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Back Up Your Writing Business
Why every writer needs at least three copies of their writing
It happened two weeks ago. I switched on my computer to continue working on my next novel, with a word count of over 120,000, only to find the file gone! I panicked. Had I lost everything? Would I have to start all over again?
Thankfully, I made a backup on a separate disk the night before. Phew! Disaster averted.
When was the last time you backed up your writing files? With so much data stored electronically, technology companies promote the importance of keeping backups on World Backup Day, which is celebrated every year on 31st March.
However, writers losing vast swathes of work is not a digital phenomenon. In 1919, T. E. Lawrence left his entire Seven Pillars of Wisdom manuscript on a train at Reading Railway Station. Despite extensive searching, railway staff couldn’t find the manuscript, and Lawrence had to start writing the entire 600-page book all over again, from memory.
Even writers who took precautions have experienced disastrous consequences. In 1922, Ernest Hemingway’s wife had her bags stolen from a train luggage rack in Switzerland. At the time, the bag contained all of Hemingway’s original writings, a draft novel set in World War One, and even the carbon copies of his work.
