Where do you store your work(s) in progress?

[Craigable]

The best option for secure preservation is keeping copies in two separate locations, such as a hard drive (home) and in the cloud (off site). Probably not safe enough to store copies on the hard drive and a flash drive since both would usually be kept in the same room if not on the same desk. A house fire would destroy both, for instance.

[TrishaAnn92]

I'm another digital type person. I usually store my "works in progress" on a flash drive but I will also write down ideas, and characters in a notebook.

[authorkcfinn]

I have loads of notebooks for ideas the same as TrishasAnn, but all of my work is usually on the hard drive of my laptop because I rarely write on any other machine. After I've written a significant section I then usually print myself a hard copy for proof reading and security, but I should really back up my work more often than I do!

[Doc Foster]

I write on a Mac using Scrivener. I keep the Scrivener database on Dropbox, and occasionally back it up to a DVD, though Dropbox says that shouldn't be necessary.

[rei_sawakami]

I keep four copies of everything: one on my flash drive, one on my computer, one on Google Drive, and one hard copy. But I think that maybe I should try Evernote. Never too cautious, right?

[kaylahar6]

I store it on my computer and in a flash drive.

[Dream Catcher]

My laptop

[dinak]

I've lost my trust on electronic save as well. Yesterday I was writing my journal and I've lost one hour of work, it's just disappeared from notes and I tried everything but couldn't back up. Ipad is pretty bad at writing as I downloaded an application called document which ables to slight changes on writing but it's all. I am very dissappointed. Any recommendations?

[FNAWrite]

As rei_sawakami suggests, you cannot have too many back-ups (up to a point). Four copies in four locations is good.

I try to keep at least three including one hard copy.

[WriterBLAlley]

I work from a main copy on my computer, then back-up after any significant change to an online cloud storage, and also a separate local backup on a card.

[moderntimes]

In addition to being a writer, I've had a career in science and technology (degrees in chemistry and English lit, minor in math, go figure...)

So I've learned the scientific method and precision in my work, requisite if you're working with chemicals in a lab! ha ha

And I've applied this to storing my writing. Everything is is folders on my virtual desktop, hierarchical folder structure for "all" then "fiction" or "reviews" (I write book reviews for an e-site), and then I post my folder shortcuts on the desktop depending on what I'm working on most.

Right now I'm working on my 3rd novel. So I'll have MS-Word documents in the "Vengeance" folder (title of the mystery novel will be "Blood Vengeance"), and in that folder, docs such as "characters" or "ideas" or "chapters" that contain reference info, plus maybe a doc "guns" or "cars" with specific facts about various things I may or may not use in the story, but regardless they're all there to grab.

Then the book itself, with docs titled "ch 1a" and "ch 4c". How I write: I start, say, chapter 14 and I title the file "ch 14a" and type away, occasionally saving what I type. Then, let's say that I think, "Duh! That chapter didn't really turn out the way I expected." so then I'll simply save the file again under a new file name "ch 14b" and tear out whole paragraphs and rewrite.

So, as you can see, I'll end up with perhaps several versions of certain chapters, such as "ch 9a" and "ch 9b" and "ch 9c" and all are saved, nothing is ever deleted.

Later, reconsidering and reviewing, I'll realize that maybe there are elements of versions "c" and "d" that are both good. So I'll blend the two and end up with a "ch 9e" and maybe that will become the keeper.

Then from time to time, I'll combine all the completed chapters into one big document. So I build my novel by writing and writing a lot, but also by using good "computer smarts" to save everything, all the versions, just in case.

And yeah, I back up my stuff regularly.

[tobeywilson]

I store my work in a lot of places.
In the corner. In a stack of notebooks, that has climbed up to my hip. (mostly drafts, older work, and poems)
On my computer.
On a flash drive, actually, like 8, because I never have the one I keep saying I'll use for writing on hand.

[saviolo]

I just e-mail it to myself. The cheapest back-up solution. and I like to have a nice printout of my work so I can read it on trains or when I'm waiting for people.

[scriptbunny]

The easiest thing I'd recommend, as a techie person who often works with non-techies, is to set up a Gmail account and store everything on Google Drive. They even have a Word-like editor which means you never should have to save anything physically onto your computer (it'll all be "in the cloud" as the kids say nowadays).

[R_H_Ali]

I think all writers struggle with this concept of how/where to store their WIP's.

For me, I keep notebooks as well as word documents with my work. I use the notebooks to plan everything out or to write a scene in a book, which I then transfer to my laptop when I'm editing. It makes the editing process a lot easier too - I really enjoy doing this.

I save my work both on my computer itself, as well as upload it to an online storage account where I can edit and alter anything I want and it will sync to all my devices. That's really handy, and having the information downloaded to various devices reduces the risk of you losing your works.

In terms of organising and separating various works, I am extremely meticulous with the division of folders. I have folders within folders and everything is labelled to the T. This makes it extremely accessible and allows me to keep track of all that I've done, and what I have yet to complete.

I think my system works pretty well for me, although the idea of writing in old leather books always appealed to me. Perhaps I've been born in the wrong era.