Freelance Writers: Back up your Work!
I cannot stress this point enough: if you are a freelance writer, you need to backup your work on a regular basis. This is not the first time that I have said this, and it probably won’t be the last. The reason that I keep harping on this is that I am always hearing horror stories of freelancers who did not do this. Even if you are not a freelance writer, you will still want to back up your work as much as possible.
If you neglect to do this because you think you are invincible, you could be in for a big downfall soon enough. What would you do if you suddenly lost an entire project that is due in a few hours? While you can only hope that this never happens, you would not be the first person to be dealt this cruel hand. But guess what? If you backup your work, it is safe to say that you will not lose any part of your project.
There are many things that can happen that can cause your work to be suddenly deleted. This can include anything from a hard drive malfunction to the power suddenly going out in your office. Just a couple weeks back I was in the midst of a 2,000 word feature article when the power blew. Was this a big deal? It wouldn’t have been if my work was backed up. But since I just started the project that morning, I had yet to save it anywhere. The result: losing two hours of work and being forced to start over at step one.
If you are going to take your freelance writing work seriously, make sure that it is always protected against unforeseen incidents. I know this is easier said than done (see my story above) but it is a very important part of your business. The only thing worse than losing a project that you worked so hard on, is losing a client because you could not deliver their work on time.
February 29th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
[...] Freelance Writers: Back up your Work! [...]
February 29th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
[...] Freelance Writers: Back up your Work! [...]
February 29th, 2008 at 10:58 pm
I’ve never lost a freelance project this way, thank goodness, but I did lose a term paper once when I was a graduate student. I was most upset!
March 1st, 2008 at 12:08 am
I’m paranoid about backup to the point that people tease me about it. But some of those laughing people have later come to me to ask me for copies of files they’ve lost.
I have Word set to save every 10 minutes to avoid the kind of thing that happened to you. In the case of a power outage or similar problem, the most I lose is 10 minutes’ work. Of course, that wouldn’t help in a total disk failure where you need backups on an external source (I use an 80-gig jump drive for daily backups). However, in most situations, saving to your hard drive is enough for the short term.
March 1st, 2008 at 10:12 am
Please listen to this man! He speaks the truth. I recently un-installed the underwhelming Leopard (Mac OS) from my computer, and it repayed my by promptly deleting EVERYTHING!
Alas, if I had read this blog beforehand, perhaps my stuff would still be alive.
Backup, backup, backup.
March 1st, 2008 at 4:53 pm
Just adding to what Chris said…
Use a word precessing software with auto-save feature and turn it on! I use MS Word with auto-save on. I’ve had power outage a couple of times while in the midst of writing, but hardly lose anything because Word had saved it a minute before the outage.
However, a drive failure or virus attack can permanently erase your work. Scheduled backup to an external drive + robust virus protection are a must!
Another option is to write online, using Google Docs. That way, no matter what happens to your computer, your work is safe. The added benefit is that you can access it anywhere. And, of course, it’s a free service.
Nadin
March 3rd, 2008 at 1:19 am
[...] Freelance Writers: Back up your Work! [...]
March 3rd, 2008 at 5:14 pm
[...] Freelance Writers: Back up your Work! [...]