You Gotta Keep UP!

New Internet tips to keep busy writer’s organized and Interview of Robyn M Ryan  by fran

Meet Robyn M Ryan, new author interview w francy

Get Organized with WritersThatChat

There are a few new tips and tricks out there that are helping me so much that I wanted to share them with you. NO, I am not a nerd; far from it. But I have never let my computer or Internet scare me away from new ideas that make life easier for me.

I took some time to chat with Robyn M Ryan, author of sports romance series…she’s a pip. We had a great chat…click the mic and take a listen up…behind the scenes of getting a new book up and published as an eBook. Robyn writes in the sport romance genre and she really has a unique way of expressing her loves of sports…her blog is a great read. You’ll find podcast a fun listen!  >>> Click mic and listen to interview >>>>>>

When I am granted a few minutes or spare hours – I sit down and write. What I don’t want to do is muddle around looking for notes, web page URL’s and story ideas that were written down…where?

OK so I made changes. I was getting bored waiting for Internet Explorer to come up on my screen and it was blocking a few of the web sites that I use. I took a plunge into Chrome, I know it sounds scary to change browsers after so many years of using IE. But the cold water was so well worth the effort. I am now, paddling around in my own ‘faster’ swimming pool, on the net. Chrome comes up fast, goes to pages fast and has so many fun new apps for me to use and cut my muddle time down to almost zero. It automatically uses Google to search and I like the ease of use factor.

Don’t worry, you can bring along all your Bookmarks (Favorites) – once you download the FREE Chrome program. Now, open it up on screen…then go up to the Toolbox that is located on the upper right hand bar. It looks like a wrench and you click it and go down the form and fill out what you want your browser to do for you. This step will just take a few minutes and you can change things anytime you like. It will make your browser easier than ever and you can even choose a “theme” for the background. I am an artsy girl; so I like themes in the background that look good but are calming as I work. The URL bar is now an automatic Google search bar as well as the bar you enter the address (or URL) of the web page you want to visit. On that same bar; there will also be a STAR and it has your Bookmarks all there and easy to click on.

Short and Simple = Peace of Mind

This is the fun thing…you have more with Chrome; you have what they call Chrome Web Store. Even though it is called a store, most of the Apps are free and you may already use some from your smart phone ( or ‘they’ say cross platform now). But I have spent time on this site and found a few of the apps so helpful. I have one that takes a picture of the webpage I am reviewing and saves it for me to print out. I use my laptop a lot and I print at the end of the day or send the info to my desktop PC to print. There is a bit.ly link that is so easy; when you are on a link you like and want to save or share it with a friend or in a tweet/FB – you just one click the icon for bit.ly and it saves the shortened web address for you. NICE.

Keep your mind free with Listhings - Chrome App

I have a few Apps and I am hooked. Easier for me to work on the web as I write and easier for my older brain to remember things as I go along. I am often interrupted in my writing…so when I have tools that help me…I want to share. So…here it comes; my new favorite tool. Called Listhings. You simply have to have this tool…or App or software program…or “saver of all things in the universe”. I am not kidding. It has turned my world of post a notes upside down. It puts all of your small bits and pieces of thoughts, web URL’s, quotes, story ideas, names and addresses…all of it on a page that looks like a corkboard and has little post a notes attached. I even do my to do list here. This Listhings then is found on the “NEW TAB” in Chrome. The NewTab is the + that you see on the top of your browser and it will give you a new tab page to go to another website. When you click on your + or new tab page it will bring up a list of favorite sites visited, last sites visited and your Chrome Apps…I click on Listhings and keep it open to refer to, all the time that I am on the web. My corkboard looks as scattered as I do…but, it has the ability to give me different boards…like one for writing; filled with all my notes and web addresses that I need for working. Then I can do a new corkboard and make it for home or family info and so on…so all my scattered thoughts are finally finding a place. Just so you know, even though I trust the Cloud…I take a picture of this page (remember with my handy-dandy app called AwesomeScreenShot ) and I save it as a picture and can print it if anything ever happens to the information online. (I know its a sign of my advanced age that I doubt the Internet Cloud. Thinking that it can lose my information, but I’m a worrier at heart so I take a screen shot once a week to save.)

What this has done for me is give me balance in my online life. My online work is scattered because I work with my writing on a here and there basis – between care giving for my husband with Alzheimer’s. See what I mean? Life can get busy…you may be doing a million things, too…and I wanted to share this with you so you can have less stress.

There is more! I have found a new program that is free and its called DropBox. Now the reason this is important is that it saves your files online…nice and tight in a box that belongs to you only. So you set up the program on all of your computers. Your PC, your different laptops or any other gadget that you can think of…and this program saves the information you want to share with all of your devices. So, I am working on my laptop and have taken pictures, I scan them into my laptop fast on the go. I then go up to my PC in the evening and want to print the pictures…so I go to my DROPBOX and there they are waiting for me to copy into my Picture File on my PC,  or just print. You can use it for pictures, your writing, your business info..it stores all file formats. This is so easy to use and so nice to have on your many computers. Even if you are not savvy about new programs and worry about keeping up on new things…this is the program you want to use. You get it FREE —and  if  you want to actually back up your complete computer information…then there is a charge for larger file storage size. So…this is like a storage unit for your extra things from home, you get a FREE unit and if you want a larger unit you pay a little each month to have your backup safe and sound from computer crashes. NICE: the link above will take you to the site and show you a short ‘how to’

There you go, it’s just a start…I have more and I’m looking around for more ideas to keep all of us on spot and organized so our time is spent writing, reading, and doing fun things…instead of wasting time looking for information and notes that are long-lost–or searching for bookmarks we made two years ago. We simply can never be too busy or afraid to move forward and take the best of the new and make it ours.

I did a podcast and you can listen on demand…its the intro and each week we will add another; author audio interview. Just click on the mic to take you to the page

Our “Writers That Chat” writers are busy…you just have to go and visit the two new writer bio pages for yourself. It is such a kick to learn more about those bright ladies who are behind the scenes writing our favorite books and stories. Click on the books below for the author pages…you will enjoy the info and their books…Thanks!

Kitty Kirwin, writing her second book

Rachelle Reese, author of "Dime Store Novel" Series