Book On The Brain Syndrome: Saving your Askmewhat? .

Yes, this could be your book going the way to that Big Deletion dump up in cyberspace.

What is Book on the Brain Syndrome you may ask? And what the hell is an Askmewhat you may be thinking? Well, I will tell you exactly what they are. Book on the Brain Syndrome is a literary disease that all authors, and sometimes readers and viewers have as well. This disease consists  of forgetfulness, thoughtlessness, and sometimes a bit of ignorance that will cause one to shudder within, curse sporadically, causes high anxiety, and also drop to the floor while having a WTF moment, in tandem with why did I do that sh*t tantrum all at the same time. The Askmewhat part is when someone asks me what the hell was I thinking knowing that failing to follow the next few paragraphs will kill all your hard earned efforts.

I can assuredly attest to the type-written fact that if you don’t take one of these precautions you may find yourself in the midst of a literary heart attack after  you lose all of your hard work. Just the other day my primary laptop suddenly took that big leap into Cyber-Hell and the rest was history. This happened immediately after I went to the gym to work out with my personal trainer and friend Mustajab of the well-known CEO of Gorilla Taktics security team. Upon my return, and without warning, my computer was dead. Usually I would have panicked in such an instance, but the majority of my important files were saved. Below I will provide you with a few useful tips you can put into daily practice so that you do not lose your hard work such as I have most assuredly done in the past.

Saving Duplicates

First things first is that as an author, I would assume that the majority of you are not writing for the hell of it just to see all of your hard earned work disappear into Cyber-Hell just because it’s a fun thing to do. So first on the agenda while using programs such as Microsoft Word, or Open Office, Wizard for Word, Google Docs, etcetera.

First and foremost, make a second copy, and do not store it in the same place as the original. Also, be sure to give your secondary file a distinct name so as to distinguish the copy from the original because the copy will always be behind  the document you are currently working on until it is updated.

USB Stick Or (Micro) SD Card

A USB Stick and a Micro SD are two digital apparatuses which are very similar in nature.  USB stands for the Universal Storage Bus interface. It’s essentially just a flash drive, meaning it has no moving parts inside and all it can do is read and write data that is stored within. Most computers come with integrated portholes equipped for interfacing with the device. Some even come with built in security features that require a passcode which you create in order to get access to the data stored within. You can purchase a USB with different amounts of storage capacity from 2 Gigabytes all the way to one-terabyte which is enough space to store the Library of Congress within its Datasphere. The cost of such a device, usually ranges from under ten dollars up to several hundred depending on the maker, and storage capacity.

My nephew showed me this after I yelled at him for being bad…LOL

SD stands for Secure Digital Digital, and as stated before is very similar to a USB in concept. Yet unlike your computers Radom Access Memory (RAM) which is loss as soon as your power component is shut down an SD is non-volatile in digital nature, meaning the information is still accessible and will continue to exist when no power is available. Most SD cards are found in portable devices such as laptops, and micro SD cards are found inside of mobile phones whether they are internal or removable. I personally suggest that when purchasing an SD Card. Make sure that you get one that is at least carries a Class 4 rating or better, meaning; that it has a read/write  speed of  4 megabytes per second. Which is standard for handling 4g mobile speeds which theoretically can reach up to 672 megabits per second. So, if you have large files that you want to save quickly, use my recommendation when buying an SD.

Word Features

If you are using Microsoft Word, which is pretty prominent when it comes to writing Urban Fiction. You will notice that if you click on the options menu you will find a host of robust features available at your fingertips. Later, I will show you how these tips will help you save both time and money in the future. However, I want to share with you the built-in auto-save, and auto-recovery features that you can set, which will in turn automatically save the document you are working on if you accidently lose power or Lassie, Rin Tin-Tin, or your child happens to shut off your power, or if you have a bad-a$$ but adorable nephew named Amir J. who messes with everything he is not supposed to, causing you to normally lose everything you were so diligently working on at the moment and send it to yep, you guessed it; Cyber-Hell. But instead of me talking your damn ears off with my droning babble I will include some helpful links below from other sites that will help guide you visually as well as instruct you on how to use both auto- save, and auto recovery. But before I do, my personal suggestion is to set your auto-save counter to at least save your document every five minutes or so, and even as low as 3 minutes if you are anything like my friend Sonovia Alexander (an undercover Jamaican) who writes three novels per month… LOL! (She may kill me after reading this. Here are the links as follows (Click the blue words):

Auto Save, by clicking this button. As stated previously, you may not want to kill your bad a$$ but adorable nephew Amir. Rather, you will instead take him out for some ice cream, after finishing your work.

Amir the Terrible…Yes, he was only two when I first discovered that he was a criminal. Messing with everything he shouldn’t be, and yet he’s so adorable. SMH…LOL

Auto Recovery, by clicking here you will learn how to get back your document if you have a so-help-me- if-I-have-to-rewrite-this moment ever again.

Cloud Services

Cloud Services are basically in layman terms, available storage spaces other than your computer’s hard drive where you can safely store your data. For example, let’s say your computer is a house, and you typically store all of your important items within your basement and attic areas. Well, once these spaces are filled to capacity you begin to look elsewhere for spaces to store your valuables such as a safe storage facility, a warehouse, or wherever meets your specifications. Today, within the Cyberw0rld there are companies such as Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo who offer these services for free, offering you as little as 5 gigs up to 15 gigs of space for storing your digital data on their servers which for most urban fiction writers is plenty. These servers which are used primarily for storing data in remote facilities are called virtual clouds and are accessible from anywhere. Most of the above mentioned have apps that will allow you to access your information on your phone or any computer in which you have access to usually via an internet connection. Others, such as Google Drive will allow you to do so offline as well.

I personally store my important documents on both Microsoft’s One Drive AKA Sky Drive, Google Docs, Google Drive, and my Yahoo account folders.

Android Phone

The android  Google Play market has a host of apps available such as a free version of QuickOffice which will allow you to read any Word document that you have stored on your mobile smart phone. You can easily share your documents with others via Bluetooth, email, etectera. You can also edit your documents or create new ones as well. As an author I can personally attest that having this app on your phone is one definitely worth having in your tool arsenal.

In conclusion, I would urge each and every one of you Wordsmiths or otherwise working on important documents connected to your livelihood to practice the above mentioned in order to save yourself from becoming a nervous wreck.

I’m Dion Cheese and I bid you a warm adieu.

Ciao biaatches!!! Happy writing everyone!

In conclusion