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View Full Version : My baby was sooo CUTE!

CaroGirl
10-17-2007, 04:50 AM
I just emailed myself the latest completed draft of my current novel. It came in at 565 KB, that's 270 pages.

I decided to look back in my inbox and found the first draft I ever emailed myself. She was so cute. Way back on February 13 she weighed in at only 80 KB, that's 4 chapters, or 20 pages. She even had a different name way back then!

I almost shed a tear of nostalgia for my baby.

(am I weird?)
scarletpeaches
10-17-2007, 04:53 AM
Yes. :D
WittyandorIronic
10-17-2007, 04:53 AM
lol. That is awesome, and totally weird. :)
I don't look at my older work and think "cute", more like..."omg, how embarrassing, I hope no one figures out I BIRTHED that."
September skies
10-17-2007, 04:53 AM
:) Yes, you are. But then again, so is everyone else on here. -- And -- even weirder - we love you anyway.
maestrowork
10-17-2007, 06:05 AM
freaks. :D
amber_grosjean
10-17-2007, 06:23 AM
I think it is awsome. It shows how you have progressed over the time passed which is good. You aren't just sitting there twiddling your thumbs, you're writing and that is what you want to do. Actually seeing it can inspire you to keep going. That is why I always print out what I had done for the day. I can actually see what I accomplished since the last time I wrote anything, pushing me to keep going.

Congrats on that!

And yes, you're weird but so am I! I think we all are too but that's what makes us all so different!

Amber
a_sharp
10-17-2007, 07:42 AM
Weird would be if you answered your own emails to yourself. Weirder still would be if you answered them with a request for a full.
CaroGirl
10-17-2007, 07:51 AM
Weird would be if you answered your own emails to yourself. Weirder still would be if you answered them with a request for a full.
I just hope that's not the only way I'll ever get a request for a full. It's clear that I email my wip to myself as a backup, you know, in case my computer crashes, right? You don't think I'm so lonely I email myself just so I get email. I might be lonely, but not that lonely.

Thanks all. How much has your baby grown since infancy?
amber_grosjean
10-17-2007, 07:56 AM
My recent story has grown over 90 pages so far. I came to a hault a couple of times and then was sick with the stomache flu over the weekend which put me behind on everything including my writing. This is only the first rough draft so I expect it will change once it is finished. I'm about half way done with this round, then edit and rewriting it to fit the ending lol. My goal is at least 150 or so. I want to practice at getting novelas down right now before attempting the really long stories which is ultimaly my career goal. Babysteps though lol.

Good luck and I hope yours grows to a masterpiece worth writing a sequal for or more!
Amber
Judg
10-17-2007, 08:09 AM
Let's see, mine has grown more than 50K words in the last 10 months. Not a record-breaking speed, but seeing as I have never in my life done this before, I'm pleased. Really can't say I'm feeling any nostalgia, though. What I AM feeling is an overwhelming desire to say, "First draft done!" Than I'll have to find some other kind of ticker to use.

Weird is good. Normal is so ho-hum. Be weird.
Prawn
10-17-2007, 06:26 PM
You are weird that you don't e-mail it to yourself more often. I e-mail my WIP to myself every day as a backup copy. You should do the same every time to add anything to it: mail it to yourself.
P
Wraith
10-17-2007, 06:55 PM
Hehe! For me it's looking back at the first version of prologue I wrote two years ago, the day after I had the idea for my WIP, and see the handwriting I had back then. :D (I decided I won't type the thing up until I finish it - I tried to do it as I went, but the chapters kept changing.)

So, yep, it's very different from what it evolved into, and sort of cute indeed. :D At least it was all simple - outline and get started - while now I'm wading my way through legions of plot holes and consistency issues (not to mention piles of papers with random research and random scenes and horrible character names :rolleyes:).
Shadow_Ferret
10-17-2007, 08:22 PM
I don't get the reasoning behind emailing something to yourself.
Lady Esther
10-17-2007, 08:27 PM
Well, if you're weird, then I'm weird because two days ago I did the same thing. I printed some of my first draft and thought: aw, this is so nice. And the names of my characters were different, so I thought: Oh man! This is when Judith was Julie. I also had that nostalgic feeling, like the good ole times of my characters. :)
CaroGirl
10-17-2007, 08:36 PM
I don't get the reasoning behind emailing something to yourself.
It's like doing a backup. I email the file to my hotmail account as an attachment. If my computer crashes or my harddrive fizzles, I can access my hotmail account anytime from any computer, like my or my husband's laptop.
jannawrites
10-17-2007, 11:40 PM
It's clear that I email my wip to myself as a backup, you know, in case my computer crashes, right?



Totally. I do the same thing. But so far I'm e-mailing 'em a chapter at a time. I like seeing that there are "12 unread items" in my Piccadilly Lake folder. :)

Congrats on the progress! And good luck with the next steps.
Shadow_Ferret
10-18-2007, 01:21 AM
It's like doing a backup. I email the file to my hotmail account as an attachment. If my computer crashes or my harddrive fizzles, I can access my hotmail account anytime from any computer, like my or my husband's laptop.

Oh, cuz I was going to say, if I email something to myself it's still on my harddrive.

I think its easier to put it on CDs and thumbdrives.
PeeDee
10-18-2007, 01:26 AM
What I hate is looking back on an old draft and discovering, much to my dismay, a really cool idea that I somehow forgot about when it came to this finished draft. Once, it was an idea that was the whole point of the novel. That's just annoying.

But you're still weird. :)
qdsb
10-18-2007, 01:32 AM
I'm a huge fan of USB (aka thumb) drives myself.

Am I the only writer who looks back on my baby drafts and thinks, "Wow, what an ugly baby. All misshapen and underdeveloped. I mean, I love it, because its mine, but, oy."
PeeDee
10-18-2007, 01:38 AM
When I look back, they're almost never as bad as I thought they were in the first place. They rot worse in my mind than they do on the page.
melaniehoo
10-18-2007, 01:40 AM
I'm glad someone else watches her baby grow in kilobytes. :) Mine is over 600KB and she's getting so big! I sometimes check the version from one month ago to see how much I've written since then. I only started in mid-August and I'm at 72K words in two months, woohoo!* If no one else here was weird I wouldn't be here.




*I don't have a job or kids so I have no excuse not to write lots and lots.
Andre_Laurent
10-18-2007, 01:50 AM
lol. That is awesome, and totally weird. :)
I don't look at my older work and think "cute", more like..."omg, how embarrassing, I hope no one figures out I BIRTHED that."
LOL I did that last night. Thought holy hell...I don't remember that first draft being so.....bad.
MidnightMuse
10-18-2007, 01:53 AM
I don't even notice the size of them in kb, it's word count that rocks my world. And Chapters.

And that shiny moment when I figure out how it's gonna end.
CaroGirl
10-18-2007, 03:01 AM
Oh, cuz I was going to say, if I email something to myself it's still on my harddrive.

I think its easier to put it on CDs and thumbdrives.
I do that too, just not quite as frequently. My paranoia knows no bounds.
ccarver30
10-18-2007, 10:58 PM
Whenever I read my 1st draft I want to hurl. :)
Shadow_Ferret
10-19-2007, 01:37 AM
What I hate is looking back on an old draft and discovering, much to my dismay, a really cool idea that I somehow forgot about when it came to this finished draft.
I just found an old floppy that had handwritten on it, "Writing, Fiction."

I downloaded it and found, much to my pleasure, an early early draft of what has since become my current WIP that I'm subbing. It was dated 1994, which tickles me plumb to death because it shows I was writing Urban Fantasy before many of the current crop of writers were.

Not that it means anything in the real world, but it makes me go, "See, I was one of the first!"
melaniehoo
10-19-2007, 01:41 AM
Shadow Ferret wins.
wee
10-19-2007, 02:08 AM
I'm a huge fan of USB (aka thumb) drives myself.

Am I the only writer who looks back on my baby drafts and thinks, "Wow, what an ugly baby. All misshapen and underdeveloped. I mean, I love it, because its mine, but, oy."


Today I was cleaning out paperwork & found my printed first chapter of something I was working on several months ago but decided I wasn't the best mouthpiece for the story. I *liked* it. Really liked it. I could see already two glaring plot problems that could be tidied up & would make the story progress faster ... but I couldn't believe I *liked* it!

Maybe I can be the mouthpiece for that story after all. When I'm done with the one I'm on, that is. And after I finish the one I want to write next... But then again... aw, shucks. I dunno.



eta: BTW, this was a HUGE endorsement for Uncle Jim's tip that you let something sit for a few months. Many can't do this. But when I went back to re-read this chapter, which was printed single-spaced in a font I liked (specifically for my own re-reading) ... it had been long enough that I was actually able to read it like it was not my own ... a VERY tough thing to do as a writer. I never would have seen some of the things I did right after writing it.

Let it sit! Let it sit! Let it sit! Publishing is sloooowwww business. Three more months that could make you a more masterful editor are WELL worth it.
wood pixie
10-19-2007, 04:18 AM
It's like doing a backup. I email the file to my hotmail account as an attachment. If my computer crashes or my harddrive fizzles, I can access my hotmail account anytime from any computer, like my or my husband's laptop.


I save mine on at least two memory sticks. I keep one with me on the truck and I leave one home.

Every time I go home I update the one I keep there.

Did you guys see that horrible accident with all those trucks at the I-5 truck tunnel? I've driven through there more times than I can count.

My paranoia that something could happen to the truck and I need to get out fast ... unlike Michael in "For Better or for Worse" ... I'll save me and my hubby ... but I won't chance my life for my laptop.

If I'm alive ... I can write it again ... if I"m dead ... well, my hubby and son would be p.o'd at me for getting myself dead over a computer.
melaniehoo
10-19-2007, 04:21 AM
My husband has strict instructions in case of fire or earthquake to grab my external harddrive.
wood pixie
10-19-2007, 04:21 AM
I just emailed myself the latest completed draft of my current novel. It came in at 565 KB, that's 270 pages.

I decided to look back in my inbox and found the first draft I ever emailed myself. She was so cute. Way back on February 13 she weighed in at only 80 KB, that's 4 chapters, or 20 pages. She even had a different name way back then!

I almost shed a tear of nostalgia for my baby.

(am I weird?)


Yes. And we love that about you!

I have a Tshirt that has "Normal People Scare Me" printed on it.

Let's just say, so far, no one here scares me much.
melaniehoo
10-24-2007, 07:41 AM
Ok, mine just passed the 1 MB mark and my email seems to be straining under the pressure. Now what? I don't want to split the file every night!
a_sharp
10-24-2007, 10:01 AM
Melanie, are you compressing it into a zip file? I mean, 1MB zipped would be a HUMONGOUS work. Just zip the monster and save it to removable storage such as a CD or memory stick. Periodically update the zip version.

My original historical of 69 chapter files compressed into a 1.1MB zip.The compression ratios average about 70%, so the total of the files was something like 3.3MB, or 260,000 words. (I don't do that anymore!)

Try WinZip or something similar.
Prawn
10-24-2007, 05:16 PM
Why would 1MB be hard to e-mail? even at 56K dial up it shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes to send. With anything faster, it should only take seconds.

Back that work up, baby! I am a compulsive backer-upper. I have a memory stick, plus my phone and my digital camera both have SD cards. Whenever I download pictures or sync my phone, I backup my whole writing folder into my camera and phone. My work is on my computer at home, my computer at work, my hotmail account, my work e-mail account, my memory stick, my camera and my phone. Unless a huge EMP hits the earth, I am safe from everything but accusations of paranoia.
melaniehoo
10-25-2007, 12:58 AM
It eventually came through. I just freaked out because it's usually instantaneous and it took over 5 minutes this time.

No, I'm not compressing it but I will if it keeps growing. :)
sassandgroove
10-25-2007, 06:24 AM
Ugh, I lost my post.

Carogirl you are sweet.

My first novel is - uh- on sabbatical at the moment. I don't think I can look back on it and think it was cute because right now I am so stymied as to where to go with it.

I just started a new one. I'll let you know in a few months if it is cute. :)