This year I was able to draft and do the first major round of revision on my manuscript during NaNo. I wanted to share two books that helped me achieve that, so that you too can boost your productivity whether you're doing NaNo or not. :)

First up is 2k to 10k by Rachel Aaron.

2k to 10k is a short ebook on how to increase word count (and hopefully your output consists mostly of the words you can keep) and revise. Her section on increasing productivity for the actual drafting phase is excellent, and many would benefit from reading it, not just for future NaNo challenges, but for general productivity. (I presume you want to write more and better all the time, not just in November.)

I personally found her advice on revision particularly helpful since I always struggle with it. I'm extremely inefficient with revision (my process is atrocious, trust me). I can spend 1-2 months on drafting a novel, then spend the next 12+ months on revision!

I usually end up feeling sick to my stomach at the idea of having to look at the book again by the time I mail my manuscript to Madam Agent. I know it's something I must correct for my own sake since it's holding my productivity back and hurts my career.

Anyway, changing something you've been doing for a long time can be difficult, but I know I can do it. I've done it before, and with the practical tips and guidelines, I know I can master the revision process.

I recommend 2k to 10k highly for not only prepping for NaNo, but for the post-NaNo months when you revise your NaNo manuscript. (And it's a steal at only $0.99.)

Be A Sex-Writing Strumpet by Stacia Kane is something I wish I'd read years ago. I always struggle with sex scenes — which is terribly frustrating for a romance writer who includes sex scenes in many of her books — and I needed to find a way to write sex scenes better and faster.

The book is actually a collection of blog posts Stacia wrote, and the organization may be less than ideal (or formatting not up to your standards for those of you who want an uber-nice ebook). But the information in the book is 100% worth the price.

Be A Sex-Writing Strumpet isn't just for romance writers, since she also talks about sex scenes for other genres.

So if you don't have a lot of confidence in writing sex scenes or want to improve your sex scenes, try Be A Sex-Writing Strumpet.

Outlook is a marvelous piece of software that not only takes care of emails and contacts, but also manages to-do lists and various appointments and tasks.

However, if you don't do some basic maintenance on your personal folders files (*.pst), you'll experience a significant degradation in performance even if you don't have virus or other issues on your computer.

In order to keep your Outlook running optimally, you should do the following regularly:

• Compact the pst and ost files. (Compacting the ost files isn't applicable for people who aren't using an MS Exchange server.)
• Scan the pst and ost for errors and repair them. (Again, the instructions on ost files aren't applicable for people who aren't using an MS Exchange server.)

Hope this helps!

I'm in the middle of revision right now. Though my process is different for each project, I'll share the revision method for my current WIP.

Step One: I print out the whole thing in whatever font strikes my fancy, but it's always double-spaced so I have enough room to scribble notes. Then I read it through in 3-5 days and make notes. They're not extensive, mind you. It's mostly for big things like:

• Yawn. This lags.
• This doesn't belong here.
• I have no idea what this sentence is trying to say.
• Oops. Misplaced punctuation / words.
• Who's saying this?
• Action choreography doesn't make sense here.
• This point deserves emotional depth upgrade.
• Whoa. Emo much?
• Repetitious.

Step Two: I consult my Maass notes and go through the hard copy draft again, this time marking places that could be changed / improved per my notes. If I run out of space on the actual manuscript page, I use a notebook designated for revision.

Step Three: I finally make all the changes on my computer.

Step Four: I spend about 2 weeks doing nothing but reading other people's books and/or working on some other projects, but I do not revise anything I've written, even if it's not my WIP. (I might beta for other people who I may ping later for Steps Seven and Eight below.) This helps me “reset” my eyes and brain, so to speak.

Step Five: I print out the WIP again. Repeat Step One. Then go through it again with ECE and EDITS.

Step Six: Make changes to my soft copy. Send to the 1st set of betas.

Step Seven: Make any changes as needed per the 1st set of betas.

Step Eight: Send it to the 2nd set of betas. (By this point, the manuscript should be more or less in shape.) Make final changes as needed.

Step Nine: Send to Agent. Give myself a week of detox time from revision so I can “reset” again as I know Agent usually has her own set of revision comments, etc.

How do you revise? What tools / books have you found helpful?

Hero Material and I are going on our eight day-long honeymoon at the end of the month to Thailand. He's been there once or twice, but this is my first time in South Asia, so I'm very excited.

We booked our trip for less than $1,000 (USD), including all our flights (business class), shinkansen, resorts / hotels and taxi fare. The key here isn't just looking for the best deal, but having credit cards and so on that earned us miles and points on Star Alliance Airlines and Starwood Hotels. If you put everything on your credit card, you'll eventually have enough to book a nice getaway after about two years or so, although it really depends on how much you spend each year. (I do not recommend putting all your points and miles in domestic low-cost airlines because you can't use them for international trips. Of course, if you have zero desire to travel outside the U.S. feel free to disregard my advice. :) )

Also we almost always fly on Star Alliance Airlines — thankfully it's very easy to do — and we usually stay at Starwood Hotels. This gives us even more points / miles. Basically it's an exploitation of airline and hotel loyalty programs. I know that it can be a bit unnerving at times because so many airlines cry “Woe is us!” and talk about their impending financial doom, blah blah blah. What if you have all your miles with an airline and the airline goes under?

In my experience and observations, it's highly unlikely that your miles will disappear. Big international airlines, such as United, Continental, ANA, BA, etc., have millions of customers on their mileage programs, and many of those customers are very loyal to the brand. When I was a management consultant, United was the most convenient airline for me, and I always flew on United or other airlines that had code-sharing and/or alliance partnerships with United so I could pool all the miles in one place (United Mileage Plus). It was the same for my colleagues even though their airline of choice was often something other than United.

All big airlines know that a mileage reward program is a valuable loyalty- and consequently revenue-generating asset, so long as its rules and so on remain intact. If your airline becomes liquidated (god forbid), others will buy up the reward program and give you incentives to maintain your brand loyalty.

Anyway, that's it for my tips on how to book a nice honeymoon for very little money. Feel free to share your own experiences / tips and ask questions if you'd like.

P.S. I'll be posting some pictures from our trip in April. :)

I noticed that Marie-Claude‘s Facebook status appears automatically on Twitter. I asked her how she did it — because I wasn't able to figure it out beyond that I needed to use Twitterfeed. Alas, Marie-Claude couldn't remember exactly how she made it work, but she told me to find my minifeed.

That was enough for me. So here it is, step-by-step. :)

1. Go to your Facebook minifeed page. (Make sure to log in!)
2. On your minifeed page, look at the list on your right under View.
3. Select the type of feed you want to send to Twitter. Most people, I think, want to send their status updates. If so, you can grab it here.
4. Now, scroll down until you reach the very bottom of the View column.
5. There, you will see another heading titled Subscribe to these Stories. Right under it is a RSS icon with a link to your feed RSS. Click on it.
6. Check to make sure that the link you clicked on is a valid RSS feed.
7. Now grab the feed url.
8. Go to Twitterfeed. Make sure you're logged in. If you don't have an account, you must create one.
9. Create a new feed. Put your Facebook minifeed RSS url from Step 7 in the RSS Feed URL field you see on your screen. (Everything else is self-explanatory, BTW. Twitterfeed is very easy to use.)
10. You're done! Enjoy!

Please do let me know if you have any questions! :)