Lost Work

A few weeks ago, I was cleaning clutter around my home. I found my collection of flash drives, and spurred on my curiosity, I decided to spend the rest of my afternoon reading through old stories that I had dropped, ones I wrote two pages on then forgot about the idea, and old drafts of my current work. While searching through the files, I stumbled upon an old story with a title I didn’t recognize. When I opened it, I couldn’t believe what I was reading.

The story was familiar, one I had worked on for four years and had finished the draft. Some names were different, a few characters were not what I remembered, and a few plot points were full of errors. After skimming through the whole thing, not realizing there wasn’t an ending, everything clicked into place. This was the story I thought I lost forever, the one that vanished without a trace.

I thought I lost this piece three years ago when my laptop crashed. While I had backed up the rest of my work, I couldn’t find this piece anywhere on any of my drives. Devastated, I gave up on finding it, realizing I would just have to rewrite it eventually, knowing it wouldn’t be the same story.

However, this was it! Though it was an older, out of date draft, I almost cried at the sight of the story I thought was gone forever. It’s better to edit the piece that I had instead of rewrite the story from scratch, trying to rely on my memory of smaller plot points, character traits, imagery descriptions, and lines of dialogue.

Currently, I am wading through a printed version, adding missing pieces, fixing inconsistencies, editing, and showing not telling. I edited the first chapter and submitted it to a writing contest. It’s the first time I’ve submitted work that hasn’t been poetry and the feeling was both exhilarating and terrifying when I hit submit.

Whether you write or not, back up your files regularly. It can save from heartbreak while also offering a draft if one ever does lose documents. Though there will still be work, it is a relief to shuffle pieces around instead of starting from scratch.