I create a folder, this one is called 'Novel 2 - no name' and then everything is on separate document's such as: Characters, storyline, plots etc and I will also have: Sisters talking in bedroom scene, secret revealed scene... etc. DO NOT TAKE ANY TIPS FROM ME, I'm so unorganised!!
Just because my mind just did an aberrant U-turn, my revised response to the question, "How do you save your novel?", is as follows: Prosletyzing. Lots and lots of Bible beating. And I drag them off to church at least twice a week whether they want to go or not. They are all required to wear long skirts or trousers of dark or grey color, cover their heads at all times, never raise their voices to their elders. (they also say a lot of "thee"and "thou") Romances and women's fiction are required to keep their heads bowed in the presence of Thrillers, Adventure, Mystery manuscripts and the aforementioned Thrillers, Adventure, and Mystery novels always take precedence and Romance and Women's lit must defer to them at all times.
Someone accosted me on the street yesterday and asked me, "Friend, have you been saved?" My smart mouth opened up before I could stop it and informed them I wasn't in need of being saved." (I've also been known to get into strange philosophical 'discussions' with door knockers who come to my house to ask me if I've found God. And, yes, once I even asked, "Why? Is he lost?") So, when I re-read the question here, "How do you save your novels?" The wierd, save the pagans thing came back to me and that was my 'new' answer to the question. I figured if my manuscripts are in need of being 'saved' I'd better start quoting scripture and getting them into the nearest worship service. (And, just because I used to live in an area heavily populated with Amish, I figured I'd throw a bit of them in for good measure.) I did warn you it was an aberrant mental U-turn.
Ok, at least I, handicapped by ESL, understand what you were trying to say. Possibly your nick put me on the wrong foot, and I sought more after your words than I should have. I humbly apologise. Can we be friends, nonetheless?
I save my novel... 1. By chapters/sections 2. Save it in a folder for that chapter/section 3. Then save it in another folder (where I keep that story's chapters/sections) 4. Finally, save it in another locked folder containing all of my stories/poems Well, since nobody ever comes and messes around with my laptop (before, I use to save it on my desktop), I'm not even sure why I make such a big deal saving it.
I usually have written copies lying around in case my document ever crashes/is lost, that way I can remember what I wrote.
That's pretty smart of you to do. ^^ I remembered one time when I was working on a research report about solar systems and typed a huge 5 page report... I've only saved half of it and then my computer crashed. Took a while for me to re-type it up again.
I've had that happen on work projects but never personal. I once spent four hours entering info for someone else and on her computer. Not realizing she had no auto backup on her system (!?!) I never bothered to do a manual backup. Then, late in the day, a storm broke which knocked out the power, along with four hours of unsaved documents. Needless to say, that was a great lesson in what not to do and precisely why I have so many redundant systems. (You do know, however, that a competent tech can recover most anything from your hard drive unless it has been shredded, right? (not an actual paper shredder, shredder, just a technical, Pentagon, CIA type computer shredding.))
