Why You Should Back Up Your Work

Around this time last year I was just about to finish up on the very first edit of my very first manuscript. (Yay!) I was only a few chapters from the end and (Ack!) the hard drive on my laptop died. I lost all of my edits and the last three chapters of the manuscript. (Boo!)

Lego Twitter Fail Whale by tveskov

By then, I was so over my manuscript that I didn’t care that it disappeared into hard drive heaven. I didn’t lose any sleep because I was in the loathing stage of our relationship and, as I’ve said before, that usually occurs about the time I really start digging into the editing process.

Honestly, I was happy to move on because Brilliant Idea #2 was pounding on the door and I was raring to get started on it. In the end, I’m glad I decided to forget about the lost manuscript. I was able to take a break from obsessing about it for a good long while and, because of that, I’m completely over the loathing stage and back to being infatuated. Right now, though, I’m forcing myself to finish editing Brilliant Idea #2 before I get side tracked again. It’s so easy to get sidetracked and I NEED a finished manuscript like a pirate needs orange juice.

So now that I’m back on board with my first manuscript, I’m having some serious regrets about losing all those hours that I spent slaving away on my manuscript. Can’t believe I let something that like that slip through my fingertips.

I think it goes without saying people, back your stuff up.

My First Manuscript

Yesterday, I stumbled across my first manuscript (which I will lovingly refer to as POS#1), even though I had it hidden in the very back of a closet in hopes that I would never see it again.

It really was that bad.

A funny thing happened, though. I started reading it and, lo and behold, I actually enjoyed it.

A lot.

You see, when I was working on it, I thought it was the biggest piece of junk I had ever seen, but I was so wrapped up in the writing process that I never took the time to step back and take note of the things that actually worked. I had simply obsessed over a checklist of reasons (which are actually pretty good) for why I should throw the manuscript out.

Allow me to demonstrate:

Ordinary girl becomes extraordinary? Check. Popular boy woos ordinary girl? Check. Ordinary girl, now extraordinary girl, defeats the bad guy? Check.

These unoriginal ideas seemed like legitimate reasons to scrap POS#1 at the time.

Fast forward to July 2k11 and I’m looking at it with fresh eyes, because I’m not obsessing over making it a masterpiece (that’s because I’m distracted by my current Masterpiece).

Suddenly, as I’m reading POS#1, I want to know what happens next and I keep turning pages and I can’t wait to see how everything turns out in the end, even though I wrote it.

I’m thinking that’s a good thing, right?

I’m excited about this because, more than anything, I want to entertain my readers. I want to make them laugh, cry, relate to the characters on a personal level, and keep coming back for more. And, honestly, even though POS#1 is one giant cliché after another and has countless other issues, I had so much fun reading it yesterday that I’m beginning to think that it might be worth giving it another go.

And calling it FTW#1.


*For those that were wondering FTW = for the win