How much work are you willing to lose? That’s what you need to ask yourself if you don’t have a backup strategy for your working documents. If you save your files to your hard drive, you can lose them if your hard drive goes south (although there are data recovery options that can save data) or if your laptop or PC is lost or stolen (never check your laptop; keep it with you at all times when traveling!).

I don’t like re-doing any writing. I feel my first effort is usually best. That doesn’t mean I don’t do re-writes; of course I have to re-write. But I don’t like to re-write a scene from scratch if I already have something I’m happy with. Which is exactly what you may have to do if you don’t take care of your work.

Here are my simple rules for saving and protecting writing data:

1. Save often, and increment your filenames.
2. Use automatic (and free) online backup services to give you an automated backup you can recover even if your PC is lost or destroyed.
3. Back up your files to external hard drive and/or CD or DVDs as well.

The good news is that all three of these steps are painless. Here are additional details on each one:

1. Save often and increment

• I have MS Word set to autosave every 10 minutes. So even if I forget to manually save I should be able to recover most of my work in the event of a system crash.
• Nonetheless, I hit save (Ctrl-S on a PC, Command (Apple)-S on a Mac) every time I stop typing.
• I start every day with the previous day’s file then use Save-As to create a new file. I use the format ‘YY-MM-DD project name [draft status]‘, adding a -1, -2, -3 to the day field if I make any big shifts during the day such as deleting a section or moving things around.
  • ‘YY’ is the last two digits of the year, ‘MM’ is the two-digit month number, and you can probably figure out what DD is. If I do anything other than typing new material at the end of the document I want the previous version to be saved.
• I keep my working directory for each project fairly clean by making a sub-folder called ‘YYYY drafts’ (YYYY is the four-digit year), and moving the previous day’s work to this folder every few days. I want to make sure that I open the right file every day; if you’ve ever accidentally opened an old draft and started editing it you know why this is important.
• I make other directories for research, inspirational images, and make new directories for each new revision (draft, first round revisions, second round revisions, final) as well.

2. Use automated and free online backup services

• You can choose to pay for additional storage and services, but for me two free services get the job done: Microsoft Live Mesh and MozyHome Remote Backup.
• Microsoft Live Mesh: This beta service from MS automatically syncs up to 5 GB of data from specified directories to an online (secure) folder tied to your account name and password.
  • You can set it up on as many PCs as you want. I have a desktop, a laptop, and a netbook that all run Mesh. If I haven’t turned my netbook on in a few weeks it takes some time to update, but once it does all my recent work is on there and I can take it to the library or coffee shop to work. As long as I’m online, everything gets updated to my online folder with no action required on my part.
  • You can log into your online folder from anywhere using a standard browser—useful if you forget to bring a file to your publisher. If you’re using a shared PC, make sure to erase the data from your browsing session when you’re done so no one can log in to your account!
  • Mesh uploads new or changed files when your net connection is idle. Remember that you need to close the file in Word (or whatever application you use) before Mesh will be free to grab it and start uploading it. When you’re done writing, you need a few minutes for Mesh to do its work before you turn off your PC. If you quit Word and immediately turn off the PC, Mesh will have to wait until you turn it on again to upload the new files.
  • A word of warning: if you delete a file in hard drive folder Mesh is monitoring, Mesh will delete the file from your online folder as well. If you delete a file by accident and can’t recover it, immediately turn off Mesh on the affected PC. Then log in to the online folder and recover the file manually before turning Mesh back on.
• MozyHome Online Backup: Mozy runs less frequently than Mesh—a once a day backup is standard. Like Mesh, you specify the backup folders, but with Mozy you can also specify individual files and file types. For instance, you could have it back up all .doc files, or everything in your My Documents folder. It’s very configurable.
  • I think of Mozy as more a last resort. Mesh is my every day tool; Mozy is a backup to my backup.
  • The current free allocation is 2 GB of files.

3. Back up your files to an external hard drive

• Even for struggling writers, a big USB hard drive is cheap. Whether you use automated backup software (many drives come with free software) or do it manually, keep recent backups on hand.
• Aside from documents, doing full image backups of your hard drive periodically is a good idea. Finding all the original discs and serial numbers for software is a pain; with an image backup if the disc goes down I can re-install the image on a replacement disc and be ready to go.

Here are a few other tips and tricks:

• Use email to send yourself writing when you’re away from your PC. You can log in to your Gmail (or other email) from any shared PC and pound out a few pages of text. Email it to yourself and when you get home all you have to do is cut and paste it into your document.
• Speaking of cutting and pasting, if you want to ensure that pasted text is in the same style as the rest of your document, use Edit > Paste Special > Paste as plain text to bring any text in as plain (Normal style) text, saving you from having to re-format it later. You will lose any italic or bold text from doing this though…
• You can also save your work as an attachment and email it to yourself. This gives you a backup file on the Google (or other network) server.
• Lastly, writing by hand in a notebook still works great! You’ll have to type it in later but that gives you a chance to do some clean-up work as you type it in. Keep a notebook handy at all times!

I’ve probably explained too much in this post—it’s simpler than I’ve made it appear with all my extra instructions. If you just use the basic three instructions and a little common sense you’ll be able to find a backup system that works for you.

Keep writing!