ARGGGHHH!!!!

CamillaRhodes

I just wrote a really great bit for my novel, really emotional and moving. I was really in the zone, to such an extent that I actually had tears in my eyes while I was writing. Some of the best stuff I've written so far, I think. And then a fuse blew in the house and my computer shut down. And I hadn't been saving. And AutoSave only last saved 12 minutes ago. So it's all gone. About 800 words. And it won't come back. :(:(:(:(

I know there's absolutely nothing anyone can do to help me, and I know it's my own fault for not being vigilant about saving more regularly. I just needed to vent and you writing types are the only ones who'll understand.

Fuk fukkity fuk fuk. :(:(:(:(

fergalr

CamillaRhodes wrote: »

I just wrote a really great bit for my novel, really emotional and moving. I was really in the zone, to such an extent that I actually had tears in my eyes while I was writing. Some of the best stuff I've written so far, I think. And then a fuse blew in the house and my computer shut down. And I hadn't been saving. And AutoSave only last saved 12 minutes ago. So it's all gone. About 800 words. And it won't come back. :(:(:(:(

I know there's absolutely nothing anyone can do to help me, and I know it's my own fault for not being vigilant about saving more regularly. I just needed to vent and you writing types are the only ones who'll understand.

Fuk fukkity fuk fuk. :(:(:(:(

Hey, not a writer, but sorry to hear about that.

Just wanted to say, if things like this might be an issue in future, you could probably change how frequently your editor autosaves the document?

I don't know what you are using to write, but I know openoffice allows you change the autosave frequency, and I'm pretty sure MS word does too.

CamillaRhodes

Thanks for the sympathy, Fergal, and the suggestion!

EDIT: Figured out how to increase the Auto Save frequency in MS Word! For anyone else with this problem, do this:
Tools > Word Options > Save and you can decrease the number of minutes between Auto Saves there.

pickarooney

I save about three times a sentence since this happened me a few years back (power failure in an internet cafe after a marathon writing session). Don't try and write the same thing again; write something else, something better.

Monkey61

Oh I can feel your pain. Earlier this year I lost 40,000 words of a novel, a couple of poems and half a film script when my computer crashed and haven't been able to bring myself to try writing them again.

It is horrendous but I guess lesson learned. Better it happened at 800 words than 80,000 though eh?

CamillaRhodes

Monkey61, I am so, so sorry for you!! What a nightmare! I lost my first three chapters when my laptop melted, but thankfully I had been writing by hand back then so I had most of my notes intact. Now I'm saving the primary version on an external hard drive, then a back up (at the end of the day) onto a memory stick and the hard drive of my computer. Even still, I have the fear of something apocalyptic happening and all three frying at once... Guess this was how people used to feel with typewriters, worrying the house would burn down

As I write this, I'm thinking maybe the time has come to try to find some sort of online storage option, even just emailing each chapter to myself...

Anyway, the lost 800 words have been re-written, only about 600 now and not as good I know, but they'll do for now. Onwards and upwards.

Thanks for the sympathy!

fliptzer

Bloody hate when you loose work!!!

Few years ago some [EMAIL="b@stards"]b@stards[/EMAIL] broke in to my house, stope my pc, laptop and back up drive which had ALL my work. 2 books, 1 novello, 1 stage play, 6 part tv series plus hundres of poems all gone when I poped out to Tesco's.

Grrr... Tesco's - shouldn't have gone that evening...

So had to start again from scratch (which wasn't a bad thing coz it meant I had to rewrite a few things that, at the time, I thought were brilliant but were really crap lol).

CamillaRhodes

Fliptzer - christ, I hadn't even thought of the possibility of being robbed, though I've been burgled twice, once in this very house... eeeek! Right, gonna set up some sort of online storage, now. Will start with emailing everything to myself...

I admire you so much for being so zen about this, when i was being such a baby about losing only a few words.

Congratulations on your resilience!! If you're still able to write after such a profound setback, you deserve every success which will come to you!