What program are you using?

OpenOffice. File is set in my DropBox, so I won't lose it.

Microsoft Word. I used to use Abiword but.... We had a problem when it began to eat my words. Microsoft Word has done the same thing, but not nearly as often as Abiword. MS Word has been behaving quite well, though.

The ONE thing I AM afraid of using is my little flashdrive thing I save my backups of my novels on... His name is THEO. I got him the first year I did NaNo and someone here named him... The Evil Heinous One. T-H-E-O.
He ate a few hundred words in the middle of NaNo. Not a big deal... I was just learning how to use it properly.... UNTIL AT THE END OF NANO HE ATE OVER 2,000 WORDS.
.... I've used him warily since then.

I use Word, and I back it up on my flashdrive when I remember. Better yet, I back it up in my school email account almost constantly, because then I can access it on any computer on campus. Including in math class. *insert evil laughter here*

*grins*

my mom says i'm Quirky. you can just call me Weird.
~
http://starsunite.blogspot.com/2009/10/nanowrimo-in-beginning.html

I'm just using good old Microsoft Works. I have it saved in two different places on my computer, too, just in case.

Meekrat Entertainment Group (My story from 2008 is somewhere on the site)

Microsoft word 2003. But I'm not picky. I'll use pretty much whatever is available. I like to be able to check my word count, and I know Word, though I wish it wasn't the 2003 version, but that's what came with what I bought. I should probably also back it up....

Writing with Word 2007, backing it up on a flash drive and uploading it to Google Docs.

Using an interesting little word processor that goes by the moniker of Q10. The icon is shaped like a Scrabble tile.
The chief benefit of Q10, aside from the typewriter sounds it makes as you go, is that it takes up the whole screen, leaving you without any buttons or windows to click through, refresh, or fiddle with.

Problem I'm having with Q10 is that it doesn't like to copy and paste things.

I've been writing each chapter as a separate file, and then merging them into the main body for NaNo verification....that's been a bit of a chore. I've found that the best way to do it is to CUT everything I've written (which is heart-in-throat inducing), then exit without saving and paste it into the main body. It's working, and I like the program, specifically for NaNoWriMo, but I'm not sure how much better off the lack of distraction makes me.

I'm using Mousepad, which is XFCE's version of Notepad. XFCE is a flavor of Linux that's lightweight and zippy. I like things simple.

Every day, though, I copy my text files to Abiword to give them a little formatting, because when I'm editing I want double spaces, and Mousepad (like its Windows cousin) has *0* formatting options.

For backups, I simply email myself the Abiword file. As I use Gmail, that puts a copy of the file in the cloud. Anything that is so bad to destroy both my laptop *AND* Google's computers will likely take me with it, so I'm not too worried about losing anything.

I've just started using yWriter 5 - which is an open source software that someone else recommended, and I love it. I just write the scenes, and can move them around, and it keeps track of them for me. Or I can just put in the names, so when I'm ready I can fill them it. There is a place to put your characters and drop them in the story, which is great because i can never remember my minor character's names. There's lots of other bells and whistles, too, and it automatically backs up and saves every five minutes or so. The only drawback so far is that the spellcheck doesn't have any contractions in it, but you can add words to the dictionary, so I should have them all in soon.

"Writers aren't exactly people.... they're a whole bunch of people trying to be one person." - F. Scott Fitzgerald

I've fallen in love with an app named WriteMonkey It has the benefit of being full screen and having typewriter noises like Q10 but also is highly configurable. I have it set to look like Word Perfect 5.1 for DOS right now. (Happy Dance) It also makes backup copies of your work similar to yWriter and is in standard txt format so it's easy to import into other apps. It also has settings for word wars and a nice wordcount option at the top of the page. It's made it very easy for me to rock out 2500 words a day so far which is astounding for me. For backup I have all my work in my DropBox and if you've never used it I highly recommend it. I also have a flash drive that I back up onto as well.

Rolard

2006 A Hole in Andrellas (winner)
2007 Voyage of the Amadeus (32,111)
2008 Magic of the Highways (11,000)
2009 A Song of Psalms (in progress)

Yay for Linux users! *does Snoopy dance*

Google Docs. It's the only way I can write at my temp job, which is the only hope I have of finishing. Bonus, the Word Count stats tell me that my novel is written at a 7th grade level.

Google Docs, it's the only way to go for all my writing. It works just like Word and I don't have to worry about saving it does that automatically and is always there no matter what computer I use. I love it.

I'm using Pages on my Mac book, I'm not to worried about it being lost, I'm the only one that uses this computer, ad well, it's a Mac...

Most of the time, I'm using Word to Go. (Back to using a PDA, but at least with this one I don't have to use the Memo Pad feature!)

When your inner editor says that your writing stinks, tell it: "Yeah, so?"

Of course it stinks. That's why it's called a FIRST draft.

vim

I'm using Open Office, and I just got Dropbox for backup purposes.

I was not aware that macs could not be stolen, lost or broken, and had infinitely sized hard drives to avoid you accidentally deleting anything. I may reconsider my next computer purchase.

They can only be lost or stolen if you allow that to happen, once you get a Mac, you'll baby it.....trust me. Infinitely sized hard drives? (Where can I get one of those? Time for an upgrade?) It's only 250g, and I've got a 320g external, so I'm set..

They can only be lost or stolen if you allow that to happen, once you get a Mac, you'll baby it.....trust me. Infinitely sized hard drives? (Where can I get one of those? Time for an upgrade?) It's only 250g, and I've got a 320g external, so I'm set..

I'm using Word Vista. I keep my novel in separate files by chapter on my flash drive which I back up in it's entirety on a routine basis at my work computer and my home computer. I've never lost anything since if one file goes corrupt, I have a backup to pull from somewhere. Did I mention that I do hardcopy print outs for proofreading. Redundancy of data is prevalent here because it seems the question is never if your technology is going to break down but when.

"If death meant just leaving the stage long enough to change costume and come back as a new character...Would you slow down? Or speed up?”

Chuck Palahniuk (1961)

I use Microsoft Word to write.

I email a copy of the file to myself daily. I also do CD backups of all my stories on a regular basis. Better safe than sorry, right? :D

Rhonda Stapleton ~ http://www.rhondastapleton.com

Stupid Cupid (book 1) -- December 2009, Simon Pulse
Flirting With Disaster (book 2) -- March 2010, Simon Pulse
Pucker Up (book 3) -- May 2010, Simon Pulse