1. Darin Peaker

    Darin Peaker New Member

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    Need to scream! Lost 15 pages of my novel!

    Discussion in 'Writing Software and Hardware' started by Darin Peaker, Nov 2, 2011.

    Arrrgggghhhhh!!!

    I was doing a lot of cutting and pasting while rearranging chapters. I copied something to the clipboard, then I guess I was distracted by something else and copied over it without pasting it first. I didn't notice it was gone for several days. (I've been doin' some major renovations and the page count has been jumping up and down constantly.) Gone. Gone from all my over-written back-ups. Good polished stuff, too. Anyway, I found a freeware program, M8 Clipboard that saves everything saved to the clipboard. Won't happen again. But still.... :mad:
     
  2. Banzai

    Banzai One-time Mod, but on the road to recovery Contributor

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    Sadly, losing work in various different scenarios seems to be almost a right of passage for writers. It doesn't make it better, but you're far from the only one.


    My sympathies.
     
  3. KateEnglund

    KateEnglund New Member

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    ouch thats terriable i think if that happend to me i'd cry :(
     
  4. TheSpiderJoe

    TheSpiderJoe New Member

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    Happened to me once early in my writing days.

    Now I create a separate file for every revision I do. It helps recover against untimely accidents and also allows me to reflect on how the story's changed.
     
  5. Ellipse

    Ellipse Contributor Contributor

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    I feel for you. I get annoyed when I lose just one page, or don't even have immediate access to my writing. :( I hope you can recover some of it at least from memory.
     
  6. Arathald

    Arathald New Member

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    Sorry :(

    Maybe take this as an opportunity to rewrite that part... better! (Not saying it was bad (since I have no idea), but we can always improve what we've written!)

    At least it wasn't the whole book.
     
  7. Dresden260

    Dresden260 Corrupt Diplomat

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    Truly sorry that happened to you. Remember to keep extra back-ups.
    You could be extreme like me and save the novel on 8 separate hard drives.
     
  8. Darin Peaker

    Darin Peaker New Member

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    Wow...I thought I was extreme with my 6 backups. Unfortunately I save obsessively, so I overwrote them all. BTW Just discovered Harry Dresden.
     
  9. Darin Peaker

    Darin Peaker New Member

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    Good idea.
     
  10. Darin Peaker

    Darin Peaker New Member

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    I'm trying to "download it from my flesh drive" as I say it, but with mixed results. I remember the plot, but the writing lacks spontaneity.
     
  11. Darin Peaker

    Darin Peaker New Member

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    Thank you.
     
  12. ChickenFreak

    ChickenFreak Contributor Contributor

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    I do named backups for each day. (111031Backup, 111101Backup, etc.) For things that I really care about, I keep:

    - Sometimes multiple backups in a day, if I'm doing something I really don't want to lose.. (111031_2-30pm_Backup, for example.)
    - A daily backup for each of seven days.
    - A weekly backup for each of four weeks.
    - A monthly backup for every month back to the beginning of time.
    - The weeklies and monthlies go on a drive other than my main drive, _OR_ I do a periodic printout, or both.

    I realize that it's rather annoying to have people give you backup advice _after_ the fact, but maybe it could prevent a recurrence?
     
  13. Taylee91

    Taylee91 Carpe Diem Contributor

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    Oh, I'm so sorry, Darin. I know how you feel. I've done this to myself so many times, granted not 15 pages. Still, the number never matters. If it's just one paragraph I lose I feel so lost! *sniffle*
     
  14. Blue Night

    Blue Night Active Member

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    I email backups to myself. Even if it's just a chapter. So far that has been my best backup. I'm paranoid about backups.
     
  15. Thanshin

    Thanshin Active Member

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    SVN. Tortoise.

    Learn to use a versioning solution.

    You can even make it so it saves your work every arbitrary amount of time.

    You can have a copy of your work as it was, each 5 minutes, during the last two months.


    P.S.: If a writer tells you he's never lost some work, hug him and walk away. He probably managed to forget it, to deal with the horror. You wouldn't want to trigger the PTSD.
     

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