I’m Not Dead, I Feel Fine.
Have y’all seen that clip from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, where they collect dead dudes (yes – I just said “dead dudes”) and grab one who is not actually dead yet?
He insists he’s alive, but the other men are certain he won’t be for long.
Take a gander at the clip below, if you’d like. (This movie was a staple in my house growing up… don’t judge me. 😉 )
I feel like that old man right now. Especially in the whole writing/blogging world. I’m dying… (almost beaten to death… ya know, figuratively speaking) but trying to get better – just like the old man. 😉
But seriously – ridiculously dumb movie quotes aside – this past week I’ve been highly distracted from my blog. But not distracted from writing. In fact, it’s been at the forefront of my mind, but I’m struggling. And I’ll tell you why.
Get ready – it’s a SUPER FUN story that totally did NOT cause me to hyperventilate and sit at my desk sobbing hysterically for 2 hours straight the other night and then again the entire next day. <sarcasm>
So….
I LOST THE ENTIRE BOOK I WROTE.
All 60,000 words.
3 years of my life.
Oh, and NO. BIG. DEAL… I also lost the book proposal for it I have been working on for months and its one sheet.
OH YEAH, I almost forgot there’s more…
I ALSO LOST THE PROPOSAL AND ONE SHEET for the NEW book I started.
Gone.
Finite.
No longer.
Over and done.
All of them.
(But I’m over it… swear… <more sarcasm>…)
Let me hit rewind to cover a little background for you.
I have (had?) two book projects I plan to pitch to publishers at SheSpeaks, a major Christian writing conference, held next month. At these meetings, it’s necessary to have a proposal and a one sheet. The proposal is a full length document (mine was 27 pages long, including sample chapters for Book #1) that gives the potential publisher the book outline, your author biographical information, marketing strategies, and so on… a long written sales pitch, in a sense. A one sheet is just what it sounds like – a one page document that summarizes the book and the author.
Book #1 is the novel I completed and spent lots, a considerable amount, a plethora, a mass gazzilions amounts of time on over the past 3 years – writing, researching, interviewing. A total of 60,000(ish) words and roughly 240 book pages. You’ve likely read about it here before.
Book #2 is what I’ve been working on over the past few months – the non-fiction one I’ve been doing research for with working moms. The idea for it started brewing about a year ago, and I’ve finally gotten it fine-tuned and ready to roll.
Life was awesome in my writing world one week ago – I had the completed manuscript done for Book #1 and proposals and one sheets basically finished for both #1 and #2. All was good.
Until….
I was working the other night and needed to clear some space on my iCloud drive. I needed more space so I could save my latest proposal draft (you know, in case something happened to my computer, I’D STILL HAVE THE DOCUMENTS I needed. Oh, Universe… You are such a brat sometimes. The irony is most definitely NOT lost on me). So I started deleting some old spreadsheets no longer needed.
Except I didn’t delete the spreadsheets.
Instead, I deleted EVERY ONE OF MY WORD DOCUMENTS.
How does that even happen, you ask? Please don’t ask, because I can’t even talk about my level of stupidity in the matter. (Just know that I at least USED to be smart… I think…)
The moment I realized what had happened, I did what any self-respecting Christian writer/blogger/wanna-be encourager would do…
I lost my mind. I cried. I threw things. I punched my desk. And I cussed. (A lot.)
I searched and searched and couldn’t find them, so I set up an appointment with Apple early the next morning. Well, it turns out what I deleted from the computer were all the BACKUPS of the documents, so NOTHING is retrievable.
So what did I do?
I lost my mind. I cried. I threw things. I punched my desk. And I cussed. (A lot more.)
Mainly, I wallowed.
(My poor husband. I think he was afraid to breathe too loud. Thank you, husby for being so awesome while I was soooo NOT awesome!)
I couldn’t even fathom the amount of time this set me back. I mean, with the publisher meetings one month away, there was no way I’d be able to catch up.
So again – I did something any self-respecting Christian writer/blogger/wanna-be encourager would do… I whined to both friends and my writing groups.
(Honestly? I whined to anyone who would listen.)
(Hey, I was wallowing, remember??)
Want to guess what happened? I received prayer. Lots of it.
Want to guess what happened after that? Prayers were answered.
I ended up finding an old copy of Book #1’s manuscript in my email from early March. Unfortunately, it was missing the last 7(ish) chapters. BUT THEN, I came across an email I sent to a friend with the ending of the book. So at this point, I should be able to piece it all back together and fill in holes where needed.
However, I had to start from scratch on proposals for both books. UNTIL I found a PRINTED copy of Book #1’s proposal.
And guess what happened today? I got Book #1 and #2 proposal’s done! (They just have to be edited now.)
Y’all, after this…
I still have one sheets to create and sample chapters (15,000ish words) to write for Book #2. But using the proposal as a guide, that will be easy (hopefully), and I have a FABULOUS graphic designer friend who has agreed to help me! And I have an amazing babysitter who has agreed to help with the kids double time over the next month, so I can get some serious writing time in. Not to mention the times my husband is stepping in the help give me more writing time too!
It’s going to be a busy month before I leave for the conference July 22nd, and my attention to this blog may be lacking while I finish these projects. (I’m sure you’re just heartbroken over that.)
BUT I’m thankful there IS time to finish. My time in front of my computer has been miraculously multiplying over the past few days. (Praise Jesus for being a rock star time manager!!!)
To quote Monty Python again, I’m now viewing this whole situation as “but a scratch… just a flesh wound.” Because “I’m not dead” and “I feel fine!”
(Or maybe I’m just “a looney.” That could very well be the case too.)
that is awesome. What a story. God is so good and I’m pretty sure he just kicked the devil in the teeth and told him to back off. Can’t wait to meet you at the conference. If it is any consolation you are more prepared, even loosing what you lost, than I am!!!
Right, I can’t argue with you on that. God is always in control.
Funny gifs btw. 🙂
Have a fun at the conference you’re attending. Have a faith-filled weekend!