OMG< OMG, completely hyperventilating... Deep breath
Ok, I just came back to my writing. I didn't check the word count. I continued with a new scene I started yesterday (new chapter, its first scene, only created it yesterday and didn't write anything). Needed to check for a name so went back a chapter to check on the scene. Clicked on the Scene: Content and it's empty! Not even an exclamation mark! Tried scrolling back and forth, checking the rest of the stuff in that scene: the scene notes etc remained, just the content isn't there. Tried second scene- the same story. I am very afraid to check any other scenes. The wordcount is over a 1000 less than yesterday. And no, I haven't simply forgotten to save my work. These scenes are both a few days old and were perfectly fine the other day.
Yesterday I tried putting the whole file on a flashdisk via Ctrl+c and V. It started the process but said it couldn't find one of the bits (yeah, the story bit). Later finished a new scene in the original file, clisked Save but it said the file didn't exist/wasn't saved and to save it or lose data. I saved it into a new folder with a new filename. Could these two be related?
I know I should contact the creator but my hands are shaking too much to do anything else than type.
Help? Please!
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57,064 / 50,000
Nov 5, 2009 - 22 26
Sorry, can't seem to edit the previous post. On the main window of YWriter 5 is still the old wordcount from yesterday(11 178). On the blank scene the count is lower (10 044) ...
The only other scene where I started typing today is 94 words, which would not have been included in the old word count.
Edit:
Still not completely sure what happened. I had looked into the old file of the story, which I yesterday had to resave in a (fortunately) new folder, and the scenes were in that version. I have simply copied them into the newer version and everything looks okay for the moment. I have yet to check the other scenes.
If you have an idea of what went wrong, please share. I would like to avoid this situation in the future :) Thanks
P.S. Just checked the other scenes. They are blank as well. Here's to hoping I have them all in the old file.
41,291 / 50,000
Nov 6, 2009 - 08 37
I had something similar happen to me last year -- including the panic attack! -- but it turned out okay. Not a word lost.
From your description, I think you made the same 'mistake' I did. See, there are two ways of starting up a YW5 session.
1) You click on the program or, more likely, a shortcut icon for it.
2) You click on the 'project fie'/data file for your story. Generally this is the title of your project plus the extension .yw5. For example, if you were writing Godzilla, your project file is most likely called 'Godzilla.yw5."
What happens is, YW5 remembers the name of the file you last worked on, and automatically openes it when you start the program using method 1. Normally this is okay, BUT if you switch around and sometimes use one method and sometimes the other you can cause a problem.
You see, when you accidentally (or on purpose) save the project under a new name/in a different folder, it resets the internal pointer to that new name. So if you decided to make a backup copy and so saved the project under, say, .../backup/godzilla the next time you open YW5 via the program itself it opens the /backup/godzilla version and your new text gets saved there. And things will look fine to you.
BUT if at some later date you start a session by clicking on your ORIGINAL godzilla.yw5 file -- not the /backup/godzilla.yw5 one, the one in, oh, mydocuments/godzilla.yw5 -- it opens THAT one. And then any scenes you worked since you created the /backup one WILL BE GONE.
omg, omg, omg panic time.
And, of course, they aren't gone at all. There are right where they always were, you're just looking in the 'wrong' copy of your project. To fix it all you have to do is open the version in the /backup folder by clicking on THAT one. You can then do a save and put it into the first folder again, if that is what you want.
A slight complication is that if you didn't notice right away, you might have workd on both files, and thus each version has some text that the other one doesn't. You can fix that by cutting and pasting into whichever version you decide to use as the correct one.
Important tip to save your sanity:
Once you've started a writing project NEVER AGAIN start the program by clicking on the program icon. ALWAYS start the program by clicking on the (project title).yw5 file. (You can make a shortcut to the project file on your desktop if you want.) That way you will be SURE which file you are working on, and accidental 'save as' mistakes cannot happen.
Hope this helps settle your nerves. ;)
57,064 / 50,000
Nov 6, 2009 - 09 24
Thanks for the name shortcut tip.
I have actually managed to get all my scenes back. The only thing is, I had to copy them from the old file to the new one. It was the old scenes that were missing, not the new ones. All of them. And it was just the text that was missing. I had the notes and summaries of the scenes, characters present in the scenes etc. But not the text. No idea how that could have happened.
Point is, I have all of my work. I am very glad you shared your experience, I will now know another thing to look out for and that is always useful :)
72,466 / 50,000
Nov 6, 2009 - 09 30
Make sure you have autobackups on. And when you back up the work you need to be backing up the entire project folder.
----------Tirjasdyn - Badger et al
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