Monday Memos & My Organization Flashdrive Failure....

"For every minute spent in organizing, an hour is earned."

-Anonymous

I tell myself this often.

I believe it.

I work hard to live by it, but I often fail miserably.

I am the type of person that likes a very organized life - yet I am a dreamer, an idealist who sees life as one beautiful journey after another.

This weekend organization decided to play with my mind. I have a flash drive (I affectionately call it Flora), one that has held many WIPs over the past year. It has dutifully saved the documents while acting as a tiny suitcase when I needed to transfer them between computers, complete with adorable little compartments to distinguish between work to critique and my own WIPs. Yep. Such a nice little girly gadget.

Then Saturday night as I am preparing to upload my perfectly organized files of some critiques the drive refuses to open. It gives me an error message that has my eyes filling with tears and lower lip in a death grip between my teeth. All I can think is thank goodness I have a back up of the WIPs but other files on there are just there - my most recent changes needed to be transferred and will be lost if the little white stick refuses to wake up.

I don't know what I did to aggravate the thing. My husband says she is probably jealous that I spent the afternoon on a lake & by a pool while she sat unused at the house. He could be right. I use that thing every day and then on Saturday I abandon it for 95 degree heat and drinks with friends....plus I just received a new netbook (named Tabitha by the way - yes I know lunacy but hey I name everything! I feel Tabitha will soon have a hot torrid affair with Gavin my traditional laptop...) and Flora might feel like it is some sort of replacement or something. We have not had the talk about how she is to be friends with Tabitha. That will come tonight.

I feel that my organizational techniques have earned me more than a few extra hours. So I cashed some in yesterday morning. Then again yesterday evening & well today I am lending them to my IT guy at the day job to see if he can make heads or tails of the thing.

Today my journey has decided to veer towards patience and hindsight. I should have saved another copy, I also must understand that my IT guru will probably be able to talk sweetly to her and make her feel loved again - it just may take a little while, she is female.

So while he works on Flora I will sketch out a way to double save all my docs, be a bit kinder to Flora, pray that y'all don't admit me to an asylum since I just shared a few too many idiosyncrasies in one post, and I will remember that the hours I saved from prior organization is the only reason I am not crying right now - I know that to be that upset would be pointless I must just be patient and see where today goes...

Any of you have any tips on extra organization when it comes to docs? What is your favorite way to insure your work stays safe?

(Oh and for any who missed last weeks' Madness post, well I just gave you a great example as to why writers are considered & proven to be a bit crazy - well if you don't see it just ask Flora, Tabitha or Gavin...they can explain ;o) )

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So what is everyone else up to on this Monday morning?

Talli Roland begs the question how do you stay cool in the summer while writing??

CJ Redwine gives an adorable glimpse into her weekend/morning and also pencils in what date to have 'the talk' with her child...you know the one...

Jill Kemerer poses the question of "WHY IS YOUR CHARACTER HERE?" Her thought provoking post should have you thinking about scenes and whether or not you are providing prudent information or filler words...

Okay seriously...Shannon has done it AGAIN! What a contest! Win a signed copy of ARCHVILLIAN by Barry Lyga + Swag!! She has 600 followers! 600! I am quite proud to see my little picture under her follow button and if you don't see yours...well then get on over there!

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Have a Marvelous Monday!