Here we are in the bright new year, and one way to help keep it bright and shiny is to never lose your manuscript.
If you have been a computer user for any length of time, you know that hardware failure, virus attacks by hackers, and other computer disasters will happen. They’re like the Chelyabinsk meteor—hard to predict, difficult to recover from, and a horrible surprise when they happen.
Nothing is worse than discovering that all those hours of work on a labor of love were for nothing. A consistent system for saving and backing up the files in each project will save you time and tears.
As a municipal liaison for NaNoWriMo, I met many authors who didn’t know how to properly save files. They were new writers who didn’t understand how important it is to keep the old file and save it as a new one to work out of. They made massive cuts to the storyline, but instead of first renaming the file, they saved it and continued working. Those original sections were gone, along with the ideas and a lot of good prose that could have been reused elsewhere.
This year, I met a young man who, being new to using a word processing program, forgot how he named his 2022 manuscript. He couldn’t find it when he decided to start writing again. I showed him how to search for files by date, taught him how to name documents, and taught him how to create a master file for all the files generated in the process of writing his book.
Also, keeping an external backup updated is crucial. If the computer dies, months of work won’t be lost forever. You will have a backup.
I generate work in a variety of subgenres, which complicates things. Each project is intended for submission to different places, so I have a large number of files in my writing folder. That’s why I use a cloud-based file hosting service.
- I can’t misplace or lose it.
I work out of Dropbox, so when I save and close a document, my work is automatically saved and backed up to the cloud. My files are always accessible even when working offline, so if the power goes out, I can access my work for as long as my computer’s battery holds out.
Many cost-free storage systems are available for your backup—Google Drive, OneDrive, or even a standard portable USB flash drive. Some people also purchase an external hard drive, which I have done for my images and graphics files.
Most people have never had a reason to learn how to label files consistently. It is a skill I developed, as properly filing things was part of my job. I was responsible for naming and saving my employers’ files in a consistent and manageable way. In 1993, when my office went from paper to PC, those skills transferred easily.
Each book will generate several files.
- The original first draft manuscript and the subsequent drafts.
- Documents detailing research and a list of sources and their links.
- Random notes we generate in the process of creation.
One thing I hear from new writers is how surprised they are at how easily something that should be simple can veer out of control. The worst thing that can happen to an author is accidentally saving an old file over the top of your new file or deleting the file entirely.
Version control is a system that enables us to maintain an accurate history of changes to a file (or set of files) over time. We can return to specific versions as needed later, so nothing has been lost.
The way you structure your filing system will evolve as you discover what works best for you. It will ultimately be centered around:
- what you’re filing,
- the number of files you are working with,
- the various sub-categories (subfolders) your system needs to be broken down into.
A filing system is quite simple. For most documents, my system is a standard office-type system that consists of:
DIRECTORY> FOLDERS> SUB-FOLDERS> DOCUMENTS
My first draft of any manuscript will be given a Master File with a working title. That will be a handle to carry it by.
Within that master file, I have maps and every version of the original manuscript. The subfolders are clearly labeled and contain the old versions and any research that pertains to it.
Why do I keep so many versions of a manuscript? Every draft of that novel has some good things that I had to set aside for the sake of the story arc, but I never delete old files. You never know when you will need something you have already written.
- The internet says using an underscore ( _ ) instead of a space in file names is a best practice. This is because some applications and computer scripts may not recognize spaces or will process your files differently when using spaces. If you intend to submit your work to a publisher, use the underscore to indicate spaces in the title to label any file you submit to them.
I make a separate subfolder for my work when it’s in the editing process. That subfolder contains two subfolders, and one is for the chapters my editor sends me in their raw state with all her comments:
- My editor saves each individual chapter as a separate new document, giving them a specific name: RoA_edit1_IL_01-10-22. (Ruins of Abeyon, Irene Luvaul edit 1, January 10, 2022.)
She does this because she edits one or two chapters a day and sends them to me that evening, and I save them in the subfolder for the raw edits. The other subfolder is for the finished work with the completed revisions:
- I make the revisions Irene suggests and then save the chapter into that second folder: RoA_cjj_revised_jan-11-22. (Ruins of Abeyon, Connie J. Jasperson, revised January 11, 2022.)
We don’t lose the order of chapters because we have a reliable system for naming files, which we ALWAYS use. Consistency is critical when labeling files.
One thing to be aware of is to save it as a Word DOCUMENT and not a Template. If you save it as a template, you will keep getting a warning that the document is read-only and won’t let you save your changes.
‘Libraries’ is the screen that opens when you click “Save As” and is where you go to manage your documents, music, pictures, and other files. You can browse your files the same way you would in a folder or view your files arranged by properties like date, type, and author. These pictures, above and below, are of File Explorer libraries (Microsoft Windows file listing browser).
Name your files consistently and save each version in the master folder. Below is the master file for Lenn’s Story, the working title for my 2023 NaNoWriMo project (which still has no title).
You will create many versions of your manuscript. You will find the road much easier if you manage your versions well. And the event of equipment failure, you will have access to the most recent version of your work because it was regularly backed up to the cloud or an external drive.
We are at the same latitude as Paris, Zurich, and Montreal but usually get a lot more rain than those cities. The North Pacific can be wild at this time of the year, which makes for some great storm-watching.
By the time the authors got to the meat of the matter (which was late in the second half) I no longer cared. Truthfully, when the fluff is carved away from this book, you might have 20,000 or so words of an interesting story—a novella.
I’m planning two volumes because one will feature stories set in the world of Neveyah, and the other will be random speculative short fiction pieces.
I have talked about this novella many times, as I consider it one of the most enduring stories in Western literature. The opening act of this tale is a masterclass in how to structure a story.
“Marley was dead, to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it. And Scrooge’s name was good upon ‘Change for anything he chose to put his hand to. Old Marley was as dead as a doornail.”
As I mentioned before, this book is only a novella. It was comprised of 66 handwritten pages. Some people think they aren’t “a real author” if they don’t write a 900-page doorstop, but Dickens says differently.
To meet Alfredo, Grandma, and Sylvia Wannamaker, Dan’s next adventure, The Elevator Pitch, is 
I have planned the menu for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but a few things still need some forethought if I want those gatherings to go well. We’ve been invited to a New Year’s Eve potluck. I’m torn between making an avocado-cucumber-tomato salad or stuffed mushrooms—both are easy.
No more tape in my hair, no more naughty words, and no more hunting for the scissors I just had in my hands.
This is my recipe for the most delicious ONION AND MUSHROOM GRAVY:
1 bag bread cubes for stuffing, or 10 cups 1/2 inch bread cubes from 1 large loaf of day-old wheat or other sandwich bread. Sometimes I bake my own bread, sometimes not.
That timeless story was written in 1843 as a serialized novella. It has inspired a landslide of adaptations in both movies and books and remains one of the most beloved tales of redemption in the Western canon.
I wish he could have seen how beloved his creation is now, one hundred and eighty years later.
Charles Dickens showed us that charity and generosity to those less fortunate must become a year-round emotion. Our local community is a good place to start.
However, this year, I am experiencing something I haven’t before—the post-NaNoWriMo slump. My creativity levels are low, and my words seem reluctant to join the party. I know many authors who suffer through this, but since I began this journey in 2010, I have never experienced it.
My first drafts tend to be ugly. The story emerges from my imagination and falls onto the paper (or keyboard), warts and all. Each first draft I can write “the end” on is a hot mess of repetitions, awkward phrasing, and cut-and-paste errors. I set them aside when they’re complete and often forget I’ve written them.
Then, I turn to the last paragraph on the story’s final page and cover the rest of the page with a sheet of paper. I begin reading again, starting with the ending paragraph, working my way forward, and making notes in the margins.
It works the same way for novels. I print out each chapter and go through the steps I described above. Then, I make the revisions in a new file labeled with the date and the word “revised.”
You can get fancy and use a dedicated writer’s program like 
But we’d prefer the snow to stay in the mountains where it belongs. Something about the slightest dusting sends the Pacific Northwest into a panic.
BBC: From memoir and self-care books to comic novels, writing about our flaws and imperfections has never been so popular. But can failing ever be a success? Lindsay Baker explores this question. Read the story here: 
Also from Publishers Weekly: A confident mood prevailed among independent booksellers over this November holiday sales weekend. (…) Sales data from 
That question is a good place to start, but it is only the surface layer of the pond.
It is a conversation scene, driven by the fact that each person in the meeting has knowledge the others need. Conversations are good when they deploy necessary information. Remember, plot points are driven by the characters who have critical knowledge.
Information/Revelation: The Council of Elrond conveys information to both the protagonists and readers. It is a conversation scene, driven by the fact that each person in the meeting has knowledge the others need. Plot points are propelled by the characters who have critical knowledge. Again, limited information creates tension.
The movie portrays this scene differently, with Pip and Merry hiding in the shadows. Also, in the book, the decision about who will accompany Frodo, other than Sam, is not made for several days, while the movie shortens it to one day.
We who write fantasy invent people and give them lives in invented worlds. Their stories involve them doing invented things. Unfortunately, there are times when we realize we have written ourselves into a corner, and there is no graceful way out.
In 2019, I had accomplished many important things with the 3 months of work I had cut from that novel. The world was solidly built, so the first part of the rewrite went quickly. The characters were firmly in my head, so their interactions made sense in the new context.
So, in 2019, I realized the novel I was writing is actually two books worth of story. The first half is the protagonist’s personal quest and is finished. The second half resolves the unfinished thread of what happened to the antagonist. Both halves of the story have finite endings, so the best choice is to break it into two novels.
And a “passel” of short stories and novellas.
I think of 
Life in the Realm of Fantasy 