Back it up, back it up…

Think you just lost your work? Don’t Panic.

Easier said than done. Channeling Douglas Adams didn’t stop my meltdown one Sunday morning. I absolutely panicked. I wanted to cry because I thought I lost thirty pages of rewrites I was very excited about.

My laptop automatically syncs to the cloud. Did I remember that in the moment? Nope. I have a thumb drive I save to daily. Had I done that yet that day? Nope. I have another huge external drive I back up to occasionally but those thirty pages were written in the past two days. So no help there either.

That morning was the first time I thought I lost something I was proud of. I had to take a deep breath, and look closer at my files. I had to remind myself of the backups on the cloud and actually try to retrieve something from there. I found it. I didn’t actually lose work I was pumped about. Phew! I stopped the panicked tears before they fell, got big hugs from my then seven-year-old and snuggles from my furry middle child, then I had another cup of tea and got back to work.

Fellow writers, make sure you back it up, back it up, excessively. And if a ‘lost work’ scare happens to you, don’t panic like I did. Oh, and take any hugs and snuggles you can get.

So long for now (and thanks for all the fish).