Back it Up

I feel like the rabbit from Alice in Wonderland. I’m running around pulling my hair out and screaming, “I’m late, I’m late….for everything.” This drives me insane. I’m never late for anything. What’s worse, I put myself in this predicament.

The motherboard on my computer blew taking with it the processor and the hard drive. Did I listen to the wise people before me who shared their disastrous computer breakdowns? Well yes, I listened and felt empathy for them. However, I didn’t take it to heart, so I didn’t faithfully back up my work.

Thankfully, I do have a few items in hard copy. They’re mostly earlier versions and will need revisions. It’s a fitting punishment for my foolish folly.

I broke into a sweat thinking about how much worse it could have been. What if I'd had a brilliant partial sitting on some editor’s desk and he/she requested a full manuscript? That didn’t happen but what if it had?

Speck shared the clever way she saves her work. She emails it to herself. That’s simple enough to do. I was able to retrieve the e-mailed assignments I did with BIP course. Anything that wasn’t an assignment is just plain gone. I cringe when I look at my novel binder and knowing I’ll have to start over from the beginning.

Here are a few suggestions for busy the writer:

Back up often…once a week or bi-weekly or if you're a brave heart monthly

Email your stories and articles to yourself

Print hard copies

Don’t put off these important steps because a computer crash doesn’t give you fair warning.

On the bright side, lessons learned the hard way usually stay learned.

Lori