The story is based on a true event - the director, Neil McArthur, really did lose the complete draft of his novel when his computer crashed. It happened after he and Nathan Krentz tried to install a CD burner. Nathan felt so bad he did the music on the film for free.
Before it was lost, the manuscript for the novel won Neil an award, the W.O. Mitchell Bursary Award from the Canadian Women's Press Club, given to a promising young writer who is not yet published.
One of the anecdotes Arthur tells Lisa is true - but it happened to Michael Ondaatje.