Navigating the #nanowrimo website & back up your work #amwriting

Navigating the new website at www.nanowrimo.org can be confusing, especially to those of us who are used to the old site.

Many features we have used and loved are not available, but the good developers have included many new features that really are nice. The following screenshots will help you find your way around in the website:

First, go to www.nanowrimo.org and either sign in or sign up.

This is the landing page:

This is  what  my  profile  looks  like:

You can play around with your personal page a little to get used to it. Give a short bio, pick a genre, and give a rundown of your intended project. With that done you’re good to go.If you’re feeling really creative, add a header and make a placeholder book cover—have fun and go wild.

Next, check out the community tabs:

Your regional page will look different from ours, but it will be there in the Community tab:And don’t forget to check out the national forums, also on the Community tab:

You may find the information you need in one of the many forums listed here.

Now, let’s talk about eliminating heartache and attempted suicides among authors.

Losing your files is a traumatic experience. Some authors lose several years of work in a surprise computer crash – an unimaginable tragedy. Entire manuscripts can go missing when a thumb-drive or hard drive is corrupted.

First of all, you need to save regularly. I use a file hosting service called Dropbox. I have a lot of images on file, so I pay for an expanded version, but they do have a free version that offers you as much storage as a thumb drive. I like using a file hosting service because it can’t be lost or misplaced, and is always accessible from my desktop, laptop, or Android. I work out of those files, so they are automatically saved and are where I want them when I close out.

You can use any storage system that is free to you–Google Drive, OneDrive, or a standard portable USB flash drive. 

Save regularly. Save consistently. DON’T put off saving to a backup of some sort- do it every day before you close your files.