In The Flow of Time – March 11, 2025
About the practical mechanics of writing.
I have a map of 1837 New Orleans covered with annotations about who lived where when, locations of significant scenes, etc. etc. For me it’s invaluable, and irreplaceable. There are dozens of notes, over the span of the novel, as locations and characters matter. Or I think they will. đŸ™‚ I open the map, see who lives where… the notes are very short, just placeholders for the vast cloud of “stuff” in my head spanning both space and time.
I’m starting the next chapter. I discover that the file is gone. ??? I look in the trash. Nope, not there. Only a moment of panic. The Mac has a wonderful utility called Time Machine. It’s set up to do automatic backups. I have a second backup in the cloud. But my local backup is my go-to.
Into the Time Machine. There’s the file, two days ago. I have ZERO idea how that file vanished… I’m sure it was some idiot user. I was modifying it, probably deleted the original and failed to save the new one. Too bad, so sad, all gone… Except, not. đŸ™‚
I have another map, a bit older, for the broader view of the region with bayous, lakes, etc. In 1810-1820 the city wasn’t this built up. But most of the action is in the Vieux CarrĂ© and on this irreplaceable reference file.
Good backups have saved my ass more than once.
