While we are in RO mode

[vidar]

How do you keep your stories while we wait to be able to post again to the site?  I usually just write using notepad, but there has to be a way to archive your stories before or after posting to AFF

[WillowDarkling]

You should always keep your stories as files on your computer. I use Word, simply because it’s what I’m used to. 

[vidar]

That makes sense.  I usually keep a folder with them. I guess I’m just anxious to post some of the new stories for others to read 

[Desiderius Price]

Second @WillowDarkling to not rely on AFF or any other archive to retain your stories w/o incident.  Keep in mind most archives, even google drive/dropbox/onedrive retain the right to *DELETE* your postings/files in their terms of service.

OTOH, I’ll make copies of copies and I’m stuck wondering “which one of these is current?”

[BronxWench]

Go by the saved date.  

[Desiderius Price]

1 minute ago, BronxWench said:

Go by the saved date.  

Had this issue when I decided to go and rework my potter story.  First task, collecting them all, then I started purging the obvious duplicates.  But hey, at least I didn’t lose much.  (The *first* draft was, unfortunately, mostly lost—shame because that was the smuttiest too.)

[BronxWench]

I have copies of all my work on my hard drive, and on two separate back-up hard drives. I tend to keep all the versions, and I just date them as “Rewrite 20XX” at the end of the original title so I don’t lose my mind.  

[Deadman]

I had this problem very early on and learned from it.

An early story that I wrote was gone because I lost the original file. But I realized that I had it on a site so I grabbed it off them.

Then the site disappeared so now I’m much more glad that I got it.

Did a similar thing with Yahoo Groups before they went under. Had one or two stories that I lost the original word file, grabbed it and made sure I had it.

[Desiderius Price]

26 minutes ago, BronxWench said:

I have copies of all my work on my hard drive, and on two separate back-up hard drives. I tend to keep all the versions, and I just date them as “Rewrite 20XX” at the end of the original title so I don’t lose my mind.  

Too late, I’ve already lost my mind 🤣

[GeorgeGlass]

These days, I draft all my stories in Google Docs (with each one set to save on my device as well as in the cloud). When they’re fully drafted, I move them to Word for final editing (as with WillowDarkling, Word is what I’m used to), then I post them. 

[Sessakag]

I have my work backed up in so many places nothing short of the planet exploding would make me lose a single piece of my work. I lost a story one time, years ago, and have been paranoid ever since.

[GeorgeGlass]

2 hours ago, Sessakag said:

I have my work backed up in so many places nothing short of the planet exploding would make me lose a single piece of my work. I lost a story one time, years ago, and have been paranoid ever since.

Yeah, I lost one many years ago, too. The worst part was that it was the middle story of a trilogy.

[Sessakag]

1 hour ago, GeorgeGlass said:

Yeah, I lost one many years ago, too. The worst part was that it was the middle story of a trilogy.

You have my sincerest condolences.

[GeorgeGlass]

7 hours ago, Sessakag said:

You have my sincerest condolences.

Thanks. At least it wasn’t that long a story. And I learned my lesson about “storing” stories in a Yahoo group.

[InvidiaRed]

On 12/13/2022 at 9:50 AM, WillowDarkling said:

You should always keep your stories as files on your computer. I use Word, simply because it’s what I’m used to. 

I use word and Grammarly and have a portable hard-drive. My work should survive everything but a EMP.

[Desiderius Price]

5 hours ago, InvidiaRed said:

I use word and Grammarly and have a portable hard-drive. My work should survive everything but a EMP.

🧨 (we need a mushroom-cloud emoji...)

My way is different because… well, I have a tendency to turn problems into software projects as well.  That’s why I write my stories as text files, annotating with a simple format what’s what (ie styles, version).  When I want to post, I run the software, telling it what which version I want (clean vs explicit for my potter story), which archive I’m posting to (FFN, AO3, or AFF), and it’ll generate HTML files suitable for posting.  Being a programming geek, I use a “makefile” to remember the command line options to be lazy/consistent.  Bit more complex than most, but I do like the results.