Basic backup advice!
 

For the last few years I have used SD constantly backing up my Mac on a schedule and thankfully have never had a H/D failure.

I am not what one would call super technical but wouls appreciate some suggestions on the following.

I have recently purchased a MBP which I will only use for writing a new novel. Besides the Snow Leopard installation I have installed two other Mac apps. MacSpech Dictate and StoryMill. The only thing I want to make sure of backing up is my novel which will be backed up all the time to a folder in Documents .

I also have purchased a new Seagate 250GB external drive. I have tried to think about the best way of backing up, but the more I think and read, the more unsure I am. In view of what I am trying to achieve, my initial idea is to just backup frequently to my ext drive using SD, which will then do incremental backups taking little time at all.

I suppose my question is, is my plan adequate or should I bring TM in to the equation. As I am really only going to backup one folder, do I need TM?

Your suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Don't just back up one folder. Back up your whole drive with "Backup - all files", and I don't think there's any downside to partitioning the backup and backing up with TM, too.

Thank you Dave. I will take your advice.

Two other best practices
 

For a novel, your really should use TM in addition to SD, since revisions will be done very often. You never know when you'll want to "reinsert that paragraph you deleted last month".

You might want to consider an off-site backup for the novel's files as well. If your Mac was stolen, they would probably take your attached backup drive as well. Thumb drives are cheap (for the capacity you need for a novel) and if you rotate them to a remote location you'll be safer in the event of burglary or fire.