diff --git a/.stow-global-ignore b/.stow-global-ignore
index cdf2fd6..83f71e6 100644
--- a/.stow-global-ignore
+++ b/.stow-global-ignore
@@ -7,4 +7,6 @@ __pycache__
 ^/README.*
 ^/LICENSE.*
 ^/COPYING
-
+\.stow-global-ignore
+\run-stow.sh
+\setup-neovim.sh
diff --git a/run-stow.sh b/run-stow.sh
index c041c78..0fb1b3d 100755
--- a/run-stow.sh
+++ b/run-stow.sh
@@ -1,10 +1,20 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 
-NEOVIM_CONFIG="~/.config/nvim"
+NEOVIM_CONFIG="$HOME/.config/nvim"
 
-if [ -d "$NEOVIM_CONFIG" ]; then
-    stow -v -R -t "$NEOVIM_CONFIG" .
-else 
-    echo "Neovim config directory does not exist: $NEOVIM_CONFIG"
-fi
+function stowit() {
+    if test -d "$NEOVIM_CONFIG"; then
+        stow -v -R -t "$NEOVIM_CONFIG" . || exit 1
+    else 
+        echo "Neovim config directory does not exist: $NEOVIM_CONFIG"
+        echo "Creating config directory..."
+        if ! mkdir -p "$NEOVIM_CONFIG"; then
+            echo "failed to create config folder"
+            exit 1
+        fi
+        echo "Created config folder"
+        stowit
+    fi
+}
 
+stowit