Save Your Writings
AKA Maintain Current Backups
Whether you use a computer, or pen and paper to write, the most important thing to do is get the words out of your head. The second most important thing is to have copies of those words in several places.
mineIf you use a computer, saving a copy of your files is easy. You can save them to an external drive, a thumb drive, a CD, or even a DVD.
If you use an email service that keeps your email on their servers (compared to downloading all of your email to your computer), you can email a copy of your work to yourself as an attachment. This is also an easy way to have access to your work from any computer that be online.
Another computer option is to use Google Docs. You can upload your files, then work on it from any place that is online – very convenient since all the computer your working from needs is a web browser and the ability to access the Internet. You can even start a document right in the browser window using Google Docs.
If you write with pen on paper, it’s worth making copies at significant points of progress – a first draft, the “last” round of revisions, the copy you send off to an agent. You should also consider having a copy stored somewhere else than where you live. In the computer world it’s called an “off-site archive” and it’s just a little extra insurance in case something happens to your home.
So … when was the last time you saved your writings?
Larry Appleton: That’s why you buy insurance.
- Perfect Strangers, “Baby, You Can Drive My Car”, 1.4
Feb 9, 2010
Categories: writing
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