This past week, I finally knuckled down and did something I’ve been meaning to do since…well, since NaNoWriMo last November.

No, not that cloud. At least, I hope my cloud isn’t that dark and stormy looking!

I moved my works in progress (WIPs) to the Cloud.

I still have mixed feelings about this.  On the one hand, it means I can edit from any computer or device, as long as I have a wi-fi connection.  And it means I have a backup copy that’s not on my hard drive (I had a painfully expensive encounter with data rescue a year ago December, one I’m not anxious to repeat).

On the other hand…there’s that little “as long as I have a wi-fi connection” issue.  Because sometimes, it’s nice to unplug from the Internet and go hide someplace where I’m not connected, and just write.  Better for productivity, too.  No Facebook or Twitter to tempt me away from my work.

I just have to keep reminding myself that I still have the option of saving a copy onto my hard drive, for when I’m going to be off-line.  I’ll need to work out some kind of version control, though.  Because having to reconcile two different versions of a novel, one of which got some of the edits, while the other got the rest, is a pain in the tuchus.  I know, because that’s what I’m doing now with the first book of the Winterbourne series.  (That has nothing to do with cloud storage and everything to do with user error.  Sigh.)

I chose GoogleDrive as my solution, and so far, it seems to be working well.  It’s also free, which fits my budget nicely.  I’ve installed it on my netbook, laptop, and iPad so far, and only had problems synchronizing files between them when I couldn’t get the netbook to connect to the network at work.  (Apparently her wi-fi adapter is too old and slow.)  Installing the GoogleDrive app creates a virtual drive to which you can save documents just as if it was a hard drive or network drive attached to your machine.  It really is simple.

The true test will come in July, when I’m thinking about doing a mini version of NaNoWriMo, to see if I can make some further headway on any of my current WIPs.  My plan is to spruce up my front porch and find a comfy chair to put out there, so I can have a little writing “retreat” for the summer.  I’ve only been meaning to do this for the last three years.  It’s time I got off my tuchus and did something about it.  Right?

But there will be times when I need or want to take my mini-NaNoWriMo on the road.  I find a change of scenery is often helpful.  Fortunately, there are a number of outdoor locations in the Denver area that have wi-fi availability, including the Botanic Gardens and the 16th Street Mall.  So having the ability to store my writing in the cloud and access it from my iPad, which is lighter and easier to carry than the netbook, would be handy.

I’ll let you all know how it goes.

Have you experimented with cloud storage/backups?  What solution(s) did you choose, and why?