My baby was sooo CUTE!

CaroGirl · Oct 16, 2007

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 · Oct 16, 2007

Yes.

WittyandorIronic · Oct 16, 2007

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 · Oct 16, 2007

Yes, you are. But then again, so is everyone else on here. -- And -- even weirder - we love you anyway.

maestrowork · Oct 16, 2007

freaks.

amber_grosjean · Oct 16, 2007

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 · Oct 16, 2007

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 · Oct 16, 2007

a_sharp said:
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 · Oct 16, 2007

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 · Oct 16, 2007

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 · Oct 17, 2007

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 · Oct 17, 2007

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.

(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.

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

).

Shadow_Ferret · Oct 17, 2007

I don't get the reasoning behind emailing something to yourself.

Lady Esther · Oct 17, 2007

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 · Oct 17, 2007

Shadow_Ferret said:
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 · Oct 17, 2007

CaroGirl said:
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 · Oct 17, 2007

CaroGirl said:
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 · Oct 17, 2007

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 · Oct 17, 2007

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 · Oct 17, 2007

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 · Oct 17, 2007

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 · Oct 17, 2007

WittyandorIronic said:
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 · Oct 17, 2007

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 · Oct 17, 2007

Shadow_Ferret said:
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 · Oct 18, 2007

Whenever I read my 1st draft I want to hurl.

My baby was sooo CUTE!

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