The Importance of SAVING your work...

So, let me just say that everybody knows to save their work. I know this. You know this. It's not a hard thing to do. Right? Yeah, how we about talk about saving your works in more than one place?

I know. I admit it. I saved my work on a flash drive and only a flash drive. In my mind, I was thinking that by keeping it on the flash drive, I wouldn't have to worry about losing anything if my laptop was hacked (which it was), if it was infected with malware (which it happened), or if the hard drive crashed (Oh God, where's the wood for me to knock on?) Okay, so the last one hasn't happened yet.  YET.

Seven months of work~ I am almost completely finished with my 2nd book and I am super-excited about it. It is GREAT. I love it....

I can't open the file on the flash drive because suddenly it has become corrupted.

I tried for hours to get it back... and then cried for another hour because I couldn't. This happened on a Saturday night so there were NO computer shops open. I patiently waited (insert the words panic, hyperventilate, insanity... you pick) until Monday morning for the shops to open and was at the door waiting, flash drive in hand.  Thankfully, the pc guy I use is a pc God.  It took him a few hours (he had never retrieved anything from a flash drive before) and he got almost the entire file back. He only lost about three thousand words. 

Don't worry, I had a hard copy of the missing file but the rest of the hard copy was gone. Where, you ask?  Ask my daughter's cat....   Now I am working on editing and finishing up the last few chapters. Just so you know, it is now saved on a new flashdrive... and my computer's hard drive.  My lesson has been learned.  Now I just need to redo my hard copy....

Dishes, Writing.. No Wait.. Writing THEN Dishes...

Monday: Write for 2 hours before doing housework.
Tuesday:  Try to write for 2 hours before doing housework.
Wednesday: Finish cleaning what hasn't been done in two days before doing anything.
Thursday: Find the rest of the socks under the bed so that I can start working on another chapter.
Friday: Pick up rest of clothes... wait... where did my week go?

Does this sound familiar? It does to me... actually, my days normal are nowhere NEAR that simple. Finding time to write along with the daily routine is one of the hardest things for me to do. Between three wonderful daughters, a husband, 2 dogs, 2 cats, chickens, fish, goats, etc... PLUS all the housework (that no one in the house is capable of helping with), it can be difficult to sit down and actually work on the elusive WIP. You know the one. The Work In Progress. The one that has been sitting in your notebook by your pillow. The one that has been hidden in the portable drive so that JUST IN CASE the pc crashes, all your work won't be lost.  (That last one is my personal paranoia) So how DO you find time to write? Between all the stuff that we have to do in life, how do we make time to write, to pour our very souls into something that people will not only love, but crave to buy?

Determination. Coffee. Time management. Did I mention coffee yet? Or caffeine?  Seriously, determination and time management (and caffeine) are really the keys to getting it done. Everyone has their own ways of writing. Some write every other day, some write whenever the creative mood hits them and others manage to be superhuman and write everyday.. 50 pages of perfection that make you want to laugh or cry and hug them tightly. (I'm still waiting to figure out how they do that one.) Regardless, time management is key. Without it, (and lists.. I am such a LIST person!) we would not know what to do with ourselves. Look at your schedules. Try to fit in a time frame that you will be sitting down, in front of what ever you use to write and actually WRITE. It might be just a word, it might be 20 pages, but at least you sat down to do it. And that is where the determination comes in. Nobody can make you do it. If you want to write that elusive story that keeps you up at night, that haunts your dreams, you have to make yourself sit down and write it down. Word by word. Until you finally have it finished. No amount of family, friends or wishing will make it happen without your determination to make it a reality.

So, what are you determined to do? I am determined to finish writing my other books. I am determined to make them better stories that show the true talent and ability of what I know I am capable of.  How about you? Will you join me?

Cars Are Easier Than Manuscripts

No, you didn't misread the title, I promise.  I have realized that cars are actually easier to fix than a manuscript.  I have just helped my husband change out the spark plugs in our car (he pulled his lower back so he "coached" me on how to change them). Now, that was definitely an experience but I'm not finished.  He has changed out the thermostat, the water pump and put on a new tire...okay, so walmart put on the new tire, but I paid them to do it. lol
I have yet to work on my WIP though.  With Jamie's back being pulled (I have to take him for an MRI today), 3 children with school work, trying to keep the house clean, bills paid & everybody happy... yeah, I haven't even looked at it.  Granted, I have been swamped with family issues & car issues, but still, I should have at least LOOKED at it, right?  It's not that I am stuck with writer's block... I just don't want to work on it right now.
So what do you do when this happens to you? Or does this happen to you? Do you continue to work on it, hoping that you aren't making it worse or do you walk away from your wip for a while, just to give yourself breathing room or a break?  I suppose it depends on whether you are a traditional writer or self-publishing one.  Since I have only written one book that is self-published, I am very much still new at this.  I am going to finish up a blanket & then look at it again with a fresh eye. That way, I can see if I still like the way it's going. 

Now for the fun part:

Tell me what you do when you are tired of writing.  On Friday, I will pick a winner from random.org who will recieve a free ebook copy of my book, A Fire Within. (And be sure to share it with your friends!) 

Learning Things The Hard Way

On August 14th, my first book will have been on sale for a month. That, by itself, is great! It's wonderful! It's TERRIFYING.  Why?  Because of the assumption that I (please tell me LOTS of others do this) made about writing.  Writing an e-book is totally DIFFERENT than writing a manuscript. I didn't think that was true at first.  It is. Anybody who tells you it is NOT? Yeah, they also have an oasis in Egypt, compete with almonds and fans, just for you.  For a steal! lol

All joking aside, I thought that the writing was the hard part. I know I mentioned this in my first blog, but it is worth repeating. Writing is easy-- the promotion is hard. HARD HARD HARD. I thought that anyway.  I have found something worse.  It's called html. Or maybe it was mobi. No, I remember now.. it is EMBEDDING.

Now, I can make my way around a computer for the most part. I know how to use Word, Works, Open Office, etc...   Copy/Paste? Sure, we are besties! Links? Yep, like the back of my hand.  Embed?  I thought I had gotten out of bed already.  Wait- does that mean I am helping a criminal? Oh God, now the cops ARE gonna be after me and not because I took the last donut before the shop closed yesterday.  Obviously I do not know code *stuff* .  I did not take a computer class on how to make cover art (oh wait.. that's falls under graphics... that's a totally different blog subject) or how to make programs.  Html looks like my youngest child got my laptop again and had fun with the keys.  Do I need to go back to college? 

No- I am going to go to the bookstore this weekend and find the best book in the world for computer illiterates like myself.... Html for dummies. Not the name? Hmmm, I will find it. Hopefully it can explain why I can't make the kindle version look NORMAL, no matter how many times I tried to fix it.  lol (I have now taken it off just so I can try to redo it. I don't want people buying ugly formatted stuff that makes me look bad.) If it can't be professional-looking then I just proved the whole point of Indies not making on their own.  And they can... and they DO. Everyday...
Now if I can just find my wizard's hat to turn the pumpkin back into a book....