I just finished a monthly article by Kevin Alexander in the latest Writer's Digest called This Writer's Life. I really like his articles every month, they are funny and usually have a moral or something. This month struck me and I'll tell you why. He wrote about his worldly possession being stolen from his car.
I've never had anything stolen but I have lost something, my writing. Just over two years ago I was in the hospital having given birth to my second son. My husband and oldest son came to visit. On their way home they hit a patch of ice and rolled the truck. They were fine thank goodness, I had had a bad feeling all that day and after I knew why but that is a subject for another day.
After we were all home safe and sound together I realized that some of my worldly possessions that he was taking back home for me didn't make it. After the safety of my husband and son, this was the first thing I was worried about. My binder with 3 or 4 of my best ideas, notes and outlines, a map for one of the stories. Most of the information I had saved on my computer but the personal notes and the map were irreplaceable in my mind.
It's been two years and I'm not sure that I have recovered, I've hardly wrote a thing except a few short pieces but this could be from having two very busy boys on my hands. I'm finding it more difficult recently to write since I now have 3 boys on my hands but I'm willing to try and break my non-writing cycle.
The other thing that i lost were 4 books I had with me. I was able to replace 3 of them so far. The one I'm having trouble with is "How to Write Characters Children will love". I was a fabulous book in my eyes but I can't seem to find it again. I had purchased it from the Writer's Digest book club but they don't carry it anymore, they have any number of other children's writing books but not this one.
I've done searches for it but can't seem to find it in a easy place to get from, it's usually at an obscure book place that seems sketchy to me. I like to buy from reliables like Chapters or Amazon.
I realized not that long ago another piece I had written was gone. I belong to a few online forums, writing and not. At one of the forums is a board for bloggers and we had a challenge every couple of weeks. One challenge was to write about a pet. I had the perfect memoir about my dog Kojak I had written. He died three years ago and it seemed like the perfect tribute to him. Only problem was the memoir piece was not on my computer, memory key or any of the 3 CD's I have my writing save on. I was heartbroken. Until a few days ago, I found it printed out in a binder with my other writing. It was a habit I got into with my Writer's group. There was two years worth of stories I had printed out before out Writer's Group switch boards and we seemed to dwindle. It's trying to be resurrected these days and I hope it works because I love that group of writers.
I have learned to live with my loss and it has given me like the writer in the article a reason for backups.
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