Writing Wednesday: Files

 

Writing Wednesday

Files   

 

You sat down a poured your heart into a fantastic hour of writing, and the power goes out. Then it hits you, “I forgot to save that!?”

Been there done that so many times over the years it is not funny. I have spent hours on a design project for work, and the power goes out, or the computer glitches or my program crashes. It hurts that you forgot that simple little click or ‘ctrl-s.’

It would surprise you how many people do things like that all the time. I’m going to show my age, but I’ve been using computers since 1982 for school or professionally. It has become a habit to hit save regularly. I used a program many years ago to do engineering drawings. Individual files would take up to 20 minutes to actually save the file. So, that made an excellent excuse for a break.

But, not only is it essential to save your work, but to save it in a location where you know where it is. I am a person who hates extra long file trees to get to a specific place. I use a jump drive for my writing. My books are in individual folders for each book. I have a bolder for blog posts, and within that folder, I have different folders for the extra days of the week I post blogs. My folder structure evolves over time as I add more files of a specific type or topic.

Another important part of file saving is file naming. My book writing style is strange. I don’t start on page one and run through to the end. I have actually started a book with the end and went back and filled in the rest of it. Along the way, I write a section of it, and at a later date, I assemble it into a “finished” book. This can be a massive pain if I don’t name my files in some sort of order. My first book was a total mess, but part of the learning process was making things logical.

Another habit I have it even after I have an assembled book, I don’t delete sections to make the story flow better. I will cut out an area, but I’ll save it in a different file. Each book has a file named bits. This way, I have parts if I might need it for another book. I find my ability to remember a scene I’ve written to be rather remarkable. (Wish I could remember some stuff from work like that.)

Even with all of the time I have had on computers, I still mess up and forget to save or assume I saved and tell the program not to save when I close.

Backups are essential as well. I copy my entire Story folder to Google drive once a month. Sure there are a good many files I don’t change, but I have them all safe. I create a different folder for each backup and copy it. There are automatic systems to back up entire hard drive on a scheduled basis as well. The essential thing is to keep a backup because you never know when a problem will develop. There are claims that a jump drive can’t fail. Yes, they can, just like an external hard drive, can fail. So, redundant copies are never a bad idea.

We all have systems that work, so make sure to develop your system and stick to it. You will be grateful for those times you forget to save, or the power does go out. Trust me, it happens to the best of us.