Sure, it's probably a good idea to make a dozen copies of everything you've written and scatter it across every form of storage media you can plug into your computer, but for some reason, the possibility of losing every word I've written never bothered me. Since the month began, I've only backed up my novel three times as part of my more-or-less-weekly backup of everything on my computer (the last time was last Friday).
Am I the only one in these parts who is not paranoid about their computer dying on them?
----------
Hier stehe ich, ich kann nicht anders. Das Fliegende Spaghettimonster helfe mir. RAmen.
NaNo 2009 WINNER: Hecatonchires
51,601 / 50,000
Nov 22, 2009 - 21 39
Just wait until your lose everything or at least a big chunk of sentences that you loved, then you will become paranoid. There are a lot of potential problems that can damage files other than your computer completely dying.
57,513 / 50,000
Nov 22, 2009 - 23 20
Oh, I'm well aware of the potential ways that data can be lost. I've lost a lot of work I've done on a number of projects over the years, but I just can't bring myself to worry about all the bad stuff that might happen. Que sera, sera, and all that.
Surely I'm not the only laid-back writer around?
----------Hier stehe ich, ich kann nicht anders. Das Fliegende Spaghettimonster helfe mir. RAmen.
NaNo 2009 WINNER: Hecatonchires
50,025 / 50,000
Nov 23, 2009 - 00 32
Me, I guess. i've just backed up today after ... I can't really remember the last time, somewhere in week 2 , I think.
Though some people really have been unlucky with their computer getting viruses etc. so I should be more concerned...
----------“Fun? You think chucking a dirty old towel at me is fun?”
“That’s a new towel,” he said in an offended voice. “But I guess the upper-class can’t tell the difference since they’re used to silk ones.”
50,025 / 50,000
Nov 23, 2009 - 22 22
I THINK I JUST JINXED MYSELF. I lost around 500 words of writing!!!!!!!!! Gaahh That's it. I'm writing tomorrow. I feel like crying now, I like those 500 words..
>_<
-edit- ah, I found it now. Stupid me I saved my story on my backed up file. Good thing I didn't delete it ^^
----------“Fun? You think chucking a dirty old towel at me is fun?”
“That’s a new towel,” he said in an offended voice. “But I guess the upper-class can’t tell the difference since they’re used to silk ones.”
50,130 / 50,000
Nov 23, 2009 - 07 19
I don't normally back up my daily non-NaNo writing (have usual weekly backups, though), but I've been backing up NaNo after every writing session. It's too important to lose.
50,067 / 50,000
Nov 23, 2009 - 12 29
I back up every couple of days. I only keep one backup.
I'm not all that worried. Ultimately, this novel is going nowhere fast. I'm learning a lot from it, but its intended audience is one -- me. So if I lose it, I'll Lorem Ipsum Sum myself to submit my (honest) word total, and not worry too much.
That having been said... I think I'll back up now.
23,733 / 50,000
Nov 23, 2009 - 21 26
I gave up last years novel - which was coming along well enough - after accidentally losing it AND the backup, which was conveniently placed in the same folder even though I have 3 computers in the network and two big external drives.
I'm backing up to the same folder this year again. But then this year's novel sucks. I actually WANT to rewrite it completely from the start at some later time. But this time it doesn't explode, of course. It's like they read your mind.
----------2009: The Eternal Road. It's like the spiritual journey only without the spiritual part.
Made with love, yWriter and a bad head cold
52,839 / 50,000
Nov 24, 2009 - 08 48
I backup after each nightly writing session into a Subversion repository I created, and then I can checkout the file on my laptop, work computer, etc. Sort of just habit, plus it's nice to have the revision history available for looking back on the month.
----------- Carlo
50,391 / 50,000
Nov 24, 2009 - 09 43
I'm considering to read everything on TAPE before flying home.
Somehow paranoid about that nasty x-ray machine and 75% of my novel being stored on an SRAM card.
If only I knew how to use minicom and make copies!
0 / 50,000
Nov 24, 2009 - 09 49
Don't forget there a 2 types of users in the world -
Those who back up and those who will.
I lost some family photos and that one hurt, so I do back up.
150,196 / 50,000
Nov 24, 2009 - 10 04
I've lost all my stories ... nearly 4 dozen of them ... once already. I started writing in the 70's on a stand-alone word processor with 8" disks. When the machine was finally so obsolete that I couldn't find ribbons for the printer, I left it behind when I moved. Took the disks with me, but it was now the 90's, and they weren't compatible with anything and I couldn't retrieve the data. I had a few things printed out, but very few. And some were masterpieces that I'll never be able to recreate. It broke my heart, and I wasn't nearly as serious about my writing then as I am now. Now, I won't take even a remote chance of losing anything ever again. Yes, I'm paranoid, but after having both my computers crash and die at various times (curiously, both right around November ... hmmmmm), and more than one online storage site go out of business with no notice, I back up in multiple places, every day.
I sincerely hope that you never know how it feels to have written something that you love to bits, and suddenly discover that there is no trace of it anywhere in the world!
----------Glynes ...
I am not wasting time day-dreaming.
I am plotting and characterizing.
57,513 / 50,000
Nov 24, 2009 - 14 01
Those who back up and those who will.
Yeah, I back everything on my computer up--once every week or so. But backing everything up to a dozen disparate forms of media every hour or so seems a bit excessive to me.
Unfortunately, I know the feeling very well. It sucks. Bad. It still hasn't made me paranoid enough to reconsider my ways.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, everybody. Good luck to all!
----------Hier stehe ich, ich kann nicht anders. Das Fliegende Spaghettimonster helfe mir. RAmen.
NaNo 2009 WINNER: Hecatonchires
30,000 / 50,000
Nov 24, 2009 - 16 19
I don't bother anymore I use several manual typewriters typing on sheets of paper, barbaric I know (Hence the moniker TypingHun) but today a storm rolled through the lights flickered and I continued to type with a feeling of freedom! Yes I do scan my pages into a computer to edit but the worry is banished forever!
Join us at the Typewriter Brigade, all you need is a typewriter.
Ed
50,031 / 50,000
Nov 25, 2009 - 09 20
I used to be like this. But after 3 HDDs dying and 2 years of writing lost, now I tend to do it a little more often. ^^;
----------http://yzabel-writings.livejournal.com
2005: Unsung Heroes | 2006: Over Yonder | 2007: Oraison d'Être | 2009: Was
50,441 / 50,000
Nov 25, 2009 - 15 44
I haven't backed my novel up on anything, I e-mailed it to myself once, and have it saved on two different files, in case anything happens to the first file. But I didn't even do that until I was finished with it. I lost about 300 words at one point, and lost about five days of editing (don't ask how that happened, it's very long and complicated).
----------I'm not paranoid about losing my work, I've already lost so much of it I guess I'm immune. I don't really know how to back it up on anything anyway, so I'm not really worrying about it.
I use voice recognition software, because I am very highly dyslexic. I can't "read" or "right". So if you notice any mistakes in my writing, I am very sorry!
50,641 / 50,000
Nov 25, 2009 - 16 22
only by accident, the nano is on a flash drive, and I left it at work.
Again.
57,513 / 50,000
Nov 25, 2009 - 19 06
Ah, Mae 13 and rkivist, thanks for chiming in. I was starting to feel lonely here in No Regular Backup country.
That being said, I now have 3 copies of my text: my main OpenOffice file, a week-old backup of that, and a PDF version on my Wordpress blog.
----------Hier stehe ich, ich kann nicht anders. Das Fliegende Spaghettimonster helfe mir. RAmen.
NaNo 2009 WINNER: Hecatonchires
50,458 / 50,000
Nov 25, 2009 - 20 08
I don't back up my novel, per se, but I do e-mail the document to my partner every evening. He likes to read my daily output, and it gives me an incentive to write so I have something to share with him. Were the thumbdrive where I've saved my novel and work from to die, I would still have the e-mailed files to fall back on, and probably wouldn't lose more than a day's work.
So it's not backing up for backup's sake, but it functions as such.
Cheers, Travis
----------Travis (tkphotog)
Official Photographer and Control Freak
Municipal Liaison (with Anna/QueenOfTheUniverse)
NaNoWriMo :: Boston / NaNoBoston
50,441 / 50,000
Nov 28, 2009 - 22 08
sdougjohnson, I also have my novel backed up in a couple of places now. Now that I am finished with it I wanted to get saved in a couple places. I honestly thought I was the only one on here not regularly backing up my novel as well, and I am glad to find I am not alone. :-)
----------right now I am going through my whole novel and checking it for what I call 'wordos.' kind of like typos,only instead of misused letters, it's misused words. Just another wonderful function of my voice recognition software. There are no backup copies of my fixed up first draft, but there are a few saved copies of my original first draft..... if that makes sense.
I use voice recognition software, because I am very highly dyslexic. I can't "read" or "right". So if you notice any mistakes in my writing, I am very sorry!
50,567 / 50,000
Nov 29, 2009 - 12 52
Am I the only one in these parts who is not paranoid about their computer dying on them?
----------
Hier stehe ich, ich kann nicht anders. Das Fliegende Spaghettimonster helfe mir. RAmen.
NaNo 2009 WINNER: Hecatonchires
Heh, regardless of whether or not your hardware (or even your OS) dies, something will always happen. At a writing retreat a good friend of mine lost 2K words that he'd done in an hour...while he was trying to back it up to a USB key, no less.
"Before I'm a writer, I'm definitely a reader and when I read memoir, I really want it to be true."
----------- Augusten Burroughs
"Before I'm a writer, I'm definitely a reader and when I read memoir, I really want it to be true."
- Augusten Burroughs
50,044 / 50,000
Nov 29, 2009 - 16 09
right now I am going through my whole novel and checking it for what I call 'wordos.' kind of like typos,only instead of misused letters, it's misused words. Just another wonderful function of my voice recognition software. There are no backup copies of my fixed up first draft, but there are a few saved copies of my original first draft..... if that makes sense.
Off-topic, but I love that! "Wordos" ... I'm finding quite a few of those myself...
----------76,339 / 50,000
Nov 30, 2009 - 05 36
I'm the same, I've backed up twice this month so far. The rest of the time I back up maybe every 5 or 6 months, it depends on how much I'm writing. If I get a lot of writing done then I'll back up more often.
The way I think about it is, I probably won't lose my work- might, but probably won't- so when I get to an amount of writing that I really couldn't stand to lose, I'll back it up. It wouldn't be the end of the world if I lost 5000 words. It would be really annoying, but I could re-write them without going completely crazy. Even 10000 words.... yeah, I'd be really annoyed, but unless it was the last couple of days of NaNo and I wouldn't have time to win from the point I last backed up at, then I wouldn't worry too much when, probably, nothing will happen anyway.
I have to admit, I could just never be bothered to back up at the end of each day. I do backup whenever I've done a significant amount of writing, since my first computer died with all my writing ever on it, when I'd never done any back-ups before. Although, I think the fact that I got it all back eventually has made me more laid back about it, even if the month inbetween was the most stressful month ever.
----------Surrealism without purpose is like fish.
50,441 / 50,000
Nov 30, 2009 - 19 39
shyerazade,
----------Hahaha. Thanks.
I use voice recognition software, because I am very highly dyslexic. I can't "read" or "right". So if you notice any mistakes in my writing, I am very sorry!