Back to the setback. Well, somehow as I was typing and not saving my work as I went (stupid stupid I know! But I was in the zone!). I manged to hit some random button with my pinkie and the whole word document closed! When I brought it back up it was giving my my previously saved, from the night before, document. I lost all my work for the day. Total loss, three pages. Now, normally this isn't such a big deal. When I type, I'm usually working off my hard copy. Good old paper and pen. But this time, outlining, I was mostly going off memory. See I had written out an outline about a month ago. But lately I've been going over the plot points again and again in my head until I have them just right. I was having a really good moment yesterday where I was totally focused and everything was coming into place. So I was basically outline the culmination of book two. Then zap. GONE! Gone, gone. Completely gone. Yes I tried everything to bring it back. If you ever lose a word document, I am your girl. I know every trick in the book to try and recover it. Nothing helped.
Apparently I'm running some stone-age version of word. 2003 to be exact. Seriously, it's not that old is it? My car is a '98! Oh and my operating system? Hold onto your hats...WINDOWS XP!!! Seriously, if I ever make a dime off writing the firs thing I'm getting is a new laptop with Windows....whatever is the current operating system. I suppose by then it will be Windows 2020. And a new car...and new socks, mine are quite holey...
Anyway, what was I talking about? Oh yeah my book outline. So by the time I had recovered from losing my life's work, well, a day's work, I sat down about three hours later when I finally had a free minute and tried to remember everything I had written. Of course, I mostly could. But I couldn't help but feel like I was still missing something. Maybe I was, maybe I wasn't. I'll never know.
This morning I managed to finish up the rest and I'm very happy with the end result. Of course I still have a ton of work ahead of me. Book one still needs to be finished, though I'm seriously working on editing the final chapters now. Also, though I'm happy to be finished with the outline, that's seriously like 5% of the work done. BUT, I've learned that the outline is the most important part of writing a book. It's like my map, telling me where to go and helping me stay on the path. Which is why I'm printing it...and laminating it. Just kidding, but hey that's not a bad idea! I'm also big into my timeline. I like to get my days and dates just perfect. I'm weird like that.
So what I have I learned now that I've officially plotted my second novel (yes it is a sequel!). Well, the amazon rainforest is a wicked exciting setting, almost as good as the streets of London. Also, explosions might just be more awesome than car chases. It remains to be seen. Finally, I think just maybe, I was cut out to write this stuff. Who knew? I love me some good clean action/adventure lets see how much trouble they can get into this time, type of stories. I love, love, LOVE my characters, I think they're amazing. AND I can't even explain to you just how much I love writing and just how badly I want to see my words in print.
So glad you were able to get the outline back down from memory and finish it. Sounds like it is going to be an awesome sequel.
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