You’d expect to get stuck sometimes when you’re working as a writer – but not on stupid stuff.

by music2work2 under CC BY with wpseopix.com

Working as a Writer

It’s easy to imagine getting stuck with writer’s block or finding the right angle when you’re working as a writer. But sometimes what’ll get you stuck is formatting or a bit of software that’s not behaving.

I ran into this last week while I was editing a client’s book. Editing along, all is well, until I run into this random dotted line. Hmmm… this is odd. I delete. No luck. I cut and paste. Still there. I check formatting. Nothing showing. I close the document and re-open…. hello, still there.

I bang my head on the wall. That surely didn’t help.

Then I remember… you can learn nearly anything about anything by looking on YouTube – and of course, by Googling it. Tried that first, and came across this page: http://donfry.wordpress.com/2010/10/21/deleting-dotted-lines-in-word/

Don Fry saved me a massive headache. Dotted line, bye-bye-o!

So many lessons to learn from just this little story:

Weird stuff happens and can sidetrack you if you don’t know how to problem solve.
No matter how geeky you are, you’ll get stuck with tech sometimes.
You can learn almost anything from Google and YouTube.
Don Fry’s the man.
Google really DOES want to provide relevant, useful search results when you go looking for information. Remember this when you write for your clients. Remember also, the feeling of relief when you’ve found something you needed online – and understand how valuable your skills are, working as a writer.