It's better to have written and lost than... by Annmarie Miles

One of my older brothers (I have four) texted me today to tell me about a story he had been working on. Most of his writing is connected to his job, but he has written some lovely memoir pieces and he definitely has a flair. He told me he had been working on this story for a few months. It was based on people we knew, but he had embellished it. He mentioned the emotional investment he had put into it and I could understand that. The couple he was basing it on were very special to us as a family. We were a family of eight children (I also have three older sisters), and this lovely couple were childless and showed us great affection as kids. I was getting excited as I read his text. It sounded wonderful. Then he dropped the bombshell... laptop crashed, hard drive irretrievable, story gone forever. 

He is my older brother, 
but not this old

I was gutted for him.  Many if not all writers have had this happen, and it can be crushing. When we've invested our time and our heart into something, to lose it just makes the heart sink. I stopped myself from saying what I was thinking, about backing stuff up, emailing to himself, saving copies to external drives, printing it out and wallpapering his bedroom with it. And it certainly wasn't the time to do the 'Jesus saves' joke. I just condoled with him and shared with him my coping mechanism for when it happens to me. 

I thought I'd share it with you, in the hope that you never need it. 

1. Have a good cry if you need to. Eyes-streaming, nose-running sobbing. Recreate that scene from Truly, Madly, Deeply if you're that upset. Get it out of your system. 

2. Kick a skirting board by all means, but make sure to change out of your slippers, or you'll have something else to cry about. 

3. Don't try to write it all again straight away. If it's that important to you, it's in you. You will be able to write it again. Writing with a frustrated, broken heart (and possibly a broken toe) is not the best setting to recreate your masterpiece.

4. Jot the main points down. Capture phrases that stand out in your memory. Again, this doesn't have to be done straight away. Keep a notebook with you or use your phone for sentences or paragraphs as they come back to you. 

5. Go back to your old notes. Think about where early drafts might be. Did you email a section to anyone to read? Did you have a Facebook or Whatsapp chat or a phone call with anyone as you were playing with ideas?

6. Move forward. You can't go back. When you're ready, sit down, write it again, writing it better the second time.

And in the name of all that is good and holy, will you PLEASE save, and save again. Back up your work, email it to yourself, save it on a pen drive, print it out and... 

Oh sorry - did I say that out loud?!

photo credit: mrhong42 DSC_0069.jpg via photopin (license)

Annmarie Miles is from Dublin, Ireland.
She lives with her husband Richard who is a pastor in the Eastern Valley of Gwent, in South Wales. She writes short stories, magazine articles, devotional pieces for Christian radio, and blogs about her faith at www.auntyamo.com Her first collection of short stories published in 2013, is called 'The Long & The Short of it'. Her second collection, 'A Sense of the Sea and other stories,' was published in 2018 and in December 2019 she published her first novel, Gorse Lodge. She is currently editing a non-fiction book about being an overweight Christian called, 'Have mercy on me O Lord, a slimmer.'