A Tale of Two Word Files

Remember a few weeks ago I was whining about how I had two documents for Wandering Wizards and I didn’t know which one I should keep, so I deleted the shorter of the two thinking I must have edited stuff out of it? Then I printed out the one that was 165 pages so I could edit it.

I settled at the dining room table to work and I’m editing away, making pretty good progress, but I start getting the feeling that something’s missing. Weren’t my heroes at an inn near the beginning when Sebastian, the bard, gets a message about his mother? And wasn’t there a scene shortly after that with Dominic and Jessica on a boat?

Where’s the boat?

So I flip a few pages ahead and the first mention of Jessica and Dominic is pretty far in and there’s no Sebastian and I start getting this sinking feeling. I check the folder I keep all the files about Wandering Wizards in and I see one marked “throw away” and something clicks in my head.

At one point I had two copies of the original draft. One copy (the one that got printed out) was the original. The other copy I used to copy/paste into a new draft that I was adding new stuff to as it came to me. I was up to 150 pages of the latest version (and down to about 50 pages of the one I was cutting/pasting from) when I put everything aside for NaNo. And then I forgot what I was doing.

Fortunately the recycle bin in Windows does not automatically empty and I was able to restore the version of Wandering Wizards that was only 150 pages. Then I added in the remaining pages of the cut and paste. Then I deleted all other drafts.

Now I have a single, 200 page draft of Wandering Wizards, which I’ll still have to edit, weeding out the unnecessary NaNo fluff, before I can finish it. There’s still a lot of action between where I left off and the actual end of the story, but my hope is that this will wrap up the trilogy.

Barring any more stupidity on my part.

Prompts of the Week

Prompt One
You put your house on the market and, on the first day, a extremely old woman comes knocking on your door. She’s not interested in buying your house, though. Instead she tells you that this is the house she lived in as a child. The friendly mood suddenly changes when she reveals something terrible that took place in the house years ago.

Prompt Two
Your wealthy Aunt Edna has died and left you all of her money. At first you’re excited, as you’ve been living paycheck-to-paycheck your whole life, and this newfound money offers you endless possibilities. But, in her will, Aunt Edna left one big catch—and, if you don’t do it, all of the money is to be given to your most unlikeable cousin, Wilfred.

Remember, don’t spend a lot of time on these, they’re just meant for fun. Take 5 minutes to think about it, then write for 10 or 15 minutes. And if it turns out you like what you’ve written, then by all means turn your exercise into an actual story. You can find these prompts, and others like them, at Writer's Digest .