Bemoaning my losses.
Sep. 12th, 2010 10:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sarasvatiBack in June, I was working on what I thought would end up being an awesome story. I have a good solid plot, well-defined characters, and the writing was going along just great. I'd get a good wordcount on it, not lose steam, and I was having a fun time writing it.
Then I took a break for a writing challenge with Rei. Turns out that didn't end up going anywhere, but it's still vaguely relevent to the story.
Then my computer refused to turn on, and I had to reinstall Windows.
I had neglected, of course, to back up the awesome story I was working on that the time. The file has now, of course, been lost to the flows of time.
I still know the story. I still know the characters. That stuff isn't a problem. The problem right now is that whenever I try to restart the story, to get it all out and bring myself back to where I was before the big crash, I can't find the original feel of it. I've tried rewriting the thing three times now, and I just can't seem to bring back the feel that I had when I did it the first time. The style was write then, the flow was right, and now...
It frustrates me to no end. I had a really good story, and now trying to bring it back just feels flat and wrong.
Maybe I've been thinking about this a lot more than usual lately because as the weather turns cooler, it makes me want to write. Cool weather is always good writing weather, to my senses. It makes me want to sit down and type for hours and get out at least a decent first draft of something. Hot weather never does this to me, probably because it's often too hot for me to feel comfortable doing anything but lying around and moving as little as possible. But with the days turning cool enough that my feet get chilly in the morning and I can no longer get away with just sleeping under a simgle sheet, my fingers get itching to do some writing.
And the one thing I really want to write just isn't happening.
I have been tempted to get another DW account to use as a writing journal. I know I have a terrible habit of compartmentalizing all aspects of my life, trying to keep them apart until there's been so much bleedover that I just can't do it anymore, but when I had a writing journal in the past, I found it to be a good motivator for me. I felt the need to be able to update with something more than, "I meant to write, but didn't."
Then I took a break for a writing challenge with Rei. Turns out that didn't end up going anywhere, but it's still vaguely relevent to the story.
Then my computer refused to turn on, and I had to reinstall Windows.
I had neglected, of course, to back up the awesome story I was working on that the time. The file has now, of course, been lost to the flows of time.
I still know the story. I still know the characters. That stuff isn't a problem. The problem right now is that whenever I try to restart the story, to get it all out and bring myself back to where I was before the big crash, I can't find the original feel of it. I've tried rewriting the thing three times now, and I just can't seem to bring back the feel that I had when I did it the first time. The style was write then, the flow was right, and now...
It frustrates me to no end. I had a really good story, and now trying to bring it back just feels flat and wrong.
Maybe I've been thinking about this a lot more than usual lately because as the weather turns cooler, it makes me want to write. Cool weather is always good writing weather, to my senses. It makes me want to sit down and type for hours and get out at least a decent first draft of something. Hot weather never does this to me, probably because it's often too hot for me to feel comfortable doing anything but lying around and moving as little as possible. But with the days turning cool enough that my feet get chilly in the morning and I can no longer get away with just sleeping under a simgle sheet, my fingers get itching to do some writing.
And the one thing I really want to write just isn't happening.
I have been tempted to get another DW account to use as a writing journal. I know I have a terrible habit of compartmentalizing all aspects of my life, trying to keep them apart until there's been so much bleedover that I just can't do it anymore, but when I had a writing journal in the past, I found it to be a good motivator for me. I felt the need to be able to update with something more than, "I meant to write, but didn't."
