On a zoom call with me this morning, a writer had trouble finding a document.
(Blimey. I sure know how to write a strong opening line.)
I watched her eyes disengage from me on Zoom, to scan instead through files on her computer. This went on for a few moments, perhaps even minutes. She was able to find earlier versions, she said, but the latest one eluded her.
The document in question was a book proposal.
I was going to read it out loud, so she could hear her own work as if it were by someone else. Then she could make changes, if necessary, before sending it off to an agent.
I wasn’t surprised that she had difficulty finding the document, because people who start working on books tend do so with a very private mindset. They aren’t thinking about a public-facing filename.
We agreed to postpone, while she looked for the right file.
But before ending the zoom I told her about a naming protocol I use to avoid getting in a muddle. I’m sharing it here in hope that it might be useful to others. I’ve learned the hard way that it’s hopeless to documents titles such as:
“Book Proposal”
“Chapter 7”
“The Whole Book”
I often receive documents with that kind of name from other people. If I didn’t rename them immediately I’d never find them again.
So: here’s what I typed into the Zoom chat:
Not long ago, I created a pre-formatted Word document layout to share with people who want one.
If that’s you, you can get it here:
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