Sunday, November 23, 2008

Power Failure


On Thursday morning, I was working on the macro edits, when suddenly the power went out. Black screen. No electricity! It was not restored until 5 o'clock. I thought I had lost all the edits I had worked on. But on Saturday morning, when I opened the file everything was there. Whew!

Writing tip from macro experience:

Use Google maps to figure out distances between locations in your story. Your readers will want to know how far the manor house is from the village on the Devon coast of England. They will want to know how long it would take for your heroine to travel by coach from London to Bristol, for example. Time is important. Distance is also important.

Use words that express the passing of time when transitioning from one chapter to another, or from one scene to another.

Examples:
The next day...
The following morning...

4 comments:

Jessica Nelson said...

Wow, the loss of electricity would have freaked me out about my edits! I'm glad they didn't get lost. :-)

Susan J. Reinhardt said...

Hi InSpire -

I have a battery back-up on my computer. If the power goes out, it immediately kicks in. They're reasonable and worth every penny.

Blessings,
Susan :)

Amy Deardon said...

Glad you were able to retrieve your edits! What a nightmare.

Hope you're able to meet your deadline!

Ronie Kendig said...

Oh my goodness! How frightening! I had that happen to me once--and actually lost all my edits my agent suggested. Oy!

Have you gotten your book cover yet? Just curious. Some of the Abingdon authors have. :-D