Predictions of the paperless office have been greatly exaggerated. While only a few strange folks still print their emails, most of us deal with plenty of documentation. Nonetheless, I seldom print much of what I’m writing anymore. It goes from draft on my screen to a website for publication.
So I wasn’t going to print what I had of my draft of Off the Clock, my next book. But then something panic-inducing happened. I restarted my computer because another program froze, and all of a sudden five of my chapters wouldn’t open. The error message was horribly vague. It just happened “for some reason.”
Of course I make sure to have a back-up. I always email chapters to myself (and to Google’s storage). So I went to open them from Google drive and couldn’t. It was the strangest thing. Trying to stay calm, I decided to print the chapters I could open. Then I restarted the computer again. Lo and behold, everything opened again, as if nothing had happened. This calmed me down quite a bit, but I printed everything just in case. So now I have a printed draft. It’s kind of fun to see. It looks like a book. It has a ton of work to go (lots of interviews, and the entire quantitative aspect). But something. Now on to making it something better!
Whew!! So glad for the happy ending!
@Jo- me too! Those were some bad moments in the middle of all that.
Glad to hear that you saved it – you’re making me sweat over here!
I’ve had that panic moment a few times before. I use a password manager, and I realized that if I were to, say, die in a car accident on the way home (Austin traffic is awful), no one would know my master password. I have never been married, and I’m by far the most tech-savvy among my family and trusted friends. So I wrote it on a piece of paper and mailed it to my best friend, and I explained via phone call how to use it. Now I can breathe a little easier!
I’m so excited to see you’re at this stage of the process! Can’t wait to read it next year!