Well that's the general plan...
I've bought my portable hard drive so I now have an ultimate back-up; as I retype my Nottinghamshire short novel it's being saved onto it as well as the memory stick.
(Plus anything else I don't want to lose has been saved.)
Three forms of saving must be enough?
As friends on Facebook will have seen, I discovered that not only had I lost the first three chapters of draft 2, I had lost the whole 1st draft too.
The situation could have been horrible, but as mentioned last time, I print out each chapter as I complete it, so there is a copy of the completed first draft to work from.
Surprisingly I didn't panic, that is after the initial moment of horror at discovering the file was gone.
Rather than retyping the 1st draft again- which would take me too long- I decided the most practical solution is to retype the first three chapters from draft 2 (as planned), then once I start chapter four I'll rewrite using my print copy and the notes I'd previously made for draft 2.
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| The way forward... |
As I read through and retype I've also started compiling reminder notes on a file card for each chapter. Not something I've tried before, but in the circumstances I thought I'd see if it helps with the rewriting and editing of future drafts.
Being open to new ideas is good. Which now ties into the poetry item...
I attended a short workshop about writing poetry (last night at the writers' club). The aim of the session was to encourage the attendees that even if they didn't think they could write a poem, they could discover methods that would help them do so.
Negativity was not allowed.
Admittedly by the end of the evening I was quite enthusiastic about working on the last poem I wrote, about an old glass bottle with the chemist's name - we were given a selection of objects to choose from and the little glass bottle immediately drew my attention.
Whether I can actually make a decent poem out of it I have no idea, but I said I'd try.
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles & www.freedigitalphotos.net
I'm so sorry you lost so much work, but what a relief that you had printed copies! Good luck with the poetry - the chemist's bottle sounds like a good choice to write about :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Teresa. It was horrible at the time, but the relief of having a paper copy still was immense.
DeleteI've been thinking about the poem over the past week, so I now need to put the thoughts in action.
Don't forget to hand your poem over to Viv at the next meeting for the comp.
ReplyDeleteWell Viv won't be there to collect them, Keith, but I'm acting as collector for her, then I can get them to her.
DeleteHope you get all your hard work back on track and well saved, Carol! I do like the subject of your poem.
ReplyDeleteI'm finally back into routine and getting up to speed again, Rosemary.
DeleteThe glass bottle was simple, but very tactile too.