Insecure Writers Support Group...

IWSG is the brainchild of our awesome Ninja Captain, Alex J. Cavanaugh. If you want to become a part of this group or read posts by other participants, you can find the list here.

It's already time for IWSG? Again? Wow, I don't think I have anything to be insecure about this time.

Who am I kidding, I always have something to be insecure about.

I have to say, I'm stuck in the middle of revisions. My little button hasn't moved much because I'm still trying to hammer out the details with a lot of what I have already written. I had a bit of a continuity/time line/ flow issue a friend of mine pointed out in Book One, so I am trying to make sure I keep tabs.

This will be a lot easier to do for a couple of different reasons:

One, I have converted to being an outliner with my writing instead of a pantser, these days. Where I used to just sit down and write by the seat of my pants, I can no longer maintain that sort of writing style. There is far too much going on. My characters are well developed and are a bit demanding when it comes to their scenes. I can't just gloss over them and focus on one at a time. So the outlining has become an integral part of my writing process. I have to admit, it makes things go a lot more smoothly than before. But once in awhile, I will still hit a snag.

The other thing that has made this easier?

Well, awhile back I had decided to finally lift up my laptop keyboard and clean it out. I had a couple of sticky keys. Not a big deal, right? Wrong. This is me we're talking about, people. Where have you been these last couple years??

Anyway.

So in lifting up my keyboard and cleaning out the disgusting mess beneath, I did something. Now none of my keys work. Go figure, right? But it has become a blessing in disguise. When I got a regular, wireless keyboard and hooked it up to my computer, it put my laptop too far away for me to really see what I was doing. Even with the dreaded bi-focals. So I hooked up a regular monitor to my laptop.

I now have two screens! Which means I open up my rough draft in one and my revisions in my other and voila!

I have revision awesomeness.

Because that's how I have to revise. I catch a lot more of my typos and errors in time flow continuity this way. Believe me... I have caught A LOT of mistakes.

I'll be dropping by to see your posts and hopefully offer up some support. Have a great rest of the week!

So how do you edit and revise? Got any methods that are a bit out of the ordinary?