After my recent computer near-disaster, I’ve taken steps and reorganized myself to protect my work.
Now all my work is saved to Google Drive and I use Google Docs. Besides protecting all my work in the cloud, I found flexibility to be another major benefit.
With everything on Drive, I can now access my work from anywhere. It also eliminates my bad habit of keeping 20 different WIP versions of everything scattered between a phone, tablet, laptop, computer and emails.
The value of this hit me a few days ago when I was sitting in a parking lot waiting for someone. I had been in the middle of trying to finish another Bitter Suite episode before deadline when I had to leave my desk.
As I sat there, I looked at my phone which I had recently loaded with Drive and Docs. I opened it all up, found the piece I was working on and had the rest of the story fleshed out before I had to leave. I discovered true mobility. What a beautiful moment that was.
I also found out that with the addition of a mouse, my phone works better than any tablet or laptop for my writing needs. This set up is going to come in handy soon for one of my next projects which involves writing in documented locations of hauntings. Not all of these locations will have a nice desk, WiFi and electricity, so being mobile will be essential.
Earlier today I saw this joke posted by Patrick Freivald on Facebook. Things are funniest when they are painfully true. Given my recent, emotional roller coaster with my computer, this is appropriate:
So Satan challenges Jesus to a novel-writing contest for control of the universe. They have exactly one month to write the best novel ever, and whoever writes the better one wins. Jesus agrees, so they sit down at their computers (in the same room to prevent cheating) and start typing.
Smoke flies from the keys as they work day and night, tirelessly churning out breathtaking prose and the most amazing plots imaginable. As midnight approaches on the thirtieth day God claps his hands and with a thunderbolt the power goes out, flickers, then comes back on.
Satan cries out, “NoooooOOOOOOOooooo!” while Jesus waits for his machine to reboot, opens his document and writes the final paragraph, typing THE END with a divine flourish.
The moral?
Jesus saves.
