Insert Melodramatic Title Here

[hobgoblinn]

Well, maybe That's a little strongly worded. You decide.

Yesterday I burned a vacation day to get some writing done. I mostly got editing done on sections I've already completed, though I did add quite a lot of additional material to one piece. So, go me.

Then I, um, cut and pasted a page and a half of the above-mentioned good scene, just the way I wanted it, complete with somewhat profound note on survivor's guilt, into an earlier section to get it out of sight, out of mind for the section I was struggling with. Thought I saved it. May have actually done so, but....

When I went back to reopen it later, having closed the file, That Section Wasn't There. Wasn't, um, anywhere.

I haven't had a feeling of such utter, crushing despair since I was in the midst of court battles and losing. Badly.

A Backup, you ask? To quote the lovely lady mistful: When have you ever known me to do the sensible thing?

Everything is backed up now, as an exported separate Word Doc (I'm using my mac's Pages program to write in. Though antennapedia's BBEdit and Version Control system is sounding better and better to me all the time. Except I keep trying to do the automatic key shortcuts from the text editor I use at work, vi, when I try to work in BBEdit now. Very distracting.) And I uploaded all current versions of the word docs to google documents. So there are places these exist, if I, you know, do something stupid. -er. Again.

So now I have to pull up my socks and go on. Luckily, today is Saturday, which means Saturday school for Wee Hob (it sucks to have a 9 average in History. I think it's up in the high 40's now that he's turned in some work. Late=Half Credit....) And then he's going to play with his friend most of the day, on their bikes or at the Library.

I have no excuse to not get this story finished, even with the rewrite I'll have to do today. I did outline it last night, reproducing as many lines and phrases as my panicked brain could dredge up. What kills me is how I have a lot of the content, but the pacing and feel of the scene is utterly, utterly gone. But again, if I can't recreate it, I can't create this kind of writing in the first place. And I did it once, and well, adversity is part of being a Writer, so....

I'm rambling now. I should go. But... ow. Whimper.

Comments

[empresspatti.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I have found lost items on "recent documents" .

Bad advice is worse than no advise at all. Shutting up now.

[hobgoblinn.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, same document name saved over previous one, so-- no dice. I had some hope I might be able to get to a temp file, but this isn't Windoze. Course, if I had been working in Windoze, I would have been saving and making backups every 5 minutes on all kinds of external media. Shame that the Mac's stability lulls one into a false sense of security....

But I'm quite insecure now, thanks. Hence, Google Documents.

Thanks.

[gillo]

Agonising. I've had that happen to me at work on documents that weren't even fun to write. If anything that's worse, because you have to go through all the slog again for no satisfaction. (Many years ago we had a wp program at work which only backed up when you exited the program - but somebody switched it off at the wall and I lost an hour's work.)

I really feel your pain, pet. {{hugs}}

[hobgoblinn.livejournal.com]

Thanks. *Hugs back*.

I did find out it's possible to get the Mac to make a backup automatically of a previously saved document, so you always have the last 2 versions available. Might have saved me here if that had been clicked "on."

Ah well. That section maybe benefits a little from the emotional turmoil anyway....

thanks

[gillo]

I'm glad you feel you salvaged something at least. Sometimes our second thoughts work out better.

I'm working on a certain google doc as I type - or, rather, just before and just after typing. I know you're bogged down in Severus, so to speak, so I've left it on the back-burner for a bit, but even I have a guilt threshold over which I cannot force myself to transgress...

[hobgoblinn.livejournal.com]

aww, thanks. I think all this pain and forcing myself to do things I Can't Do is going to come in very handy working back though and finishing that. Thanks for your time on it. And-- No guilt! I'm almost unbogged, anyway.

[nwhepcat.livejournal.com]

Oh, I feel your pain. I'm an obsessive saver after having lost 10 pages of work due to something really stupid on my first-ever time word processing. If I breathe I save, that's how deeply I was scarred by that! And how frustrating to be sure you did and still lose something.

I hope the re-piecing goes well.

Think of the days when writers typed everything and had one ms. Isaac Bashevis Singer, I think it was, lost his only copy of a book on the NYC subway. He was very philosophical about it, which I would not be. He told someone about this, and they said, "Oh, that's tragic!" and he said, "A child did not die." Me? I'd be carrying on as if several had.

[hobgoblinn.livejournal.com]

10 pages!!! Yikes! Yeah, I should be so thankful it wasn't an earlier section, one I hadn't just been writing yesterday. Or the whole thing. It could have been so very much worse. 8 and 1/2 pages worse, for instance....

And yeah, Mr. Singer had the right perspective. But writing does feel like a child, doesn't it? Right down to the sticking out its tongue and not doing what you want, sometimes...

But hey, bet your writing doesn't have a 9 avg in History this term....

thanks

[rahirah]

Ow. I hate it when that happens. :(

[hobgoblinn.livejournal.com]

thanks

[nemaihne.livejournal.com]

Oh, I feel that one. I'm guilty of having spent too much time on the 'backups are for sissies' plan as well. Particularly since laptop batteries used to be very picky about time...
I'm sorry. If I were closer, I would bring you some nice, seasonal cider to help with the rewrite.

[hobgoblinn.livejournal.com]

Yeah, macs are so much more stable than windoze machines that I've kind of got into bad habits, myself. And I don't have a printer at home, so I don't make hard copies of things as frequently anymore.

Thanks for the virtual cider, though. It helped a great deal.

[rainkatt.livejournal.com]

Oh, ugh. I'm having huge time constraints right now, with trying to get everything done so I can leave town, but I'll look at the stuff you just uploaded, anyway. After I get home from work. :-) ::hugs:: What a pain! I like your attitude, though.

[hobgoblinn.livejournal.com]

Don't kill yourself, woman. Like the guy who got turned into a a newt "I got better." See: http://hobgoblinn.livejournal.com/42380.html

I think I'll take a break and go pick up my copy of the new Buffy comic now. I've earned it, right?

Take care, and have fun on your vacation! And thanks for the hug.

Hob

[willowgreen.livejournal.com]

Oh, how awful! I'd be upset, too.

When I'm deleting a section but I think I might want to use it again later, I often paste it into the Stickies program, which autosaves everything. It's a great holding spot for anything that's kind of in-between.

[hobgoblinn.livejournal.com]

oh, cool. I didn't know about that program. It looks very neat. I think I will use that to reserve future cuts of that kind. Thanks for the tip.