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Word To The Wise

As many of you know,  in October, Literary agent, Becca Stumpf expressed interest in my manuscript and requested a partial.  Since then, I have been working diligently with a local editor to polish my book before submitting it to her.  

In fact, I was just a few weeks away from a final draft.  That is, until last Saturday (12-10-11).  After brewing a cup of Go-Go juice, I headed to my office to get some writing done.  However, when I went to turn on my computer, it would not boot up.  I just purchased the device three months ago, so you can imagine my surprise.  As a person who tries to see the cup half-full instead of the converse, I was thankful for the external hard drive that backed up all my work each night.

I called Samsung and explained the situation.  The customer service representative instructed me to complete another back up.  Then he walked me through a system and data restore. After several hours on the phone, I thought everything was good to go.  Well, that's what I get for thinking.  Last night when I tried to use my computer, it gave me the same trouble as Saturday.  I called Samsung this morning and the company is paying to ship it to their warehouse for repair. 

Already frustrated by the hassle, I pulled out my old laptop (that dates back to Jurassic Park) and went to retrieve the latest copy of my book from the external hard drive.  Much to my disappointment, the only version I could find dated back to September.  Yes, that's right SEPTEMBER!!!!!!  December's version was on it yesterday.  What happened between then and now is beyond me.

Fortunately, the copy my editor e-mailed to me last month was still on file, so I was able to retrieve some of my changes.  Now I'm about a month behind on completing my book.  To make matters worse, I'm not sure where his copy left off, so now I have to go back and re-read the entire draft.  I'm beginning to wonder if the fates are against me.

Anywho, for those of you who are wondering where I'm going with this post, I hope it will serve as a warning of what not to do.  Don't make the same mistake I did by putting all of your eggs in one basket.  Find multiple places to store your work. Although this whole dilemma stung like hell, I learned a valuable lesson.  From now on, not only will I back up my draft to the external hard drive, but I will also store it on a removable thumb drive and e-mail it to myself. 

If nothing else, I hope my experience will prevent some other writer from making the same mistake.  Until next time, happy writing.  

Comments

  1. That is so painful! I've lost a week's worth of work before and the lesson taught me to back up frequently! I try to use my zip drive and I email versions to an email account.

    I'm so glad you had that old email from your agent and didn't lose everything!

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  2. Ugh!! So sorry that happened to you! It's so frustrating and I'm sure you've kicked yourself until you're black and blue! Your reminder was timely for me, though...just uploaded latest draft to Google Docs.

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  3. Johannah,depending on how much you write in a week,could determine the extent of pain you suffered after losing your data. Yeah, like you, I'm going to back up often and e-mail the draft to myself.

    Brenda, I'm still kicking myself. I Didn't write anything today. Twenty minutes of tears combined with lots of profanities has drained me. I'm just about over it now.

    Guess it's time to pull up my big girl skirt and dive into the mess that awaits me. I'm going to do this in the a.m. when my mind is fresh.

    BTW, does Google have some sort of software that allows writers to upload their work?

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  4. I use a free program called DROPBOX, which allows me to save a file to not only my local hard drive, but it also syncs with my work PC, my iPad, as well as storing a copy on-line. I'm covered. Sorry for your troubles!

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  5. OH, man, that stinks. I highly recommend emailing it to yourself, as you've mentioned. Best of luck with all the painstaking work.

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  6. Hi Anita, long time no see. Yes, I will be sure to e-mail a copy to myself from now on.

    D.L. Thanks for the tip, I'll definitely check out dropbox. Wish I knew about it before Saturday,sigh.(:

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  7. I feel for you. I lost a bunch of edits once and now know to back it up multiple times. The emailing to oneself is the best. Good luck catching up.

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  8. Yikes! What more can one say...oops...it's me who's writing this therefore there is always more to say!

    I err on the side of too many backups which thankfully is one of those rare times when excess is good! That being said, you are right in suggesting several types of back ups, and to that end I do use a secondary stick just for my writing - I sleep with it. (nah, just kidding)

    On a serious note...I feel your pain - and to help you through this I've poured myself a drink in your honour! I hope it helps.

    Cheers, Jenny
    PEARSON REPORT

    PS - I've added myself as you 120th Follower - gosh I like even numbers!

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  9. OMG! I really feel for you. At the end of every writing day, I save at a couple of places and email it to myself. I was also saving on a flashdrive, but I kept forgetting, so now I only do that at the end of each full draft.

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  10. Susan, welcome to Aspiring novelists and thanks for showing your support by following my blog. Much appreciated. Mistakes seem to teach the best lessons, don't they? Although I sympathize with all the work you had to do in order to catch back up, it's nice to know I'm not alone here.

    Pearson, welcome to Aspiring Novelists. Thanks for the following. Much appreciated. I could use a drink about now. I'll be sure to toast you when I have one this weekend. That's the only time I have to relax without worrying about carpooling, etc. I definitely plan to use multiple backup tools in the future.

    Carol, thanks for stopping in. As always, it nice to have you.

    Seems we share a similar problem. I also kept forgetting to backup, so I bought that comfounded hard drive. Best laid plans... From now on I'm going to e-mail my drafts to myself. Also, D.L. Hammons mentioned a site called Drop Box. Think I'll check it out as well. Take care.

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  11. Oh gosh! I keep mine on a thumb drive, but never thought about emailing myself too. Thank you for a great tip and I hope you are able to recover your data!

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  12. Thanks, Liza, I'm trying to catch up on all I lost. Thumb drives are great, but I've had a couple of experiences where they failed. This said, e-mail is a great secondary backup. Thanks for stopping in. Take care.

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  13. That sounds like a total nightmare! One of my biggest pet peeve is doing things over again. I would second the recommendation for Dropbox. I don't use it myself, but have heard only good things. I do all of my writing using Yarny, which stores on the cloud. For my more informal writing, I just used google docs. I have had one too many computers crash to trust hard drives! I hope your second trip around your story produced even better material!

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