Sad Story

As sometimes happens, my blogs have just a thin strand of hair relating them to advertising. As does this one. This is a lesson. But don’t get bored just yet. Indulge me.

I wrote a book, not promoting it here. It was a work of fiction. Turned out okay - not great, but some people liked it. Very green, and not the kinda "Earth" green, but naïve green. Despite that, it did OK. Was my first experience, and I was determined. Took about a year between writing and editing. After that experience, I was ready to take on a new story.

I was so excited, encouraged. Had the greatest idea, and was completely enthused to write about it. I was in LA at the time, had about a week between meetings and photo shoots for downtime. All alone. Shutters on the Beach in Santa Monica (one of the greatest hotels you can find). I decided to take the week and write. Strict regiment. I had read about how several authors dedicated themselves to their craft, and decided that holed up in an ocean front room in Santa Monica could be the perfect place to write. Well, Baywatch did take place on that beach, but won’t go there.

So I only had my laptop, and a bunch of time. I worked for a large agency and bills weren’t an issue. Room service, ocean in front of me, feet propped up on my balcony. Writing.

I thought I had a really good idea. I devoted myself to it. Got up at 5:00AM each morning, wrote till noon. Took a break and walked down the boardwalk to Venice Beach, hung out by the pool at the hotel for an hour, then back to work.

Although I do have several friends in LA, I decided this was time to focus. No playtime at night. Casual dinner around the pool or one of the nearby restaurants, but then right back to writing. I had a goal of a certain amount of words per day. And unlike my first book, I decided to edit each chapter so in the end, it would be a little cleaner for my final editor.

It was a great experience. Ideas were flowing, I charted out the entire plot. Completely dedicated and I do admit, a little obsessed. Every day, writing became my self imposed job. I loved it. Nothing mattered (other than the gorgeous view of the ocean which I took advantage of every few minutes or so). I can type and think without looking at the keyboard, which removes you in a trancelike state. Staring at the ocean and writing – it doesn’t get much better than that. It was Heaven on Earth for me.

By the time I was at LAX, waiting for my flight back to NY, I had a natural high. About 1/3 of the book was done, and I really liked it. I was proud that I found it in myself to channel the discipline to focus and write for a week straight.

I was ready to go back to NY, wake up every day again at 5:00AM and write for 3 hours before work. The ideas were there, bombarding my mind, like a drug. Even charged up the laptop so I could write on the plane.

I am in the security line, self-assured and living the book in my own mind. Disconnected from real life, I dropped my laptop. Macs are pretty tough, and I thought nothing of it. I got on the plane and there it was, the famous Mac '?" that told me the drive was damaged. I hadn’t backed it up. My Mac had never failed me before.

Yet there it was. Damaged. And I knew what that meant. Depression set in. I couldn’t even remember how I had crafted the story, I was distraught, couldn’t sleep on the plane.

Those of you in NYC know Tekserve is the place to go. After getting off the plane, I went straight there, luggage in tow. I needed my story. About a week later I found out that data recovery wasn’t an option. I was crushed. I devoted so much time and energy, could see in my mind how the book would play out.

But it was lost. Gone forever. I just didn’t have the heart to even try and rewrite it. It had been a monumental week for me, writing about 12 hours a day. And it was gone. Gone. Lost. Destroyed.

And no, I didn’t back it up.

I wanted to cry, but being a man, that wouldn’t be right, right? So I slammed the Tekserve person’s head against the glass (well, not really). But I was just angry. Hated myself for it. Couldn’t find it inside to start again. It was lost forever.

To tie this into my advertising blog, I can only say, BACK UP EVERYTHING. Now I have Time Machine on the Mac, so that works. But if you have an idea and you work at it, feel that you tapped into your own creative genius - back it up.

And don’t feel sorry for me, there are plenty of ideas to write about, but just take this simple advice, back up your hard drive every single day!

That is ad guy’s advice to you on this random Saturday.