Today's Backup Reminder Brought to you by One-Care

Do you back up your computer? I'm amazed by the number of people I know who don't. I hear horror stories all the time from friends who have lost everything when their computers crashed.

Mine just did, last week, apparently caused by some One-Care glitch that screwed up the whole thing. At first, I couldn't get on the Internet. I couldn't access Control Panel. Then I couldn't log onto the computer at all except in Safe-Mode, and then only for a few minutes before the computer shut off.

The fix was relatively simple, although a little scary. My computer hard drive was wiped out and the operating system re-installed. It's working great now, and I'm breathing again thanks to the successful return of all my files. Thousands of pictures and all my articles, stories and novels-in-progress are all safe and sound.

Are yours?

Back up often. Back up now.

Writing Tics

Nathan Bransford had a terrific post the other day, You Tell Me: What is Your Writing Tic? These are the bad habits that creep into our writing at alarming rates. Characters sighing all over the place, or rolling their eyes or nodding. I read through many of the comments and felt better that several people shared one of my big ones, using the word "just." I also found a lot of other things to be on the look out for in my own writing.

Another useful tip I found in the comments was a link about Wordle, a free online tool for creating word clouds. Word clouds show you which words you use most often in a piece of writing. Tracy Buchanan explains it really well in the post What Are Your "Crutch" Words. The beautiful thing about Wordle is that you can cut and paste your entire novel into the cloud generator and see what words you've overused.

I created a word cloud of my novel in progress and made a list of words to seek and destroy when I edit. I probably don't have to tell you that the word "just" was bigger than I'd hoped. On the plus side (?), I used the word "back" even more often.

Wasting Time

I don't know about you, but I never have enough time to write. Don't get me wrong. I write every day. Sometimes I even write a lot. But there's never enough time to write as much as I'd like. I've been working steadily at getting rid of some of my little time wasters. Even when I'm logged in and working on the computer, I can sometimes go MINUTES without checking email. I'm exaggerating--a little--but my point is that I know I'm guilty of wasting time like this, and I'm working hard at creating better habits.
The WM Freelance Connection has a fantastic post today, When a Writer Wastes Time on Unnecessary Evils (and That Writer is Me).  It's an honest look at some of the little ways in which we wast time--and then complain about how we don't have enough time to write.

One of the things I cut from my routine was writing my blog, but I think I've carved enough "few minutes" out of my time wasting to get back at it.