Hey gang. This will be a shorter post, but involves a variety of incredibly important lessons I want to pass onto all of you.

Having written the first 20,000 words of your new idea, remember to save your work in a place not stored on the computer. Even if you’re uncertain about it all, and how it all fits together. Save every drop.
If you decide not to follow instruction #1, don’t choose to Skype with your interstate parents while your young children are in the bath.
If you decide to ignore instruction #3, don’t put your laptop within splashing distance of your children’s flailing limbs.
When the inevitable happens, and water splashes onto your laptop, make sure to dry it quickly, and not let water drip between the keys onto the circuit board.
When the inevitable happens, and your computer stops working, don’t swear and carry on like a right pork chop. Be calm. Make a plan.
Hug all Apple staff members who look after you, retrieve your laptop and your 20,000 words, and buy them presents annually.

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The most important little package of my lifetime.

Robert Lukins experienced far worse than this recently actually. I believe, if I’m not mistaken, that he lost an entire novel. Hemingway lost an entire suitcase full of his writing.

It really did feel like a disaster. And I did carry on like a buffoon. The first chapter, though, has survived structurally intact since that first little jolt of inspiration. So I’m very grateful it was recovered.

Would Snake Island still have existed if this hadn’t been recovered? I think so. But it would have been different. And I’m very happy with how it is.