The Gone is File!

Has it happened to you?  Hard drive crash?  Inadvertent delete?  Laptop stolen?

Fortunately (yeah, right), I've only ever had two of those things happen to me.  It can really mix you up (thus today’s mixed-up title).

Today's blog is more general computer advice, but it applies to writing inasmuch as you don't want to lose all your hard work.

I'm a computer guy by trade, so I know that backups are important.  And yet, I've still had hard drive crashes mess me up.  I have two desktops and a laptop.  I have three external "backup" hard drives.  I have a 4GB thumb drive.  Luckily, I haven't lost any writing projects, but I have lost music and video files that I had for years.  That's what convinced me to shell out the money for an online backup service.  I hope this doesn't sound like a commercial, but even with all of those backup devices, I rarely did the backups myself.  So, to have it automatically done twice a day is a major stress relief.  Plus, we're all busy.  To manually do a backup, even on just our 'super-mega-important' files would take valuable minutes out of every day (or as often as we'd actually do it).

But, if you can't bring yourself to pay for an online backup service, at the very least, backup to another device (thumb drive, external hard drive, CD/DVD Rom) as often as you make major changes.  If your computer dies, you'll be glad you still have your darling poems, short stories, novels, articles, or whatever, and you'll really be saying, "TGIF!"  (Or at least, "Thank Goodness!")

As another word of advice, save, and save often.  I tell people where I work to save every five or ten minutes or after you do a bunch of work (bunch being a very technical term).  If you want to have multiple revisions available to look back upon, use save-as.  But, power fluctuations, hitting the wrong key...many things can happen to your current document.  If you just saved it and something messes it up, close it without saving and open the saved copy.

May your writing be good and your files in good hands.

Thanks for stopping by.

Will

The Good Incidence Fallacy (Yeah...a stretch to get to TGIF, right?) :)

"I've always been in the right place and time. Of course, I steered myself there." - Bob Hope

How often have you, or someone you know, said that a writer "got lucky" or "has all the luck?"

Sure, luck may be involved in life, but hard work, preparation, and persistence play a good part as well.  Most successes, in writing and in many other professions, do not happen 'overnight.'  Basketball players do not decide to play basketball one day and join the NBA the next.  CEOs do not decide to start a business one day and be running a multi-billion dollar company the next.  Writers do not decide to write one day, and have a bestseller the next.  The list goes on.  For every person's success, there is usually a story of hard work, dedication, and perseverance behind it.

So, writers need to prepare to be writers:  Read.  Write.  Read books on writing.  Research your subjects.  Write.  Research publishers and agents.  Research the market.  Write.  Revise.

You're not going to be a success overnight, but if you work hard, prepare, and place yourself where you can succeed, someday you will succeed.

I love Bob Hope, thus the quote above.  I also love Shel Silverstein.  Taken a bit out of context, but still somewhat applicable if you think of magic or good luck as success:  "...all the magic I have known I've had to make myself." — Shel Silverstein (Where the Sidewalk Ends)

Work hard so that success will find you.

Thanks for stopping by.

Will