My Backup Plan

This is one of those posts that has nothing new to say, but is a can’t-say-it-too-often reminder for all of us. Back up your work, well and often.

I know I have to backup, but I still don’t do it often enough. Yes, I have a Mac and I have fewer problems with it than I ever did with any of my PCs, but anything could happen. A fire, rain in the open window, a theft, a portion of the ceiling caving in – you’re a writer, you’ve imagined far worse!

When I worked in IT, we would explain to people that backing up your work “well” did not mean backing up to disk and using that disk as a coaster. It did not mean transferring all your files from your computer to a single disk – and then losing that disk, or finding out later the disk went bad. (That isn’t a backup of files; that’s moving the only copy of the files.)

To back up well required thinking through all the available options and choosing the best ones (notice the plural) for your situation. When I started school two weeks ago, I bought a 8GB flash drive and named it School. On my Mac, I have a folder called School. Every other day I copy the Mac folder onto the flash drive, replacing/adding everything. I have another flash drive called Writing that I have been using (inconsistently) to do the same with my Writing folder.

Last year I bought a Western Digital My Book external hard drive. (In my IT days, we used Western Digital products, so I figured I was buying a quality product. I’m very happy with it.) The My Book comes with software which will automatically back up all the files and programs on your computer at regular intervals. Since I have “Time Machine” on my Mac, the two work together to create backups of my entire hard drive every hour, saving one for each day as the next day begins its 24 hourly copies. It works in the background so you can keep writing.

The only thing I have not done yet is to choose an off-site storage facility. If my apartment building burns down or floods or if lightning strikes, my two wonderful backups may be lost. Infrequently, I send an email to myself with a manuscript attached, but that only protects a single file, and I don’t remember to do it every time I change that file. There are many secure online options now instead of taking disks to a safety deposit box at the bank (which I used to do every Friday). If you use one of the online plans, please share with us the name, cost, and if you are happy with the service.

Quality technology is only helpful if you use it. So find a way to remember to back up daily. Make it a ritual. If you’re lucky, you’ll never have to be ridiculously relieved that you created and followed a quality backup routine.

School Notes:
For those of you who gave me the shoutout – thank you! I’ll post something about school at the end of my regular posts.    I’m in the Master of Arts in Creative Writing program, and this semester I am taking Professional Editing, Advanced Narrative Fiction, and Theory and Writing. See the comma between “Fiction” and “and” in the last sentence? I just learned Australian punctuation leaves it out. I also learned there are three kinds of dashes! (I thought there were only two.) And a specific purpose for each one.

In the fiction class, my lecturer (instead of “professor” even though she has a doctorate) is very keen to help students find their voice. Exciting! That seems to be the one thing writers most want help with once they reach a certain stage. We read sections from a lot of different kinds of fiction and discuss how the authors wrote their beginnings, or whether you can differentiate between the author’s voice and the narrator’s voice, or how they handle dialog, etc. (I have to remember that when I write for the US market, I use “double quotes” around dialog, but when I write for Australian markets or submit to class, I have to use ‘single quotes.’ I hope I can remember!)

I was afraid my Theory class would be horrible. I didn’t want to study dead people’s writing. But my lecturer is so interested in his topics that he makes it interesting for everyone. Last week he showed us a clip from Planet of the Apes to explain how we use theory in everyday life to analyze our life and our work, to critique society and our writing. I have to read Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert. My first thought was, great, a 400-page French novel from 1857. But to me it reads like a man writing a romance novel to take a crack at romance novels! (He’s actually taking a crack at romantic era writing.) I’ve laughed so many times. The “hero” meets a woman his parents want him to marry, so he does. Then he meets a prettier girl a few years later and flirts with her and – voila! – his wife suddenly drops dead and he gets to marry the pretty girl! LOL!

There is sooo much work! But I’m loving every moment of it! Today I have to turn in two polished 700-word pieces that we “workshopped” (read “critiqued”) in class last week. Eeek!! That’s a fast turn-around! Tomorrow I have to give a 10-minute presentation on realism. And we critique two people’s work in each of the two writing classes each week. Wow! In spite of the work and the stress, I can’t thank God enough for helping me to get here! It’s amazing!