Aghhh!

So...I thought I was pretty savvy with Word, but it turns out I have A LOT to learn :(. I still don't know how it happened, but I saved a manuscript as an RTF file, and somehow created two RTF files with the same name. I didn't think that was possible. I used to constantly alphabetize my files, but I don't anymore, which is why I didn't notice I had two identical files.  I have one folder for each ms, but each folder has many files. Some I save by date, others I save by chapter, in case I want to go back to an earlier version, etc. This is on top of relevant articles I also save for research purposes.

The mess I'm in now is...some days I opened one file and did my final edit on it, and other days I opened the other file and did my final edit on that one. I sent one of them off :(. I won't even go into the fact that I compounded the mistake before I realized I had been editing two separate files.

I'm sharing this so my author friends who read this don't make the same mistake. Maybe you're way more savvy than me, but if you're not...keep your folders squeaky clean and organized, and check for duplicates. Also, it's not enough to hover over the file with the "correct name" and to look at the date. Look at the time, too. If anyone has a tip they'd like to share, share away! I love learning from you and I hope someone learns from my mistake.  Meanwhile, aghhhhh!!!!

Is there a lesson here?

A well-known, preachy health guru recently wrote an article detailing some pretty scary facts about certain foods. He included pictures of foods we should NEVER, EVER eat. I tried to read the all the stuff about the horrific calorie count and the fat… but I couldn’t take my eyes off the pictures of the foods he was talking about. Everything looked so delicious! Those nachos! That stuffed calzone! That crisp fried chicken! I’d happily skip breakfast and lunch, and then maybe breakfast again the next day, to eat any of the foods he was criticizing.  My mouth watered for some heart attack nachos. I forced myself to read the entire article to see if it would disgust me enough to get me off evil food forever, but it didn’t work. So I started reading the comment section expecting to be shamed by all the super healthy people who agreed with the guru, except… EVERY single comment was for the evil food and against the guru. And the comments were hilarious. Guru be damned! So I don’t what the lesson is here. Don’t preach on Yahoo? A picture speaks louder than words? I think it may be: never say never, ever. Of course we know we shouldn’t make a habit of eating evil food. Just don’t tell us to NEVER, EVER eat it J.