This tip is a quick one, but if you don’t use it, you are putting yourself at danger to your writing being destroyed.
It’s so obvious, but so many people fail to do it. You have to back up your writing.
There’s nothing secret about that, though; almost everyone recommends that you need to have a disc of some sorts to save your files.
That’s where I take a different stand.
I think it’s a bad idea to back up your files with a disc. Here’s why:
There are two main reasons. The first is that it can be hard to get all the information from those discs onto your computer. It takes forever, and discs are not backed up. That means if something happens to your disc (it gets scratched; you lose it; etc.), your backup is also gone. This can be a messy process. Before, people were just happy to have some way to protect themselves. These days, though, there’s a better way: A thing known as a Wiki.
For those of you who don’t know, a Wiki is an editable document that can be seen or edited by whomever you choose through privacy changes.
I recommend using PBWorks, and although it does cost money, you can actually (legally) get it for free, and I’ll gladly create an account for you if you give me your e-mail, name, desired username, and name of your Wiki. I’ll just create a random password that you can change later.
Privacy is what makes it so great for me; if you want, you can let the entire world see your files (not recommend as they might just steal your content) to no one but you (yes!).
Therefore, you can just copy and paste all the work for your book into there, and it’ll be safe forever.
Note: I also highly recommend using the Wiki for the purpose that it was originally intended for: To collaborate with others. To learn how that works, just go over to CommonCraft.com.
So, that’s your task for today. Feel free to leave what you think of PBWorks in the comments section.
Note: The reason why I don’t recommend depending on flash drives is because they are simply not dependable. As I write this, the head of my flash drive have fallen off, making it not usable. I don’t know whether the information is recoverable, but I do know that if your flash drive breaks when it’s your sole backup, you’re in big trouble. Also, when a lot of people save to their flash drive, they forget to do it to their computer. Flash drives are a good tool, but I wouldn’t rely on them too much.
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Important stuff. Because all my writing goes on my blog everything is saved at Blue Host. However, I don’t even trust that, so it is important that I back-up stuff to my own computer too. The only thing I’d have to worry about then is if BOTH my computer and Blue Host go down simultaneously, which is unlikely to happen.
Steven
Yeah, the fear of what you’re saving it on is always a scary one. So far, saving it on both a Wiki and on my computer has helped a lot, and I’ve always been able to recover it in one of the places if the other goes down. There’s really no way to have it 100% safe, but 99.99% is pretty good, as well as whatever online thing you’re using will always come back up eventually.
What you say certainly is true. Loss of content is disastrous. Other than Wikis, using online word processors like Zoho Writer and Google Docs also helps. I’d recommend saving in both the locations, just in case something happens to the servers. Backing up is definitely something all writers need to do.
@Ajay
Definitely. Once I was on deadline, but my computer crashed and all my work was deleted! I was forced to get up at two in the morning to redo it. None of it would’ve happened if I had simply backed it up. The services you mention are also very plausible.
I lost my whole blog for 48 hours in month two. No, this is not a hardship in the grand scheme of things, but wow did it feel bad! Great tips, my friend. Hopefully most bloggers will never need them:)
@Josh
Yeah, I’ve had that experience multiple times; not with blogging but other projects, and once I even lost it on the due date! I’ve been saved many a time by simply backing up my content.