problems saving in openoffice

[Tim M]

I am trying to save a letter that I have started in Openoffice. I can
write all I wish to but when I try to save I get this error message:

OpenOffice.org 2.3
Error saving the document Untitled1:
/home/lap1/Documents/jackie7.odt does not exist

Of course it doesn't exist I am creating it! I click Ok
and another error message pops up saying:

Error saving the document Untitled1:
General Error.
General input/output error.

What do these messages mean and how can I save the letter I am writing?

Tim