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My friend Jake told me to just delete my half-finished novel file

Honestly, he said it would free up mental space and I could start fresh. Ngl, I tried it and immediately panicked, losing about 40k words I actually liked. Tbh, I had to use a data recovery tool to get it back. Has anyone else gotten really bad advice that almost killed a project for good?
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sethtorres
sethtorres27d ago
Yikes, that's brutal. Honestly, I wonder if some people give that "delete it" advice because THEY can't handle unfinished work. It's like they see your messy draft and feel THEIR own anxiety, so the fix is to just erase the problem. My cousin told me to scrap a painting once, said it was a lost cause. I kept it, fixed it later, and now it's my favorite thing I've made. Their panic isn't your command.
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jakelee
jakelee27d ago
Man, that is some truly awful advice. My old writing group had a guy who kept telling everyone to burn their first drafts, like literally print and set them on fire for "ceremony". Almost lost a whole year's work listening to him before I realized he just hated his own stuff. Some people really do give the advice they need, not the advice you need.
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