Creative Death By Stupidity

I almost died Tuesday night.

Not literally, but creatively. Why, you ask? I almost lost my entire book. Entire book. All because of my stupidity.

Karma probably had something to do with it too. Spiteful thing.

I spent the majority of Tuesday working on my book... at work (shh!). My office's programs are all in the cloud. I didn't think this would be a problem, so I saved my book like normal to a USB I carry with me everywhere. 

Only when I got home, the document wouldn't open. In fact, this error message popped up.

After a fair amount of "Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh" and "I'm going to die," I tried to think rationally. Maybe logging onto my office's cloud would allow me to open it. Only I didn't have the link to the log in website. Time to text a coworker. After a fair amount of taunting, he gave me the information I needed.

Hopeful, I tried opening my book again.

Same error message. There may have been tears and hysterical screaming at this point.

                                         

Then my sister came up with a genius idea that ended up saving my life. I opened my book through Word Pad, then copied and pasted everything into Microsoft Word. IT WORKED! 

                                             

...Except all my formatting is now screwed up. But I have my precious words back.

And you know what I did after this? Backed my book up on every technological piece of equipment I could get my hands on.

Which is what I should've done in the first place. So, my advice to you, wonderful readers, back everything (EVERYTHING!) up. You never know what might happen. And when it comes to your precious book?

It's always best to be prepared.

Not Just A Hobby

Okay, everyone. Raise your hand if you're a full time writer.

                                                     

Uh, huh. Yeah. Riiight. Put that hand down.

 Chances are, you have to squeeze in time to write. At the end of the day. When you're dead tired, and you'd much rather be sleeping. Yet you write. Why? Because you love it. The way you somehow pull together those perfect words, that clever dialog, that spine-tingling romantic scene... It's like magic.

Very few writers are able to classify writing as their full time job. Half the time it's not even a part time job. More likely it's a "Oh, I have a free hour. Better write!".

Which so totally and completely stinks. Especially since it leads to the idea that writing is just a hobby, something you do for fun on the weekends.

Hello, no! Writing is serious business. It consumes your life. There is no such thing as vacation or "taking a break". It's like walking around with your boss handcuffed to your wrist for the rest of your life.

But a boss that happens to be your best friend who you love more than anything. It's the perfect job. Unfortunately, it's not always do-able. Something called bills and little green rectangles called money get in the way. We can't all be J.K. Rowling or Suzanne Collins.

At least... not yet. They started out unpublished, unknown. Just. Like. Us.

So, if I could have one ultimate career wish? I don't want to be a CEO, a multi-million dollar shareholder. No. If I could?

I'd wish to be a full time writer.