All My Stories and Articles Were Destroyed

My Cat’s a Jerk, but I Still Love Her Sins of Our Fathers and Mothers

All My Stories and Articles Were Destroyed

Words are valuable.

One thing I have tried to express to other authors is how important it is to think about your stories, articles, novels and anything else you put to page (or screen) as how valuable your words are.

They are property, no different from real estate or a car. They can be sold, traded, given away as gifts, or neglected until they rot into nothingness.

It’s therefore important to do everything you can to ensure they’re protected.

I learned that lesson the hard way, and hopefully you can hear my story and take action now to protect yourself better.

The cycle of destruction

When I was a younger man (Oh God, three decades ago!) I was married to a woman who was abusive. She took great pleasure in making me a miserable person, and getting away from her was one of the best things I have done with my life.

Unfortunately, before I got the chance to escape, she decided it would be in my best interest to teach me my writing was useless and to give up on my dreams of becoming an author by throwing everything into a bonfire.

All the pages I had typed, the handful of floppy disks I had backed things up on, reams of notes scribbled into books with care — all gone to ashes in a matter of moments.

I could do nothing more than stand there with tears as it all happened, knowing I would be struck mercilessly if I did anything to interfere.

It took a lot out of me to see it happen. It was a few years before I was able to use a typewriter again.

A second season of despair

Then another relationship went badly, and when she left, she took everything with her. I came home from work to discover everything gone and she had disappeared with the little I had put together after leaving my ex-wife.

I think it was another decade before I could do any other writing. Even to this day, getting started is difficult.

I tell you these things not for sympathy, but to gain an understanding of why these days I am rather obsessive about backing up my data in various ways.

I thought I would share some of my methods so you can, perhaps, be saved some of the heartache I’ve been through after that kind of loss.

Image by AuthorScrivener Auto-Backup

I began using Scrivener as a word processor some years ago and find it a nice way to organize not only the articles I write and research that goes into doing them, but my novels, as well.

It’s handy, well-designed and, most important for me, has methods of automatically backing up the data you put in.

For instance, I use it to store the original files not only on my internal hard drive, but have it back up the database on an external drive, too. This happens every time the program saves, and also when the program opens and closes.

It’s convenient, occurs in the background without me having to do a thing, and saves me a lot of time.

Google Docs for the win

I don’t use this one as much as I probably should, but I feel it’s a good option for those who may not have something like Scrivener or other word processing setup to help auto-backup the data.

You can use a different program to type things out originally, and then paste it into a Google doc, or just work directly within it. Everything stores in the cloud and, as long as you’re careful with your personal information, is about as safe as it can get.

Similarly, you can use Google Drive as a backup option within Scrivener to save directly to the Drive account.

It’s a win-win, really.

Personal website as a backup?

I’ve created a multitude of personal websites over the years and, while I don’t use as many of them today, I still have access to them through my hosting service.

I’ve always recommended authors have their own websites as one of the most effective marketing tools at their disposal, but they can be great as an off-the-cuff data backup, too.

You have access to the “rear end” of the website when you self-host and can easily upload any files through the user interface or FTP.

I’ve come to enjoy the idea of backing up my files on these back ends, because the only person who should have access to it is you (or your web designer) and it’s a reasonably safe way to store the files you don’t want anyone touching.

Image by AuthorEmail yourself a copy

Something most authors don’t think about when it comes to backing up their stories is to send a copy to themselves in an email.

Most text files are extremely small. You could fit an entire novel in a file smaller than the maximum file size limitation of an email provider, such as Yahoo or Gmail.

It’s easy to do, and as long as you name it something you can remember or relate to the file itself, it’s easy to find when and if you need it later.

Yahoo has been around for years, as has Google, and I don’t expect they will close soon. The emails you send yourself should be around for a while.

Something special for myself — the Freewrite

This option is personal to me, and is pretty expensive, but I have no regrets about it.

It’s a device called the Freewrite from a company called Astrohaus.

It’s essentially a Wi-Fi enabled electronic typewriter with an e-ink screen and is designed to be a distraction-free word processor.

You can’t edit with it, can’t connect to websites or Google or YouTube or any of the other options that we can use to distract ourselves from getting writing done.

What it does, however, is backs up every single keystroke you make to an external website (they call it Postbox), and with a key press, it will also send everything to an email address you provide.

It will also automatically copy to Dropbox, Google Docs, or Evernote, as well.

Now, this isn’t the only reason I got the thing (as I said, it’s rather lavish, running about $500), but it’s a big deal for me.

It also is a joy to type on and I have found my productivity is about 50% more than it was before I got it.

Should you do backups?

I think, as authors, we need to be a lot more conscientious about making sure anything we do is backed up in various ways.

The availability of backing up your data on the internet today is ridiculous, and there’s really no reason you shouldn’t make use of it.

Your words, after all, are your property, and neglecting them can lead to disasters.

What are you doing to make sure nothing happens?

If you would like to support Ira in his efforts to help feed his family, please consider becoming a member of Medium. A portion will be given to him at no extra cost to you, and you’ll not only be helping this blind man take care of his needs, you’ll also be supporting every other author on Medium, as well. Please go here to begin your membership today !