Backup

I had a grim reminder of how vulnerable my work is a week ago. Because I write novels for print, it is a necessity to do such writing on a computer, and have it in a digital state. In total, I had three complete books, and two well under way. My essay count was well over forty and I had three short stories I was very proud of. It hadn’t occurred to me how concentrated all of my work was. I didn’t realize that it was almost all on this simple computer. Six years worth of labour, all in one spot. Yes, my computer crashed, along with everything on it. Even my latest project, something separate from novel publication, was all lost. My precious photos and music was wiped clean. Much of it had come from local artists for book covers and such. It was offal.

It turned out my hard drive simply died, and it would need replacing. The information on it wasn’t easily retrievable, but thankfully, I had a single USB with all my novels back up on it…only a week before the crash. Previous to that week, I would have lost five months worth, in my stupidity. That would have cost me two entire books; all edits for the other three, and my short stories. My newest project, something that had taken the last month, has been lost completely. I hadn’t thought to back it up at all. I will have to restart. Much of my artwork and saved information I had gained from e-mails and facebook messages, which I luckily still had. Finally, all of my essays were online in some capacity or another. After spending a grand amount of money to have my computer fixed, I spend five hours reconstructing my computer and all it’s files. I have been set back a total of two weeks and $100 dollars, but it could have been much worse.

I could have lost the novel that took me five years to write. I could have lost all my saved formatting and editing. All of my work was at risk. Immediately after the crash, I knew that the single USB sitting on my desk was suddenly worth a few thousand dollars, and the feeling wasn’t comforting. I don’t know what I would have done had I truly been set back six years, so for goodness sakes, backup everything you care about. I’ve been trying to re-write the last weeks worth of work, and doing something you’ve already done is painful. I just know, that I had written it better the first time, and I have no choice but to push my way alone.