A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to My Computer...

It's not who you are that holds you back, it's who you think you're not. ~ Author Unknown

Yesterday, I had an itch to take a look at my NaNoWriMo book from last year. Though I completed it, I wasn't happy with the heroine I'd chosen for my hero. I loved my hero and have plans to use him again.

So, I pulled up the file in my NaNoWriMo 2006 folder called "complete first draft".

Guess what? At some point in time, it was overwritten by a short story and only the first 79 pages of my novel.

At first I thought, ahh... I just mislabeld it. So I pulled up all the files in that folder. No luck. The ironic thing is that I have an email account that I use only to email my writing. A sort of back up. I'd been in there last week and deleted the copy of this novel, because I needed space and figured I had it on my hard drive and didn't love it any way.

Guess it's a good thing I didn't love it. I'm still surprised I'm not panicking, though. I keep everything I write, crap or not. But it's almost a relief because there were some scenes I probably would have tried to salvage or twist to fit a new book, and I don't think it would have worked. Now I can't.

Can't think of a good segue this morning, so I'll just move on. I read this phrase in a Suze Orman book last night: When you undervalue what you do, the world will undervalue who you are.

Wow.

Again, this is something I've always sort of realized, but it's nice to have it shoved to the forefront again. It's along the lines of "don't dress for the position you're in, but for the position you want" (an adage given me by my mentor at the company I used to work at... she was right. I started as a receptionist, and ended up managing the sales department in less than four years).

For me, now, it means: walk the walk. Say, I Am A Writer. Not I want to be a writer, or someday I'll be a writer... I AM.

Have a great day.