My mind is sort of a blank this morning, but I feel like connecting with the world so I'm posting anyway. I apologize in advance for any inanity which may follow.
Over the weekend a couple of my first readers got back to me with comments on my long synopsis. Their advice was right on and exactly what I needed, pointing out things I am too close to see. Really invaluable. I'm sure the rest of my readers will have just as much insight. I'll do an in-depth report once it's a done deal, probably by the end of the week.
While I'm waiting to finish my synopsis, I have my editing job to do. Last week I received my next two assignments from Eternal Press. To my surprise, they are both classified as erotica. Now, I've never edited erotica before, although I did go through a time when I thought I might be able to write some. (Not.) By the way, the link goes to my old blog because the comments somehow didn't get imported over here on my older posts. The comments are funny.
So anyway, yeah, I'm editing erotica. So far it's been very--ahem--interesting. It's smashing my preconceived notions of erotic literature and bringing to light some personal attitudes which have always operated unseen. Eye-opening, in a number of ways.
On the health front, I found out toothpaste irritates my skin and is probably why my tongue always feels burny. On the other hand, the knuckle on my broken finger popped and I regained some range of motion. I hope this bodes well for having a full recovery.
I pulled all my WIP files to one location and started organizing them. Cuts, backstory, notes, different chunks of chapters, the working doc, 3 different synopses, etc. I'm a very sloppy saver, so my file names are not nearly descriptive enough to immediately know what they are, and also they are saved to two different computers and a backup hard drive. I have the same file name 10 times on 4 different documents. It's atrocious. If anybody has any thoughts on a better way to organize and evaluate what to save and what to delete, please let me know. If nobody has a better idea, I'll import all the files into Page Four, see how that works.
Have a great week.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Sooo... erotica, eh?
ReplyDeleteOOoooh, erotica. Interesting. I guess.
ReplyDeleteOh, and Page Four will help organize the files -- IF you have the paid version. If you're using the demo version, it only allows 3 notebooks, 20 pages each maximum. But in the paid version, those things are unlimited. I think it does an okay job keeping things nice and organized, for me. But you can also have a folder on your computer called "BVA". Subfolders in that will help you put stuff where it belongs. You can even have a "Deleted Scenes" or "Unused Snippets" folder to store things in.
Glad to hear your finger's FINALLY getting better, too!
Yep. Not as titillating as it sounds, since I'm reading it in editor mode.
ReplyDeleteI know! I despaired of ever having full use of my right hand.
ReplyDeleteI do that BVA folder and subfolder thing. Somehow about half of everything I save ends up in the wrong folder, or I'll put it on the desktop for easy access, or the My Docs folder for the same reason. Then of course there are the 80 versions with 2 words different in each one...It's messy and I hate it, but I guess file management is just not my forte. Paper files, I can handle. Electronic ones, notsomuch.
I'm seriously thinking about paying for Page Four, because I keep going back to it. But then I remember I bought Writer's Cafe and liked it a lot in the beginning, but it didn't have longevity, so I just put it off.
I think Page Four rocks, but it's export feature's a little weird. Only understand RTF or TXT documents, too. But for being able to save and forget it, it's great. No more thinking about it.
ReplyDeleteTry to use plain, logical file names. Windows allows filenames up to 255 characters; don't be shy about them (those characters include folder names, though, so be careful about being TOO long-winded). I'd start everything with something like "BVA_Draft_filename" for raw, unedited stuff. Put it in a folder called "BVA Draft". Inside THAT, have one for "Scenes" or "Chaps" and others for things like "1st Synop" or "Final Synop", etc.
Having a consistent naming convention is key. :)
The key AND the challenge. Thanks for the advice. :)
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad your finger is getting better! What a relief that must be!
ReplyDeleteFilenames - hm, have you thought of a date format? 2009-08-17Chap13C for the 3rd pass through, or something like that. I do all my pics like that and it keeps them in nice and neat chron. order.
I'm working on the synopsis!
Woo!
ReplyDeleteI did try dates, yes ma'am. I didn't stick with it, and it just fell apart. I hate naming files. Tedious with a capital T. And I just hit my limit with the Page Four freeware, so I either have to buy it or just do it in Word.