Hey Folks,
Well, today we can call January 1/3 over. At my current rate, I should be able to clear 70,000 words this month. Maybe 80,000. We’ll see. I hope you’re having similar success.
Now if I can only come up with a novel idea for the January-February transition. (grin) I wanna do something off-planet, something science fictiony or science fantasy-y. So I’ll probably write a western. (grin)
Topic: Save Early, Save Often
I know, old advice. Trite advice. But extremely good advice.
This morning, I was outside. I opened my current WIP and was about to start writing when I glanced at the bottom left of the screen.
The word count was 12112. Oh no. Had I lost the last almost 4,300+ words I’d written yesterday?
The file I’d opened was in my Dropbox. It was the most current version synched between my two laptops. Oh no.
My thumb drive was inside in my office. I stopped everything else and made a mad dash into the house (but quietly, as it was only 4:30).
I plugged in my thumb drive, clicked frantically at my mouse, and—
Whew! It was there!
I had saved the file in a folder titled “a Kirski Continued.” The “a” precedes the rest of the file name so it will show up at the top of the list of folders.
At the end of each day I always transfer the contents of that folder from the thumb drive to my Dropbox. Always.
Until yesterday. Lesson relearned.
But it was there. I didn’t have to begin the day by reinventing the wheel. Crisis averted.
But one thing leads to another. Almost by accident I noticed there was another folder a bit farther down the list in my Dropbox named “Kirski Continued” (no “a”).
So I opened it and “a Kirski Continued” and compared them back and forth. The “a” folder was the more current, and it contained all of the files (but newer) that were in the other one. So to avoid future confusion, I deleted the one that didn’t begin with “a”.
Future crisis averted. Never keep duplicate files or folders. More often than not, they aren’t truly duplicates.
I know I’m preaching to the choir here. But I’m the choir advisor, and even for me this stuff is SO easy to take for granted.
So just a reminder: Don’t take it for granted. Save Early, Save Often. Save even when you’re absolutely, positively certain you don’t need to.
* * *
For those of you who don’t do Facebook, here’s a glance at my twisted early morning humor: “I just this moment realized I’m a plagiarist. Everything I’ve written has come straight from the alphabet.” (grin)
And for the more critical among you, yeah, I could’a gone with “dictionary,” but all of that’s plagiarized from the alphabet too. Whatever guy invented that should be making some MAJOR royalties.
Of Interest
Second day of Dean’s trip. Check out Chapter One: Writing a Novel in Five Days While Traveling (http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/chapter-one-writing-a-novel-in-five-days-while-traveling/). I love passing this stuff along. I hope you read it and it helps.
He also posted 1/9/17 Daily (http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/1917-daily/).
For those of you who enjoy writing SF, check out this headline. The future is today. http://www.militarytimes.com/articles/pentagon-successfully-tests-worlds-largest-micro-drone-swarm
While I’m on the topic of research (and learning) if any of you would like to know how weapons “silencers” actually work, there’s a good article. NOTE: This is a politically biased article that delivers facts but also slams folks who don’t have a clue what they’re talking about. So if you want to avoid politics in all venues, don’t read this. But if you wanna read it, click http://thefederalist.com/2017/01/09/progressives-dont-understand-how-gun-silencers-work-here-are-some-facts-to-help-them/. There are also good gems to be mined throughout the article on related topics. And please don’t email me about this. I didn’t write or title the article. I just found the information interesting.
Today, and Writing
Rolled out at 3 and just messed around online for a few hours with email, Facebook, Dean’s site and writing this stuff.
Finally around 8:30, to the Adobe Hovel and the novel. Got a little over a thousand words in the first session. Then to the house to make a grocery list and go shopping.
Back from the grocery and everything put up and little things taken care of (introduced my little girl to the newly straightened Adobe Hovel) by 12:30. Back to the novel.
Had a pretty good session. Then I had to take some time off to help my grandson with some things he was doing. Then back to the novel around 2:30.
Didn’t get as much done as I’d hoped today, but the novel is still flying right along.
Back tomorrow.
Fiction Words: 3159
Nonfiction Words: 750 (Journal)
So total words for the day: 3909
Writing of The Claim (novel, working title)
Day 1…… 4391 words. Total words to date…… 4391
Day 2…… 3632 words. Total words to date…… 8023
Day 3…… 1416 words. Total words to date…… 9439
Day 4…… 2673 words. Total words to date…… 12112
Day 5…… 4284 words. Total words to date…… 16396
Day 6…… 3159 words. Total words to date…… 19555
Total fiction words for the month……… 21183
Total fiction words for the year………… 21183
Total nonfiction words for the month… 6010
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 6010
Total words for the year (fiction and nonfiction)…… 27193