Noticing Newbies
This week: Clean your Portfolio for the New Year Edited by: Sara♥Jean More Newsletters By This Editor
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Clean your Portfolio for the New Year
Happy New Year! Well, almost. It isn't quite the new year yet, but it is awfully close. Tomorrow! Start fresh!
Happy Almost New Year! I can't believe it is already 2015... this year, like every year recently, seems to have just flown by faster than I ever imagined.
Because there is a new year coming up, I thought I might suggest a little spring, uh, new year cleaning of your portfolio. Please notice how I did not say clean OUT your portfolio. Some of those half-done ideas may come in handy someday, so don't get rid of them. I am more supportive of a rearrangement type situation.
I am a habitual portfolio rearranger. I move things around, then I move them back, and then I move them around again. I have managed to leave them be for some time now, but it is due for a bit of work. So, I'll let you know some of the ways I arrange things.
Now, I'm not saying it is wrong to have 100+ items in your main portfolio folder, because it certainly isn't. Goodness knows that is how I kept mine for the longest time. However, I got to a point where I couldn't find any of my own items without putting their keywords in the search box, and so I decided that I should probably move things around.
1. Create folders for different topics or genres
The first thing I do is decide how I want it arranged. An outline, of sorts. I create folders for my poetry, my longer stories, my shorter stories, and then for items that aren't creative writing at all. Inside those folders, I separate into more folders, if need be. For example, it is handy to have everything from one group in a folder, so they are easy to find for you and for others who may drop by your portfolio.
When creating folders and other items in our portfolios, there are so many settings, sometimes it is hard to decide which ones to truly change, and which to leave as the default.
2. Create a Table of Contents
I used to actually put these in the folder descriptions themselves, but as the looks of the site have changed drastically since then, I will likely create this on a separate document and make sure it is at the top of each folder. Within it, you can place what you want to highlight in that folder, for anyone who might visit, and of course put the links so they can jump there. This is especially useful in very large portfolios. Your bio offers the ability to link a few featured items, but this gives you the opportunity to highlight a few in each folder, or even make a comprehensive list, and then highlight that in your bio.
3. Put Items in the Order YOU Want Them In
You have the ability to order things in your folder and portfolio the way you want them to be. I'm picky, so I actually use this option often. In the "Manage Your Portfolio" box, you have the option to "Change Order". The larger numbers go on top, so start with some large number , and skip some between so you can add things in between items without having to renumber everything. (For example, I go by thousands - 5000, 4000, 3000, etc. If I want to add something between, I just select a number between.) Any new item will come in as "0", so if you want a new item at the top, you would need to give it a larger number.
4. Don't Delete, Change Access Instead
You know those unfinished items I mentioned WAY back at the beginning? Well, what I do with those is make a folder for them, and I make the folder and set the access on everything in it 'PRIVATE! For My Eyes Only!" This way, if I stumble across it later, I might have a renewed interest in it, or I may have more ideas when looking at it at a later time. However, it also means that no one has to worry about stumbling across my woefully unfinished item if I don't want them to. I don't delete it, though. I don't want it gone, just out of the way for a while.
Good luck with your Winter Cleaning of the Portfolio, and I hope you have a wonderful start to your New Year! |
Let's take a look at some items from our new members:
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Feedback from "Noticing Newbies Newsletter (December 3, 2014)"
Doug Rainbow said, "If you are not writing for income, look at your motive. Do you write because it is enjoyable, because it enhances your status, or because you have something to say? None of these motives ought to require any special schedule or disciplinary process. Write as the spirit moves and be happy with that. Writing "to a schedule" has never resulted in anything worthwhile in my personal experience except for meeting deadlines imposed in an economic context."
Well, I think it depends on what your goal is. I know plenty of people who don't write for income, but still want to complete something like NANOWRIMO, which takes scheduling and discipline. And I am a firm believer in the phrase, "You will never find the time, you have to MAKE it." Mainly because, at least for me, it is quite true. I am incredibly busy, but that doesn't mean I don't love writing and don't want to do it. Fact is, when inspiration and desire to write hit, I am rarely in a position where I can actually run with it, so I have to make the time later. If I only wrote as the spirit moved, it would never happen, unfortunately. We all have different situations, of course.
Lawless - Proud Pantser said, "I think that Number 3 on your list is more important than any of the other things you mentioned.
Everything I have learned about writing has come from having read hundreds upon hundreds of books.
By reading, you learn what works well for you and what doesn't. That is hugely important as a writer.
Setting goals and such is very good, of course. But reading is imperative. Nothing, no amount of research, no "tips" or tricks or outlines or any other such thing will help a writer more."
I quite agree. Reading also helps you see what has been published - the quality of the work, and other such things. They can only make you better, and it is a bonus that it is also an enjoyable activity. |
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