The Novel: Three days in, a tragic discovery

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote that one of my goals for our week at the beach was to sort through drafts of novels I’ve begun or even finished over the years. There are several on that list in various stages of completion. My stated goal is to work on this over the next year and within those twelve months, to submit it for publication.

So I packed up my drafts in a big plastic bin and carted them to the beach house.

The process took much less time than I envisioned. I pulled out one of my unfinished works and decided “this is it” without reviewing the others. I think the truth is that I knew all along that’s the one I wanted to work on.

I knew this was one where I’d gotten bogged down in the middle. So I wrote the final chapter with intentions of going back to fill in the details. I even worked out a timeline for the rest of the story.

But the draft I had with me at the beach had neither of those.

“Not to worry,” I thought. “I have those on a flash drive at home.”

Not quite.

I had them on a flash drive that I lost some years ago.

Ouch.

It gets better, or worse. That flash drive apparently contained the only digital copy of what I do have.

It’s not a total loss. I have the bulk of the story in hard copy. But it means backtracking and recreating what I thought was a really good closing. I only hope that I can recreate it as well as I thought I wrote it last time. Only this time more better.

I now have 362 days remaining to recreate, polish and edit this book.  And back it up in multiple locations.

The clock is ticking.