well I feel like screaming.
I've spent the better part of a month planning my plot and characters, to the point where I had a chapter breakdown with each scene listed and summarised. only to open it this morning and discover it has reverted to the state it was in well over a month ago. and to top it all off, my back-up file has corrupted. I have no idea why on either count.
so now I have to start near enough from scratch since I have a terrible memory.
I shall be backing everything up four fold from now on.
grrrrrr
----------
15th Sep: plan started
8th Oct: plan finished
12th Oct: plan (inc. back-up) eaten by ibook ARGGH!
50,777 / 50,000
Oct 12, 2008 - 11 02
Let me start off by saying that that really, really sucks. As writers, I think we all have nightmares based around that kind of thing happening. I know I do. I can't count the number of times that I've lost information and writing like that. For some reason I'm terrible at keeping off-computer backups.
This past summer, my laptop had some pretty severe driver failures. With every single one of them, I was in fits of screaming panic until someone managed to boot me in safe mode and rescue all my work. Once the writing was safe, I was content for anything to happen to my computer. I had it all on a flash drive at one point while the laptop was being repaired, WHICH MY BOSS THEN CRUSHED. I could've killed him where he stood. He felt really bad about it, but there was roughly seven years of work on that little flash drive. Luckily I managed to recover it later, but at the time it was scary.
On to the support:
What I do when that kind of thing happens is just stay positive. If it comes to pass that I lose something irrevocable, I moan and rage about it for a little bit, and then I hunker down and get back at it. Here's the funny thing: almost every time that happens, I wind up writing something better than I'd originally had. It's happened twice now to my 600-page epic that I'm right in the middle of.
First I lost the first 40 pages to a file corruption and had to start completely fresh. The second time I lost a truly amazing, pivotal scene from the middle of the story. Both times I sat down and rewrote them because I'll be damned if my computer is going to get the best of me. And in both of those situations, the rewrites were far better than what I'd originally pumped out, and in fact gave me new aspects for my plot and kept the story chugging along.
So, to make a short story long (I suck at this XD), don't get discouraged! It sucks, I know, but try not to be too upset. <3 You never know, going back and looking at your outline from a fresh perspective could be the best thing you've done yet. Best of luck!
----------2008 Working Title: Riddle and Bone
Characters: Loud and obnoxious.
Plot: Partially formulated.
Writers are like schizophrenics without the luxury of medication.
114,200 / 50,000
Oct 12, 2008 - 12 44
Sorry this happened Em-J, it sucks. I can't give any advice to get the outline back, but can I give you advice for the future? As well as my .doc file I also do a Save As at the end of each session and save a .txt file too. Plain text files are less likely to end up corrupted. It just takes an extra minute to do it, but may save my bacon one day.
52,427 / 50,000
Oct 12, 2008 - 13 03
Been there, done that.
Email it to your online email account. Save it to a special folder in your account. If the computer crashes... at least something is saved. Or, you could blog it. I put my on a private blog. This allows me to work on it anywhere if I want to and not worry about losing it.
----------Dixiegirl
"May you be captured by a dozen ideas that you quickly convert to a good story."
2008:
7,803 / 50,000
Oct 12, 2008 - 14 30
Get a Google account and use Google Docs. You can upload the files in about a minute or two, so even if your computer goes totally crazy, you still have the file somewhere, safe and sound in your Google account online.
I also second e-mailing it to yourself. I actually have an e-mail account that I use for JUST that purpose and nothing else.
Anyway, sorry you lost your files. :( At least it's not the 1st yet!
50,075 / 50,000
Oct 12, 2008 - 15 05
Oh No! That's awful!!!
I'm glad you haven't lost any actual Nano-work. But it sounds like you lost a lot. I've been there before and it isn't fun.
e-mailing your stuff to yourself works pretty well. Especially if you do it between two accounts. You'll have it both in your Inbox and your 'Sent' folders. I had the same thing happen to me, where the file corrupted, and the fact that I'd emailed it to a friend to beta saved me.
1,729 / 50,000
Oct 12, 2008 - 23 20
emailing is really the best way ive found, or uploading to a server of some sort
as for support, its outline not actual story, you have most of it in your head right? perhaps like someone else said this will allow you to come up with even better.
i lost all my work 3 weeks from the end of my computer course, and had to redo everything i haddnt already submitted. when i lost it all again a week later, and had to do some units i hadnt completed a third time over, i was ready to scream at it all and throw it away. but i got it done, with about half an hour to spare on the final day.
----------NaNo 07 - A Single White Plumeria - 50,032 (Bloody hell iit was close!)
NaNo 08 - ...uh, help...
50,712 / 50,000
Oct 13, 2008 - 11 00
Cry.
*hands over virtual kleenex*
----------warm fuzzies~ Lex
2005 Winner Untitled
2007 Winner "Surviving Serengeti"