) my solution arrived...this week it is my question that has been answered.

What drug can you inject to make someone unconscious for a few hours?

Want to know more? Then check out the links:

Medical Monday

http://lydiakang.blogspot.com/2010/03/medical-mondays-you-are-getting.html

Mental Health Monday

http://lbdiamond.wordpress.com/

Editing

A post on QT has had me thinking over the last few days about revision.

I've read the blogs, the fab suggestions on QT and blog queen Elana's tips for editing a MS in thirty days:

http://querytracker.blogspot.com/2009/10/editing-how-to-avoid-staring-into-great.html

I also read some valuable info from a book I picked up a while back called Writing For Children. It's a nice how to guide with ideas about writing for different ages, and a nice revision checklist.

http://www.amazon.com/Writing-Children-Handbooks-Linda-Strachan/dp/0713687746/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269195200&sr=8-1

And Nathan Bransford has a revision checklist on his blog.

http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2009/06/revision-checklist.html

So how do I edit? I pick a chunk of chapters, print them off then attack them with a variety of highlighter pens and coloured pens.
I have a different colour for each area such as dialogue tags, showing v telling etc.

Yeah, I'm weird. lol.

Then there is always the suggestions of crit buddies to think about, who always manage to find something I've missed. I guess authors really are too close to their MS.

Anyway, since it seems to be a topic with various answers I'm gonna throw it out to you guys.
Much like "how do you eat a Cadbury Creme Egg" I want to know how do you edit your MS?

Awesome news and competition

It always makes me happy when there is good news to be shared and here it is...Beth Revis has a book deal!

To celebrate her debut novel ACROSS THE UNIVERSE being published in Spring 2011 she is holding a competition. There are a choice of prizes for both writers and authors.

The competition is open till midnight April 3rd so check it out at:

http://bethrevis.blogspot.com/

Commenting on blogs

Today I made my first blog comment.

Yes I may be a little bit insane having a blog and not commenting on the blogs I am following but on http://elanajohnson.blogspot.com/ she makes a good point about a blog being a way to create a relationship with the blog author.

One of the reasons I love to write and read blogs is to feel connected to the writing community. I realised my lack of commenting is a big hurdle in doing that. So, in the words of my friend Whisper "strap on your big girl panties and do it."

So I did. Yay to me.