The dark side of using online tools to draft your work

800 words and hours of work. All in the landfill, somewhere on the internet. All because I got distracted for 5 minutes.

The page refreshed and it was all gone.

After I calmed down. I realize there is no one to blame but me.

I’m a big fan of some of the online writing tools. In particular Hemmingway and Grammarly.

What I do because its free, is to use the online-only versions of those tools.

So I write in Hemmingway and copy into Grammarly. Then do my final edits in medium.

This has worked fine for the last 8 months.

My mistake has been to look at my writing as fun. It’s not a business for me at the moment. So I haven’t looked at the tools I use and their strengths and weaknesses.

As with anything in life, you only as strong as your weakest link.

In this case, that weakest link has been drafting online.

I’m drafting this in word, and that is the route ill continue from now on.

I also need to reevaluate my approach to writing.

It’s a genuine passion. But because of that, I missed the small stuff around the process.

My concentration has focused on writing.

Yes, this is a rant. But its also a warning to others.

Sounds simple but make sure you have a way to save your work as you go.

To lose it is soul-destroying.

My work may have been total garbage. This issue may have been a blessing.

But I’ll never know, and that is crushing…