How to Make Sure You NEVER Lose Your Writing

05/07/2020

As a writer, my stories are my babies. If I lost one, I would be devastated. Like, slip into a severe depression and contemplate quitting as a writer altogether, kind of depression. I have known MANY fellow writers who have experienced this. Their hard drive dies with all their manuscripts on it, and they’re lost forever. Their physical notebook was left on the bus or destroyed when someone spilled a drink on it. Their flash-drive went missing. Their file became corrupted. Their cloud storage got hacked, or everything got cleared out. Nightmare scenario after nightmare scenario. I’ve heard of writers losing their life’s work in some of the most devastating and permanent ways, leaving them distraught and defeated. But, thankfully, I can say the worst I’ve ever had was losing maybe a few too many valuable paragraphs (usually due to always living in areas with brownouts and working from a desktop computer). I have never lost a significant amount of my work before, but the fear of that happening is real – very real! Fear of losing my work is right up there with my fear of losing teeth, June bugs, and lasers (some of my fears are weird). So how have I, who have been writing for 19 years, managed to avoid such calamity? Well, here is my system to ensure you NEVER EVER lose your writing.

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Writing Blitz – for When You Need to Get Shit Done!

3/18/2019

It’s crunch time. You’re behind on your writing. You don’t know how it happened, but everything just piled up on you at once, and your writing has paid the price by being placed on the back-burner of life’s other priorities. We’ve all been there, and it sucks. What can you do when you’ve fallen that far behind?

A writing blitz! Buckle your seatbelts, bitches, ’cause you’re gonna write SO GOD DAMN HARD!!

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J’s Self-Editing Guide

1/21/2019

So you just finished that manuscript you’ve been working on, and it’s anywhere between 80,000 and 130,000 words. Editing such a large body of written work is quite a task, which is why you need to hire an editor.

Except, in reality, a good editor is very expensive, and a lot of small-time writers can’t afford to pay $600-3000 for a professional editor. (These are averages based on editors with credentials who accept work between 80-130k words.) There are those willing to work for less, but you risk getting what you pay for.

For most poor starving writers, dishing out that kind of cash for professional help is just not within their means, and many of us find that we have to go it alone. If you are one such writer, who has to be a do-it-yourselfer when it comes to editing, there are many ways for you to be a better and more thorough self-editor.

So sit back and let the J share her guide to self-editing!

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NaNoWriMo – Not For Me, Thanks

11/17/2018

We’re about half-way through National Novel Writing Month, also known as NaNoWriMo, and every year there are more and more participants and more and more hype until you can’t seem to escape people talking about NaNoWriMo. At least, not if you’re a writer.

Personally, I don’t participate. Never have, and, to be frank, probably never will.

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Dated References and Why You Should Avoid Them

11/03/2018

How do you want to be remembered as a writer? When I think of some of the great literary classics, I think “timeless.” A great work of fiction should speak to anyone from any time. It should explore the human condition and concepts that should resonate throughout the ages. Love, hate, jealousy, revenge, intrigue, mystery, adventure, humor, satire, life, death, etc. People have been using writing and fiction to explore these themes since writing was invented. They’re timeless.

You know what wrecks a piece of fiction and ruins its ability to be timeless? Dated references! Mentioning a current popular song, musician, hairstyle, fashion, buzzword, the latest movie, or the freshest meme. Things that have not yet proven the test of time DO NOT BELONG IN FICTION!

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