I'm a bit behind this week in everything. A migraine, a cold that my family can't help sharing and nasty weather have knocked me on my can. It would seem like the perfect conditions for getting plenty of reading done but it's harder to do when my head hurts. Migraines also affect my vision some of the time so I can't do much of anything. The headaches are much better than they use to be though and don't happen as often. I don't have to crawl into a cave for days before I can function again. One of my biggest triggers is lack of sleep and I definitely don't get enough sleep. Oh well...Anyway, after all the fun activities of BBAW, last week I asked what other events were coming up in blog land. There were a few mentioned and I always appreciate knowing what's out there. I've only been doing this a year so it's all still pretty new to me.
This week I wanted to ask you how you write your reviews. I'm wondering about the actual writing process. I've done mine a few ways. I often just click on New Post and write away. It usually gets saved as I go but I have had those disasters where it wasn't and I had to start over. I've also used Microsoft Word and when I was done I copied and pasted it here. For some reason I often have problems with that. It doesn't format properly or something similar happens. I'm kind of dabbling, trying different ways, and I thought this would be the perfect time to ask here, what works for you? How and where do you write your reviews and other posts before you put them on your blog?
It's through all of you, answering questions and offering helpful tips, that I've figured out how to do things so far. I am so very grateful but I have so much left to learn!
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I just write mine in Blogger and then post it. I've heard from other people that doing it in Word and then copying it does create some crazy formatting issues so I have stayed away from that method. I've also experienced the formatting issues when trying to copy an article from a publicist out of my email to post. I had to go into the html and delete a bunch of coding and since I have no idea what I'm doing in the html I could have really messed things up!
ReplyDeleteOnce I get my review posted on my blog I usually copy it from there to post on the other sites I use (LibraryThing, Goodreads, Facebook).
I'll be interested to see how other people do this.
I just click on add new post and type away!
ReplyDeleteGood question. I usually just go into my blog and click new post and type away and then publish it but lately I have started to write them out on paper and enter it on my blog and save the sheet.
ReplyDeleteI do it much like Angela does. I just start a new post and go from there. Once it's posted I copy/paste to Library Things, Amazon, etc. I also copy/paste to a word file on my machine just in case.
ReplyDeleteDebbie, This was a great to[ic, as I've been wondering the same thing, so thanks for bringing it up.
ReplyDeleteIn the past I've had formatting issues as well. I've tried drafting reviews using, Word, gmail, and just clicking on new post, and I have the best "formatting success", just doing "new post", so now I often draft my reviews in a notebook, and the type away using "new post".
Occasionally even when all looks fine, the post may look a bit wacky. It can be frustrating.
I do it much like you do, just open up a new post and type away until I'm ready to post it. Sometimes if it doesn't come out quite the way I want to say it, I'll save it as a draft and come back to it.
ReplyDeleteOccasionally I'll draft on paper (those tend to be the reviews I'm happiest with), but mostly I'm a click-and-type kind of blogger.
As with most of the bloggers here I just click on New Post and start typing.
ReplyDeleteWhen I do interviews with authors I've tried to copy and paste from Word and email and usually end up with a format mess! I always try first because it is a pain when I have to retype every word of the interview!
I hope you feel better soon!
ReplyDeleteI've done a bunch of different things. When I was on blogger, sometimes I would write it in word, then cut and paste. But then those crazy formatting issues you mentioned popped up...so yeah, avoid that! Then I started using Live Writer, which worked pretty well.
Now that I'm on wordpress, I usually just click new post and start typing. Sometimes I'll write something in word, but that can be a little quirky at times, too. If I'm not at home, I'll sometimes write posts out by hand.
I just type directly into a new blogger post, but it does sometimes cause problems. Now and then, the auto-save feature ceases to function. And, for some reason I can no longer cut and paste, either to or from a blogger post. So, I couldn't write something and then paste it into my blog, anyway. Weird. If the auto-save feature is working, I save frequently. And, sometimes I still have formatting issues. If I'm not getting spaces between paragraphs, I go in and add the paragraph symbol to create spaces, etc.
ReplyDeleteI, too, found copying and pasting form Word created a mess format wise so now just start in new post and always hit preview before posting and then go back and do any necessary edits. Now if I could only figure out how to get motivated and write a decent review, I would be all set.
ReplyDeleteDebbie, I hope you feel better now. sent you a new e, not a reply on Wed. Hope you got it all right. Have a good weekend.
I use blogger directly because cutting and pasting doesn't work for me. I also just discovered that there is newer blogger format than what I was using and I switched. That has helped, though still some formatting problems. I like to post the cover first and then that helps me get started.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if anyone mentioned this but if you write your post in Word and then copy and paste it into Blogger, copy and paste into edit html and not compose. Then the formatting is just fine.
ReplyDelete