Do you belong to a lot of groups related to writing, publishing and\/or your writing\/book topic or genre? Do you Twitter, participate in forums, order airline tickets, etc. online, have a merchant account, maintain a blog, sell books at Amazon.com, have more than one Internet account, belong to membership organizations, bank online and so forth? If so, you are dealing constantly with usernames and passwords.<\/p>\n
How do you juggle them all? Do you use the same password for everything? I\u2019m rather concerned about doing that. It\u2019s sort of a fear of having all of my eggs in one basket. If my password is somehow found out, possibly someone can break into all of my secure online places.<\/p>\n
But who can remember 39 passwords. Yes, that\u2019s how many of them I have\u201439! Certainly, some of them I don\u2019t use but once. I use some of them infrequently and others I use constantly. But I don\u2019t want to forget any of them, so I write them down in a log. Every once in a while, I organize my list of passwords and type them up on clean pages. And I refer to this log often.<\/p>\n
I keep these pages in a binder along with instructions for using the various aspects of my merchant account, blogs, online banking systems, etc.; lists of quick links to my site; lists of websites I want to remember; a time zone chart and my list of writing credits. <\/p>\n
How do you keep track of all this stuff? On your computer? In your head? On post-its pasted all around your office? In a neat and organized file box? Or not at all? It would be useful for all of us to learn some more effective organizational tips. We would all appreciate it if you would share yours.<\/p>\n
While my system may not be the most sophisticated, I am thankful, each time I need to recall a password, that I have my little log book.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, I am working diligently with my board toward the next phase of the SPAWN transition. For those of you who are just tuning in, SPAWN is Small Publishers, Artists and Writers Network http:\/\/www.spawn.org<\/a>. We have just voted in a new board and we\u2019re about to launch a brand new, updated website\u2014hopefully, before September 1. Here I am, without any experience in web design, inputting pages into the new website for the expert webmaster who does know what she\u2019s doing. I am definitely in unfamiliar territory this summer\u2014even to the point of dealing with companies who provide services for websites and other business aspects that are a bit intimidating. So far, I\u2019m still here\u2014the organization is still operating. Life is good.<\/p>\n Manuscript Editing<\/strong> Folks, try to remember to bring your readers along with you at every turn and twist of your story. Do not end one paragraph with a character having just hit a golf ball while her friends stood around watching and then start the next paragraph abruptly with them getting into the car. Move us (readers) from the green to the parking lot by having the golfer wipe her club and place it in the leather bag, walk with her friends toward the parking lot, reach the car and then get in. <\/p>\n Also, remember to identify the characters frequently. Using \u201cthey,\u201d \u201cthem,\u201d \u201che,\u201d \u201cshe,\u201d etc. for too many sentences\/paragraphs, tends to create some confusion after a while. Remind the reader who is speaking, golfing, etc., by using names or other identifying references.<\/p>\n These are just a few of the things a good editor can help you with, but you will spend less on this service if you develop good habits along these lines as you write.<\/p>\n And don\u2019t forget, it is ONE space between sentences now. Type one space after all punctuation. I still see way too many manuscripts and emails where the author uses two spaces. This is out-dated. Get into the habit now of hitting your spacer bar only once after every period, question mark and so forth. Hey, you hit it once after commas. Just pretend that end-of-sentence punctuation marks are all commas, too.<\/p>\n For more of my wisdom and expertise (ah hem), check out my array of books, classes and services at http:\/\/www.matilijapress.com<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Do you belong to a lot of groups related to writing, publishing and\/or your writing\/book topic or genre? Do you Twitter, participate in forums, order airline tickets, etc. online, have a merchant account, maintain a blog, sell books at Amazon.com, have more than one Internet account, belong to membership organizations, bank online and so forth? […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10,4],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t
\nI did a chapter evaluation this morning around 4:30 a.m. Yeah, I really should wait until I\u2019m more awake. But I was pleased with my work. I just want to say that one thing I see often in manuscripts is inappropriate breaks in the continuity of the story.<\/p>\n