Too many manuscripts

Someone recently asked how I organize differing versions of my current manuscript. Because manuscripts change. Stories change. And those changes mean manuscripts change and must be organized so a writer knows which is the best one. This is something I struggled with for a long time. Years. And more years. Until I figured it out.

Since I work on a computer, I must save my work. I used to always add the words ‘latest version’ to the end of whatever the name of the work is that I was saving. And, of course, the date was always available to see which of several versions was the last one that I worked on and that was usually the one that I wanted.

That’s what I did and I was really proud of myself for being so smart.

Then I got really smart.

Now I simply, ruthlessly delete everything so there’s only one version — the latest one — and then I make a copy of that version that’s clearly labeled ‘copy.’ I mean, who cares about slight changes if the final story is decent?

It works better than anything else I’ve tried.

2 thoughts on “Too many manuscripts”

Reblogged this on Ann Malley and commented:
Have endless revisions already got you down this New Year? Check in with multi-published Forget Me Not Romance author, Florence Witkop, for some straight shooting advice to keep it simple.

Write on!

January 11, 2019 at 12:43 pm Reply

Good tip. I’m also a bit paranoid that i’ll lose something in a black hole of computerland. I print out a copy, and when I’m finished I save a copy to disc and one to a USB drive.

January 11, 2019 at 1:04 pm Reply