NaNoWriMo Back up your stories

I fell behind and spent the rest of the month either catching up or trying to keep the lead I had.  I may have posted about the near disaster with my computer in late September, early October.  Long story short, got a new hard drive, got it loaded, updated and voila!  New stuff.  Heh Heh.  Didn't realize how many programs I was using.  Downloaded the ones I thought were what I used, then opened up my backup.   Scrivener, Aeon Timeline, Paint dot net and the trusty courses I got from Holly Lisle's site.  Thought I was finished and could set about doing my work.  Ah, not.

Had to search for the drivers I used, since, of course, my computer is out of warranty.  Had to reinstall and update my antivirus program.  Hunt for the programs for my camera, phone and music.  Don't know that I mentioned this, mayhap a time or two.  I've found that I must have music when I write.  Not sure why.  Got those up and running.  Then 01 November 2014 0000 hours and I was off to NaNoLand and writing.  Not.

Scrivener was not working.  Kept getting errors.  Spent a frantic few minutes trying to locate a working copy.  Heehee.  Discovered I had forgotten to download a very important part of my whole writing process.  Open Office is what I use when I need one of those programs.  Apparently, I never saved a copy to rtf, my preferred method of saving.  

So, very proud of myself, I kept up with the word count for a few days.  Life happened.  A priority or two I'd moved lower on the list for November suddenly catapulted to Number 1 and must be dealt with.  A day or two later, I happily start writing and find I am a few thousand words behind.

So, there I was from the 11th to the 24th catching up.  Then, Thanksgiving.  I'd wanted to be done before then.  However, there's not enough hours in the day to do the many things that must be done when preparing for a feast.  As I shoulda remembered.  Took three days to knock that count of 2,000 to the point of yay, 50,030 words.   Validated my word count on Saturday.  Yay.

Point of the above?  Back up, back up, back up your stories, even if you don't think you'll be using them.  One never knows what might transpire in the course of every day life.

- - - - - - - 

Sometime in early January, I will be updating the story I have up on the Smashwords site.  Have to reformat and make sure the revision is where I had it.  So, if you want the story "Storm Clouds" while it's still free, you have 45 days to download it.  After January 15, it will be $2.99 per copy.

'Stories of the People' and 'Bagamose' - I will also be updating the stories I have on JukePop Serials twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays until they're done.  I will be doing a final revision and then uploading at Create Space for a print copy.  However, the final electronic versions will stay on JukePop, for free.  Or one can donate using my donation buttons-Amazon or Paypal.