FAQ - Housekeeping Questions

Q: I have so many recent copies of my WIP (work in progress) from so many sources, that I am losing track of which one is which. I guess I've never had so many different edits of one manuscript within a short period of time. I have labeled them differently and by date, but I am still having trouble. How do you keep your edits straight? I imagine you run into a similar dilemma once the editor sends you back her copy and you begin a rewrite. I can't decide if a thumb drive or a CD copy of end products at the end of what? A day? A half day? would help. If you have some special insight I'd appreciate the tip.

A: I've never had multiple edits to deal with as my editor is the only one to read my stuff and actually do a line edit.  And once I get that back, I deal with it right away and don't bother saving the previous version. (Except for the time she had me excise a whole subplot -- I did save that version.)

I save to a CD at the end of every writing day -- and now I also use Dropbox -- a free 'cloud ' storage system which allows me to access my WIP from any computer, smart phone, iPad, or  whatever that has Dropbox on it. Pretty cool.  

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Notice that I've added a new writing/book review blog over there on the sidebar. Ellis Vidler does some very good little writing lessons  --  like this one on the difference between foretelling and foreshadowing.