Author Prep, Preparing for the Worse

It's something that happens to a lot of us, we're working hard on a story and then whamo, the computer crashes, or the jump drive breaks or corrupts. We writers have a lot going on, most us anyways; we have friends, family, jobs along side our writing career. So in the spirit of Doomsday Preppers, I'm writing a post on how to best protect your work.

First off, nothing is safe. All we can do is give ourselves an edge. Here's a prepper plan that I have started for my own work:

First off, copyright. Even if it's not done through a lawyer. Get it dated. May not hold up in court, but you will have ground to blog about it across the interwebs. Word of mouth has huge power. We writers work too hard on our own ideas to have some pirate stealing them. This is not about using a vague idea that another author thought of, but taking an idea released and changing just enough of it to get away with the theft. Here's a free copyright site that you can use to date your stuff in case someone goes full douche bag on you: http://myfreecopyright.com/index

 

 

THE DISASTER BINDER-

Since I own a kindle I have taken my stories, blown up the font, changed the margins to one inch all around, and PDFed them. I store them on my Kindle to read so when I write by hand I have my material to draw from.

 

Make sure to keep your Kindle charged, one thing that helps is to keep your Wi-Fi off when you're not downloading books. Only have it on when you absolutely need it. And charge the battery daily.

 

Keep at least two jump drives with at least two gigs.

This goes with the above, have a plethora of note pads and working pens. Make sure you have at least one good pad (maybe two, I have a double length file drawer filled with unused notebooks) and three pens (rule of three here, that way if one goes you have a back up). By using your Kindle docs and note pad you can go back to your writing.

I have dozens of binders. One thing I did was attach a few folders, and I keep everything but my Kindle inside. Here you can store your story as you write it.

What I suggest doing with your disaster binder is as you write out your pages, take breaks after so many written to put into the Word document, then re-upload to your Kindle. This way you keep room in your binder and your story safe. Always update your work, when you type on the computer hit the keys Ctrl+S religiously. You can never save too much. Don't let life take your work away without a fight.

Have your ideas for Author Prepping? Feel free to share it in the comments below.