Laments of Writing. Every writer experiences the woes and challenges of this hobby. From Writer’s block to the insecurity you feel when a piece comes out, not how you envisioned it. Writing is a medium of art and you put your blood, sweat, and tears to bring it to life. I have a story to tell. When it happened, I thought it was the end of the world. Little did I know it was actually a crucial lesson to learn. This lament of writing pushed me to the edge. My computer didn’t have Microsoft Word downloaded at the time and I had used a cheap knockoff program, which I will not name to write the manuscript of my book. In said program, I had over 30,000 words and the first draft completed. I felt on top of the world. I just written the entire first draft of my book in just a couple of days. If only I knew about the tragedy, that would strike soon after.
Setbacks happen, but rise from the ashes
One day, I logged into the program only to find my manuscript file missing. I started panicking, but eventually I called customer service. To my horror, there was nothing they or I could do to recover the file. Laments of Writing are cruel beasts. It devastated me. The program had erased all of my hard work in a blink of an eye. I couldn’t recall every word, and I felt every word was perfect. The shining beacon of hope in all this mess. I had emailed an earlier copy to one of my readers as backup, but it wasn’t the finished product like the manuscript I had lost. I questioned if this was a sign that my book was just a pipe dream and not meant to be. However, my inner voice convinced me that couldn’t let myself give up after all the effort I put into this project. So, I turned this disaster into fuel to writing the book again. While it took weeks, in time I had my manuscript back in full, with extra story added. This time I typed on a reliable program, Microsoft Word. Today those 30k words I lost have turned into over 80k words. The best thing about laments of writing, they can turn into lessons in writing if you take action.