by Angela Bourassa

Few things in life are as terrifying to a writer as the idea of their laptop crashing. And the scariest thing is that we all know it will happen at some point, and probably many times over the years.

The occassional computer self-destruct is inevitable, so it is essential to keep all of your scripts stored somewhere safe that isn’t your computer. Luckily, the cloud is there for us, and there are a lot of options for taking advantage of it.

3 Reasons to Back Up Every Draft, Every Time

It is essential that you back up every draft of your script. Why?

1. Peace of mind.

Like I said, your computer will fail at some point. When that happens, if your scripts aren’t saved somewhere secure, you could lose years of hard work. You may be able to get PDFs of your scripts from friends you shared them with, but what about the Final Draft and Movie Magic versions — you know, the files you can actually edit?

2. Accessibility.

Having your scripts in the cloud means you can access them from any computer or device with an internet connection. Make it easier for yourself to access your work wherever you are, whenever you need it.

3. Security.

If you’re like me, you probably have twenty different drafts of each of your scripts saved on your computer. That may not matter much now, but down the road, you could get into a dispute about who wrote what when. Lawsuits about the origin of scripts don’t happen often, but they do happen, so it’s important to keep a thorough record of your entire work history, and cloud storage lets you maintain that history in one place over the entire course of your career.

There are a lot of popular cloud storage options, but we recommend IDrive.

IDrive is currently offering LA Screenwriter readers a year of virtually unlimited data storage for 75% off their regular prices — just $14.88 for the first year.

For that price, you’ll get one terabyte of storage. That’s 1,000 gigabytes. In other words, it’s all the storage you could possibly need for all of your files for, like, ever.

IDrive protects your files in the cloud with encryption, keeping your scripts safe from data disaster. IDrive also offers Universal Backup, so you can backup your data from all your smartphones, tablets, and computers. And even better, they don’t charge anything for extra devices. That means you can write from home on your PC or Mac, then access your script on the go on your tablet or any other linked device.

IDrive is the 2015 winner of PC Mag’s Editors’ Choice Award. Their application is easy to use, secure, and compatible with just about any device out there; from iOS to Android, PC to Mac.

Click here to start protecting your data with IDrive today.