The importance of the memory stick...

Sometimes things happen in life that remind you that things go wrong. That happened to me yesterday. I got in a writing mood and wrote nearly 3,500 over the course of the day on my novel. It was lovely and wonderful. I got so much done. I was proud of it.

And then something went haywire with my computer. Or with my brain. I'm not sure which one, but I'm going to go with blaming the computer because it makes me feel better. Nothing that I wrote yesterday saved. Nothing. Did I say nothing? Cause I mean absolutely nothing I wrote on the new novel yesterday saved at all. It made me so angry that it wasn't funny.

So here's a bit of a tip to my fellow authors. Well, to anyone who keeps important information on their computer (and be honest, who doesn't?). BACK IT UP. And do it often. Also, don't just rely on one back up. I may be a bit obsessive compulsive when it comes to this since I had a computer crash on me once, but I have at least two back up copies of everything I can't imagine losing. And I save often, no matter what autosave does. Because after yesterday, I don't trust it.

After yesterday's fiasco with losing at least five pages of my novel, here are three lessons I learned that I will carry with me for the rest of my writing career.

1. Don't rely on auto-save. It isn't reliable.
2. Manually save often. At least every two pages or so, or every fifteen minutes. Just to make sure that you don't lose anything.
3. Keep at least two back up copies (not on your computer). Just in case the worst case scenario happens. 

In short, the SAVE button and the memory stick are your best friends. Keep them close. They'll be good to you.