So, I did something last night I haven't done in more than a decade. I wrote a couple of thousand words for my NaNo project, copied the whole thing and pasted it into NaNo's word count validator, then went back to my MS Word document to close it...and I accidentally hit "No" when prompted to save and then quickly hit "No" again when asked if I wanted to retain the large amount of text in the clipboard.
So, just to check, I opened the document back up and every single word of the 2000 plus I had written was not there. For some bizarre reason I didn't click save even a single time last night during that writing. Now, I'm the type who clicks the save button every few paragraphs out of habit.
Why I didn't do it a single time last night I have no clue.
So, I lost over 2000 words. And they were good words too. A few of them were a slight extension of the chapter I had finished the previous evening. The bulk were the next chapter. I was not happy with myself, to say the least.
So what did I do? Nothing. I had to stay up to work on a software update in the middle of the night, but I spent the remaining time watching a bunch of DVR'd episodes of Corner Gas. I put the story out of mind until this evening.
And I opened up my Word document to rewrite the last little bit of the previous chapter and suddenly the scene was not ended and the chapter was not ended and a key scene I had no idea how or when I would be able to write busted through and demanded it would be right now.
So, I ended up adding 2500 pages to this chapter and took a major step in the relationship between one of the main characters and another important character. And I think I managed to actually pull it off.
So, now I get to continue with the new chapter, which switches back to the main POV character. Now I just have to figure out if I should rewrite the scene I wrote last night, or go with this idea that has been tapping the back of my brain instead.
Since I have another middle of the night bit of work for my day job I can take my time to decide.
So, the one time I manage to delete my daily writing work for the first time in more than 10 years, it ends up making the book much better. I wonder if somehow my subconscious knew what it was doing?
So, just to check, I opened the document back up and every single word of the 2000 plus I had written was not there. For some bizarre reason I didn't click save even a single time last night during that writing. Now, I'm the type who clicks the save button every few paragraphs out of habit.
Why I didn't do it a single time last night I have no clue.
So, I lost over 2000 words. And they were good words too. A few of them were a slight extension of the chapter I had finished the previous evening. The bulk were the next chapter. I was not happy with myself, to say the least.
So what did I do? Nothing. I had to stay up to work on a software update in the middle of the night, but I spent the remaining time watching a bunch of DVR'd episodes of Corner Gas. I put the story out of mind until this evening.
And I opened up my Word document to rewrite the last little bit of the previous chapter and suddenly the scene was not ended and the chapter was not ended and a key scene I had no idea how or when I would be able to write busted through and demanded it would be right now.
So, I ended up adding 2500 pages to this chapter and took a major step in the relationship between one of the main characters and another important character. And I think I managed to actually pull it off.
So, now I get to continue with the new chapter, which switches back to the main POV character. Now I just have to figure out if I should rewrite the scene I wrote last night, or go with this idea that has been tapping the back of my brain instead.
Since I have another middle of the night bit of work for my day job I can take my time to decide.
So, the one time I manage to delete my daily writing work for the first time in more than 10 years, it ends up making the book much better. I wonder if somehow my subconscious knew what it was doing?
Comments
Listen to what's loudest in your head and write that. And yes, it sounds like your subconcious knows what it is doing.
Well done on keeping up with the NaNo challenge.