Fake mercies and I think it's time to leave it be...

Okay, so the last post was about how I had recovered a PDF file which was the latest version of my story?

Lies.

When I checked the file properly, I found out that it was in fact a slightly older version - though not as old as the backup - and I don't have a lot of words I obviously added later.

I'm pretty annoyed at myself, but I'm forcing myself to ignore the situation and roll with it.

If I don't get it back, well then, it serves me right for not backing up properly and I will either re-write the story or leave it and write something else (not the highest chances for that).

I've worked on this since last November, when I began NaNoWriMo for the first time. It has become my "beloved" story, and I have a bit of an impression that I'm trying to start too big.

As of this very moment, I've completed 1 short story, of around 4,300 words (which I can retrieve, sent it in an email recently) and - completed, mind you, with a clear goal and finished quality - 2 shorter pieces.

That's right. Three.

I have so many beginnings it's unbelievable and these three finished stories, and yet I'm sat here worried about another unfinished work?

Pretty pathetic, really. Who was it, King? That said you have a million practice words in you?

My novel-to-be has 17,000/18,000 words in it... and these shorter pieces mostly come to around the 2000 mark.

These are all, apparently, horrible compared to what I will produce some day -- as I keep practising and improving.

Though, I recently realised that the advice writers tend to give you is actually true, cause dammit I never really listened...

Write every day,

Doesn't matter what you write, and you can't help but improve as you go. Your word choices become ever more varied, blending together more fluidly, your style becomes more apparent and you feel good about writing.

I think it's time to leave my novel on the back burner. I'll return eventually, but for now... this ship has sailed.