Absolute rubbish…
Last week, was at the 90,000 word mark for Book of Knights. Was thrilled to have reached that point, only two chapters to go. It’s the moment when you can see the finish line and you get ready to run, you are part of the story, you ARE your characters and you feel breathless at what will eventuate.
Had been assiduously clicking File > Save after every page or two.
Last time saved to external hardrive (and USB) was 5 days before. On the fateful 90,000 day, checked the word count, checked battery level, put the computer to sleep and tottered off to kitchen. Forty minutes later, I went to open the computer to read what I had written that day. But the computer was dead!
Plugged in machine but it wouldn’t start. Tried not to worry and gave ‘On’ button just one more push and the beastie fired up! Relief. Husband, on way to a long hot soak in the bath, suggested I back up. I plugged in the USB first and did the necessaries and then did the same with the ext. hard drive.
Horror!!!!
When I checked the files by opening them, found wordcount was 84,000 words.
Trying not to worry, and believing a specialist could help me, I shot into town to our favourite MAC man, Mr. Mac+More. Worked on machine for 30 minutes.
No go…
Seems I reversed saving process: ie, saved the USB file to the computer and not vice versa. And then of course, I only had the earlier 84,000 file to save to the hard drive. Gaaah! Call it exhaustion after being at the shearing shed and getting ready for shearing that week. Call it a blonde moment.
BUT refused to lose my cool, even though tears were very close!
You see,
I write first drafts in longhand…
So original pages were filed…
Four pages in garbage bin in townhouse and 20 pages in garbage bin at House. Town ones not messy at all, ones up at House had sundried tomato stains, old meat pack juices, dogfood bits and tea stains.
Eeew!
Dove into bins(rubber gloves on), retrieved all bar one page, laid them in the sun to dry and then began awful job of transcribing and trying to remember what I’d deleted, what I’d expanded upon etcetera, etcetera, and so forth…
By Saturday had reached 89, 000 words but knew something was missing.
Lay in bath that night and…
Eureka!
I knew what the gap was, how it should be filled and jumped out and made notes ready for the last gasp on Sunday.
By Sunday night had 91,000 words.
Saved, backed-up and the garbage was just that…
a bin full.
ahem, *cough-cough* (email it too!)
Emailing after every session, Johnny!
Oh thank goodness!
I once lost a nearly complete 2000 word psychology essay when my computer died. Had i backed it up onto a USB? No. It was a hard lesson. Now i email my work to myself at the end of the day.
I’m learning, Bollyknickers. This is the second time!
Gaaaard! Heart stopping, Prue.
So glad it all worked out well in the end.
Posie
PS want to talk to you about coming down here when u have a moment?
Sent from my iPad
My heart stopped too, Posie and I have more grey hairs. Ring or email when you are ready…
Nice to know that the madness of authors is not just a thing of the Northern Hemisphere.
Very solid and well-publicised madness here in the south… am well known for running round like chook with head cut off!
What a nightmare, Prue! So glad you got it sorted – but so much extra work!
Gerry, I lost a week and should really do a post to publicise the fact the novel will be delayed. But hoping any readers will see this and draw their own conclusions. I can only embarrass myself once – surely.
I’m happy to hear that everything is ok now. 🙂
I can smile now, April and have what I hope is an effective back up plan!
Oh, no! That’s awful! At least you still had the handwritten pages. I handwrite everything first, too, but I have mine in bound notebooks and don’t chuck them…um, ever, actually. 🙂 My husband says I suffer from packrat-itis. I told him I don’t trust my computer. Or my backups. Or the backups I’ve made of my backups.
I have a ridiculous number of backups because I’ve lost one too many brilliant things that I couldn’t remember when I had to reconstruct them after my computer crashed. And then I print out the hard copies of what I type…I could probably paper my walls with my drafts, but I don’t think my husband would go for that. 😀
Kay, hi! My husband has suggested keeping all notes for posterity. Which I fully intend to do from this day forward. The writing, like a doctor’s, is legible only to me of course. But that’s okay.
I’ve been handwriting everything for almost two decades now, mostly out of necessity (as we were too broke to afford a computer when I was growing up). My handwriting is nice and legible now from all that practice. 🙂
And hey, as long as you can read yours, that’s the important thing, right? Unless, of course, you hire someone else to start transcribing your notes…Then you could be in trouble. 😀
Kay, I might be selling the occasional novel but I’m not making enough money to pay an amanuensis! I’m chief cook and bottlewasher until the book goes to the editor…
Ah, sounds familiar. Add in a day job on top of it for me. At least we’ve finished with the bottles and are down to sippy cups now – those have fewer parts to lose. 😉
A nightmare indeed. I once lost a novel when an ancient word processor died, I unearthed an early draft and painstakingly typed back into a new computer. About halfway through, I realized that the novel wasn’t very good. So I never did finish copy-typing.
Very different from your situation as a professional, publishing writer, but it was devastating to me at the time. And now I always email my work to myself at the end of the day.
Oh Anne! It was ghastly… and such an easy mistake to make. I WAS tired and whilst I was so happy to blame the laptop, the reality was gently pointed out to me by Mr. Mac+More. So now it’s a matter of:
1. Click File>Save.
2. Email file immediately to Self and OH.
3. Save to USB, Hard Drive and Dropbox.
Is that enough, do you think?
Yes. Dropbox has a history of all you docs – even the deleted ones. With Dropbox, your docs are safe! 🙂
Best
Hallo Barb. I now have Dropbox, Timeline, my ext.hardrive, my little memory stick, files sent to my email and my kindle and of course am keeping every longhand page written from the minute of the disaster till forever. I think I’m covered.
Oh, that is horrendous Prue! I’m so glad you managed to find the first draft notes. This sort of thing happened to a couple of friends of mine the other day 🙁 I’m trying to be very careful about remembering to back up my work onto my external hard drive everyday as my laptop can be somewhat temperamental, but some times it’s so easy to forget. Maybe I should be backing up online as well? My husband says I should.
Phillipa, I think it’s best to back up every which way… cover every base you can. I do love longhand though, it’s the best means of all and if it worked for Jane Austen and William Shakespeare, then I am sure it can work for me!
Oh, Prue! a great big ouch from me, too. I’m so glad you managed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
I always rip up the longhand, so I would have been well and truly stuffed in your situation. this will remind me to back up every day, not just when I remember.
You must keep everything! I even had the thought to email the ms to my Kindle as I am working, so there’s another save.