Aaargh, My Markups?!

[AnneMarble]

I have an ebook reader called the eBookwise. It's wonderulf and much cheaper than the Sony ebook reader. :D It also has a markup feature. You can write directly on the screen, highlight text, etc. (Unfortunately, you can't transfer those markings to the computer. The markups are saved as drawings rather than being recognized as handwriting.) Shortly after buying it, I realized I could put my own stories on it and mark up edits. I've used it this way a number of times. You can't use it to make extensive changes because it would get too hard to read, but it's a great way to see your writing before you without having to print it out.

One downside is that the markups take up a lot of room on the storage card of the eBookwise. Last time I used this feature, I got around that problem by transferring the markups to the computer once I had done several chapters. (It's not easy to make a backup, either; I've copied the contents of the storage card over in the past, and it took a looong time.)

I (ahem) forgot to do that this time. Earlier today, I was marking up an old story that I've been meaning to completely rewrite. (The Word file already contained my snarky comments on the original draft.) I inserted a couple of blank pages to make extensive notes on a plot issue. I wrote and wrote, and suddenly I was looking at ... a blank page.
:Jaw:

Even worse, all the other "written" markups were gone from the file. (The highlighting and bookmarks remained.) Waaaah! :cry: I should have known to transfer my earlier changes to the computer before something like this happened. Luckily, I remember most of my issues with the story. I hated the characters, hated the plot, hated one of the subplots, and had problems with the setting. :tongue So most of my edits simply consisted of deleting sucky passages and even a few chapters. I just hope that I remember the nifty new ideas I had for the story. :cry:

[Soccer Mom]

It's the thought process. When you got to rewrite, the good stuff will be in your head.

[AnneMarble]

It's the thought process. When you got to rewrite, the good stuff will be in your head.
That's true. I've already searched the file for the blank pages where the longest markups were, and I've figured out in most cases what I think I wrote there originally. Maybe. :) In at least a couple of cases, while I was jotting down what I thought I already thought, I think I thunk up new ideas related to those thinks, uhm, thoughts.

Years ago, I read some writing advice that said writers shouldn't jot down all their ideas. Instead, they should push them back into their brain the first time they came up with them. The author who said this claimed that if the idea is any good, it'll bubble up again anyway, and then you can write it down. If you don't remember it, then it wasn't worth the paper anyway. I don't have the ova to follow this advice all the time, but I think it could work for some authors. On the other hand, I think that the advice makes it too easy to be lazy and avoid writing down ideas when you should be writing them down. "Naw, I won't write it down. That famous author whose name I don't remember said it'll bubble up again."

By the way, great costume. My first thought was "Haskins responded to this?! I thought the response was from Soccer Mom!"
:ROFL: