I came across Flipboard completely by chance. I was browsing my stats page and seemed to be getting an increasing number of referrals from this ‘thing’ called Flipboard. However, when I clicked through to the links they just failed so I thought it was spam.

The following day, I had over 100 referrals just from that site, so I decided to actually Google Flipboard, and low and behold its pretty awesome.

Anyway, if you’re anything like me, you might spend hours reading other blogs or trawling the internet for story research, but where do you put it all? I never really know what to do with all the things I want to read again, it’s not like the old days when you shove crap from magazines a in a folder or scrap book – I miss getting my fingers smeared with pritt stick and having a physical project book that never quite looked right!

These days I clog my laptop up with dozens of open tabs in my browser, (which stay open for weeks) and then I get mighty irritated when my laptop does an automatic update and closes everything. LOST FOREVER PEOPLE.

Sure, I could bookmark pages but isn’t that so last decade?! Plus I must have at least a thousand bookmarks none of which are particularly well organised.

Sigh.

Flipboard is a kind of Pinterest but for word oriented people rather than visual people. It works on the basis of you creating ‘Magazines’ which are effectively a storage folder. You can ‘flip’ articles, blog posts or pictures into your magazines. You can title, rearrange and organise your magazines and articles however you like.

It’s basically the ideal solution to storing those interesting blogs, pictures, research or articles you want to keep. It’s minimal effort, sleek, neat and can be visual for those who want it.  But more than anything, its tidy and doesn’t require hundreds of bytes of data to store.

They also have a ‘flip it’ button you can install onto your browser so that you can flip things from anywhere. They have apps for your devices and all the mod cons of a normal social media site, like the ability to follow other peoples’ magazines or general ‘topics’, of which there are thousands.

I am only just getting to grips with this little discovery, but it appears to be a bit of an (undiscovered to me) gem.

Have you heard of Flipboard? Do you use it? Like it? Let me know in the comments.

If you liked this post, why not get even more awesome writing tips in the book 13 Steps To Evil – How to Craft Superbad Villains. Click this link and just tap the logo of your device or regular bookshop and it will take you to the right page. 

You can also get a FREE villains cheatsheet and a villain’s short course by joining my mailing list just click here.

Read Keepers, the first book in my Young Adult fantasy series now. Or to hear more about the release of the sequels as well as get regular CogMail updates you can do so here.

You can also find me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Goodreads

The post The Minimalists Guide to Storing Interesting Articles appeared first on Sacha Black.

I have lost count of how long I have been subscribed to Jamie’s blog, but it’s been a while. I follow a number of bloggers, but Jamie’s is the one I wait with baited breath every week to see what delights she gives us. The reason I wanted to mention her blog, is because she is an editor. A developmental editor.

Her blog, which you can find here, is no less than a gold mine. She has hundreds quite possibly thousands of blog posts rich with information, from writing tips, industry insights, general information, book reviews to all you could ever want to know about working with an editor.

Any writer who is reading this, listen up – I cannot advocate you reading her blog more. Be warned, Jamie can be cuttingly honest at times, so much so it took me over a year before I even plucked up enough courage to post a comment on her blog, and still now I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve done so! But it’s an honesty you need… if your serious about being a writer anyway. Jamie will tell you exactly what not to do, all about the habits writers do that annoy editors, and educate you in just what you do and don’t need to do when approaching an editor. Jamie will make you a better writer. I only hope one day my stuff is good enough to get edited by someone like Jamie.

The respect and admiration I have for Jamie is infinite. If you’re even half serious about writing, GO. CHECK. HER. OUT.

The post Writing Tips #8 Follow an Editor appeared first on Sacha Black.