Happy Wednesday!
Today I’m going to celebrate one of my favourite writing tools – the one, the only, Google drive. If that sounds like a bit of a strange thing to be celebrating, I completely understand. But as I am a bit of a strange person, I think it fits in to this series rather nicely.
I do all of my writing using Google’s document creation program, for a few reasons.
1. Automatic Saving – When I get into the writing groove I tend to tune out everything around me and focus entirely on my writing…which means I might not notice that I haven’t saved my work for a while, or that the battery warning light on my laptop is flashing dangerously. Google docs automatically save every few seconds, which saves me from having to constantly worry about when I last hit that button.
2. It’s Free – Yeah, this one’s pretty self-explanatory, but I’m all about the free programs. You get 15GB of free storage, which has been more than enough for me so far.
3. It can be used on any device – Sometimes I write on my laptop. Sometimes I write on my phone. Sometimes I write on a desktop computer. Wherever and whenever I write, I can always access the most recent copy of my manuscripts quickly and easily, so I’m never left scrambling when inspiration strikes.
4. My manuscripts are saved “in the cloud”: I have had enough panic attacks and heart breaks on account of computer malfunctions to trust saving my precious babies to any hard drive. From now on, my writing is going to the cloud!
5. I can make copies – Sometimes I’ll be half way through a picture book manuscript when I suddenly start to wonder what the story would be like if the protagonist was a hippo instead of a giraffe (#kidlitproblems). Thankfully I can quickly make a new copy of my manuscript where I can change everything around without ruining the original story. I can easily write twenty versions of the same story, and keep each version separate (what if she was an ostrich instead….?).
6. My writing is too messy for even me to read: OK, so this isn’t so much about Drive as it is a reason why I prefer to write my manuscripts on the computer. I….have messy handwriting. There’s no other way to put it. Sometimes I can’t even read my own printing. Thanks to the invention of the modern word processor, I never have to squint at a piece of paper and wonder what on Earth I was trying to say.
How do you prefer to write and manage your manuscripts? Do you prefer to write in a notebook, on a laptop, or on your phone? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
