My brand new wonderful computer isn't working. I try to boot it up and electricity starts to surge, willy-nilly, through its circuits. That's never good.
Due to my computer being temporarily out of commission, I wasn't able to meet a writing deadline because my completed, vetted, manuscript (A Night In The Country) was on the malfunctioning machine and therefore inaccessible. If my story had have been on Dropbox -- and after this ALL my stories are going on Dropbox -- this wouldn't have happened. I have another computer--the one I'm using to type this post, one I've had since the stone age--and it works just fine. I could have used this computer to access my manuscript on Dropbox and meet my deadline.
But enough about me and my woes. I think Dropbox is the perfect solution for writers, even if you don't travel a lot, or have multiple devises you shuttle between each day. Because, as I'm experiencing right now, you never know when your machine is going to go down. (And yes, if I had backed up my work, I wouldn't be in this fix either. I know, I know.) But, again, enough about me.
Dropbox is free up to 2 gigabytes of storage and 2 gigs of stories is a lot. If you're Stephen King you might go over and have to pay, but if you're Stephen King I think you could afford 9.99 dollars a month!
In case anyone is unfamiliar with Dropbox, it allows users to store files in cloud storage and provides file synchronization across devices. My favorite feature is that it keeps a one-month history of your file revisions and any of those revisions can be undone. Here's a complete list of Dropbox features.
Note: I wrote this post yesterday and (* loud cheers *) my computer is working again. I'll be publishing the next installment in my A Night In The Country series later today.
I empathize. Some years ago, I lost not one, not two, not three, but four computers within the space of a month. I managed to download most of my work to microfloppies (that's how long ago this happened) but discovered to my horror that I had missed a novella.
ReplyDeleteHappy ending. I had submitted the novella to a magazine that, subsequent to my submission, died. (I do not think my submission was the precipitating cause.) They courteously returned my ms. The novella went on to new life. Will be out -- God willing -- by year's end.
Four computers within the space of a month, ouch! Microfloppies, you had a fancier computer than mine, my computer just had a floppy drive and no internal hard drive. That was back when a massive program was close to a meg in size.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad everything worked out for you in the end!