Start early; save often.

In the old days of computer discs, I remember the best piece of advice I ever heard: “start early; save often”. This was in the context of college essay writing, and the high school senior sharing her wisdom with me, a ninth grader at the time, had just experienced a catastrophic setback because of a computer melt-down. After that incident, she saved every line of every draft of her college essay to a different floppy disc, hiding them around her bedroom and car and school locker to prevent having to replicate any more of her painstakingly personal work.