I've been dying to tell you all about my library visits. Unfortunately my computer has not been cooperating. It took a while to figure out the problem, but my husband finally figured out that the hard drive was broken. The new one took FOR-EV-ER to get here. It had a nice little week's vacation in Florida on it's way. (Yes, that almost makes me jealous. It's been freezing around here lately!)
What was on the old hard drive that broke? Well, everything, but most importantly, my writing. No, like a big dork, I did not have it backed up. I do have lots of hard copies. I have a lot of typing to do. I did lose some current drafts but I'm okay with that. Drafts are always changing and I'm taking the opportunity to make things better as I go. Am I happy that I will be re-typing the 120 handwritten pages of my YA novel? Not really. I'm still holding out hope that I have it on a memory stick around here somewhere.
There's something exciting about having a squeaky clean computer though. I feel so organized. The draft I put up of a manuscript will be the only one. I am going to make sure I don't junk it up with different drafts with poorly thought out titles such as (Manuscript name) current or new or use this one. Brilliant huh? Well no more of that. This time I'm going to keep it clean. I'm going to find a way to keep my writing more organized. Starting now.
Ouch, Heather! So sorry this happened to you. Backing up is sooo important, but I understand it's easy to forget or think "Oh, I'll do that tomorrow."
ReplyDeleteI used to use those kinds of titles too: "(manuscript name) new version" was one of my favorites... until, like a dummy, I saved more than one new version and kept forgetting which one was which!
Now every time I rewrite a ms, I copy and paste the last version into a new word doc and just give it a new number. So it's "(manuscript name) draft 2" or whatever. Much more organized.
Good luck with all that typing!
Ugh, how frustrating! Always back up your work, even if it's just to email it to yourself.
ReplyDeleteWhat kind of computer did you get? Hope it was a Mac. They're the best.
I like your enthusiasm for organization!! I hope it pays off. : )
ReplyDelete