In my previous post I was talking about making cuts: that deliberate decision to junk great swathes of your work. Challenging stuff, but exhilarating to do if it is necessary and your work is better for it.
To lose huge sections of your novel unintentionally is quite a different thing. It hardly needs saying, but the number of people who don't backup on a daily basis is scary. It's not just a question of saving the document itself, it's a good idea to back up to some kind of external drive as well and even to e-mail it to a trusted friend. I always keep a hard copy of each completed draft as belt and braces too. One of the benefits is you get an overview of how your work has changed during months (and years) of writing.
It's housekeeping for writers - a bit of a chore and easy to forget, but essential to do.
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