Forgotten Flash Drives and Such: Blessings in Disguise

Well, I officially started back to school this past Thursday and let me just say I am SO glad to be back! Don't get me wrong. Taking time off last semester was a good thing for me. I really needed the rest and the time to recoup and regroup, but after a month or so of all that, it got to be a little boring. Okay. REALLY boring, actually, but whatever. All that's over and I'm no longer a lazy bum. Thank God.

Anyway, one of the classes I had Thursday was my Technology for Educators class, so I was forced to use my flash drive in a computer that wasn't my own for the first time in forever. *Translation: When I got up to leave, it wasn't sticking out of my laptop for me to notice and put back in my purse where it belongs.

Well, that night after I got done eating supper with my family and fiancé (and had gotten this idea for a cute story from a conversation we'd had at the table), I went digging in my purse for my flash drive -not to work on this new idea, mind you, but to attempt to add my cursory 200 words per day to my current (struggling) WIP. I reached into the pocket I always keep it in, but didn't feel it there. No need to be alarmed, though, I figured. I'd probably just dropped it into the main compartment by accident. So, I dumped out my purse and quickly went though the contents. No flash drive. I checked the side pocket. No flash drive. At this point, my panic was 100% justifiable. Words have been hard to come by lately and most of my most recent writing was on that flash drive. In a final grasp for hope, I checked the bag I had my books in. Nothing.

Then it dawned on me.

I'd been using my flash drive to start on that assignment for my technology class and when I was logging off and getting ready to leave, the teacher had interrupted me to give me a handout she'd forgotten to give us -and being easily distracted like I am *SQUIRREL!!!* I'd forgotten to take my flash drive out of the computer.  #writerfail

Epic, epic writer fail...

I kind of wanted to cry and punch myself in the face. Mostly the latter.

Of course, because I'd seen the LOST FLASH DRIVE sign hanging over a designated spot in the computer lab, I wasn't too worried about getting it back or anything. I was mostly upset because my current WIP was on it and I wouldn't have access to it all weekend (and possibly until Tuesday when I'm back in the Education building again). #writerfail

Or was it?

My mind flitted back to the little gem of an idea I'd had at the table earlier. I'd decided at the beginning of the year that I wasn't going to story hop anymore. I was going to work on finishing what I started and following through until then end... but I hadn't factored in the possibility of not having access to my WIP for four days. I eyed my laptop and my spare (empty) flash drive on my desk.

I could either start something new and be a writer or I could just sit around and not be a writer and do nothing.

Well, that changes everything...

To the computer I went, probably a little bit too accepting of the misfortune that was allowing me to be flaky and start a new story.

That story, though... Y'all, by Saturday night, I'd hit the 4,500 word mark, which is almost unheard of for me. Especially lately, when 200 words a day (not even my standard "Nifty 250") has been a major, MAJOR struggle. It felt SO good.  Now, I haven't done a stitch of plotting or character profiling and I'm pretty sure this story is just going to be a novelette or novella (found out today that there is, in fact, a difference), but I'm still so excited about it. It's nice to be able to sit down and write and love the fact that I'm writing rather than dread it and spend the whole time stalking that word count number just to make sure I don't have to go three words over 200. I actually feel like a writer, today -and that is exactly what I want to be... #win