It's a common thing to have a computer glitch. But not when I am trying to ready a huge manuscript for an editor who had just sent me a nice contract for it. That is the time I need everything working properly, the spell checking of the manuscript and the revisions to go smoothly. Not the time for my Word program to crash, and suddenly I cannot spell check fifty pages of the document! Talk about frustration.But at this point, even though I need to solve the glitch, I'm glad that I've sought to protect my valuable work beforehand. I employ several different back-up methods in case something happens, such as a glitch where you cannot access your writing or other work. Of course, saving your work periodically as you write is something one must do (yes, who can picture the electricity cutting off and you have just revised ten pages of unsaved work that now must be redone? Agh!). If you have a feature that automatically saves your work, use it. Make several copies of your work in folders. Save also your work to a thumb drive that you can take with you so you have a copy of your files on your person. And you can give the drive to family and friends so they have files of your work. And just last summer I signed up for Carbonite - an off access program that back ups all your files and will restore them with just a click. Today I decided to reload work I had done on my manuscript last week, and presto, my manuscript was at my fingertips in a few minutes. If you do sign up for Carbonite, please mention my name - Lauralee Bliss - in the referral area - as I can get a few extra months on my subscription that way too (and you'll get a free month also).
All these methods were invaluable on a day like today when my computer was glitching. But I know I have many safeguards in place for precisely those "just in case" times that can suddenly come upon you when you least expect it.
