What We Take For Granted.

Another day, another killer virus.

Although, this time thankfully, I was somewhat prepared. Some stuff was lost but the main stuff was recovered due to previous back up.

So I'm calm and embracing the change.

Time to upgrade to paid virus protection? You bet.

Fate?

Well naturally, it will go under that banner as it makes more sense than to worry about the losses and to focus on what I do have and what will come into being.

Although, it was time to let go and lose some old projects, which I had an inkling were out of time and were holding me back. Ultimately, it was another wake up call for even stricter rules on backing up files and choosing suitable future projects for a specific purpose.

One of the projects lost in the fire that readers may be familiar with was fictional blog Black Sands, which was an interesting story and challenge but ultimately had no purpose than to entertain and to learn from. It had no future place and would have taken time away from the important projects and things I should be writing that are potentially leading somewhere. And of course, are commercial entities. Although, in hindsight it would have made a cool videogame.

Something that I did take for granted was the dual health of my laptop and myself, and how we are fundamentally connected and ultimately form as a whole organism. As I can't function without it. When it was ill I became the same because I was unable to continue my usual routine of writing (and reading scripts) and the enjoyment and challenge that that brings. Not to mention I was in a dead zone with no progress being made and I didn't like that. Also, not being connected to the internet, who could handle that?

In turn, taking the health and safety of our computers for granted brings me onto a larger entity that we often take for granted, not so much our own health, which is important but I was thinking more along the lines of that undervalued beauty of time. Maybe not an actual entity itself but one we live by. Its realisation comes into view when practically all of it goes on a nine to five job, friends, family and other responsibilities. So comes the moment when you realise that you cannot bend time to suit your own needs, and are indeed mortal and won't live forever.

In total, the time spent on our day jobs, sleeping, travelling, friends, family and on other activities leaves little time for those things like writing that we want to overindulge in and accomplish. But do we always use what time is there for the taking?

Each day we are a step closer to the inevitable but we still tend to put things off. An hour or an evening there, a weekend here. Like money, time is precious and is even easier to waste. However, wasting time is worse than throwing your hard-earned money down the drain because you can always earn more money, but you cannot get back time.

When the hourglass is full, it's full, and it can only be turned upright so many times. Taking responsibility for and having an appreciation of time is one of the most important screenwriting lessons to learn, as it'll be difficult to get anywhere without it. As it's all about practice, preparation, and patience. Not to mention perseverance. But with being prepared comes confidence, and with confidence comes the ability to seize an opportunity or to create one. As a lot of serious writers will say, there is no overnight trick or magic that will take you from one place to overnight success. It's about hard work and putting the time in, but most of all, it's about the journey.

With money, like time, the beauty is in knowing how to use it. As both of them can add up to a greater sum when valued in moderation over time. So why not take it easy and shed the worry of being in a rush or not being good enough.

Everything takes time. So enjoy it.

Naturally, with backing up your files it doesn't become an issue until it happens to you. But for those who have not considered an online back up source. This one is excellent and free for a lite account, and saved my behind: http://www.box.net/. Just upload the main files for now. You'll thank me later. Alternatively, go to Writing for Performance and read the info there on backing up your files and keeping your computer (and therefore yourself) in good health.

Now onwards to the shop for that external hard drive!

"What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure."

- Samuel Johnson