inzilbeth: (Default)
inzilbeth ([personal profile] inzilbeth) wrote2008-10-29 03:15 pm
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My computer ate an entire chapter of A of A!

I hate computers! I've always hated them and after last night I hate them with an even greater passion.

I spend about two hours yesterday evening finally kicking into shape an extra chapter for Aspects of Aragorn. It had been a bit of a pig and I'd been getting nowhere fast with it. So you can imagine my relief when I went to click 'save', fully intending to send it onto Cairistiona and Passolargo for their invaluable opinions.

Well I'm still not quite sure what happen, but the computer did not save it. It was nowhere to be found. Fortunately I have a good friend those knowledge of computers is inversely proportional to my own. But after an hour on the phone, he sadly pronounced my chapter well and truly lost for good. All 11 pages of it!

I didn't burst into tears. It was only a chapter, I told myself; no one died. It was by now after 10pm and I had been up since 4am. I was of half a mind to abandon the whole thing but instead, and I'm quite proud of myself for doing this, I turned around and started rewriting it, though looking at that first line with 11 more pages to go was very daunting. I kept going until 11.30pm at which point I was writing total gibberish. Thankfully, I've not in work this week, so today, I shelved all my plans for the day and kept at it all morning. Five hours later it is at least recognisable as the same chapter though there are still no end of frustrating bits that just don't read the same this time round.

The moral of this story: never ever work on anything without a copy of the original somewhere else. I certainly never want to do that again.

Oh the chapter is called 'Roheryn.'  It'll be here in a couple of weeks [I hope!]

[identity profile] nierielraina.livejournal.com 2008-10-29 04:15 pm (UTC)(link)
Are you sure you didn't save it in some obscure location by accident? That has happened to me before. Check your temp docs and all your folders!

One way to eliminate this from happening as well is to save that doc as soon as you open it as a file. Then every line or two you type, hold CTRL and type 's' and you automatically save your work as you go. I learned that after losing a couple chapters myself, so I sympathize.

*hugs*

[identity profile] inzilbeth-liz.livejournal.com 2008-10-29 06:49 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you so much for the tip, NiRi. I am a bit of a computer duce so that's why I rang my friend who I guess then checked all the likely places. I will check again as I'm always going to feel the original was the better version.

[identity profile] nierielraina.livejournal.com 2008-10-29 08:19 pm (UTC)(link)
It always is, isn't it? No matter how you try to rewrite, your heart went into the first and your frustration goes into the second. :)

Remember that save as you go rule! It's saved I can't tell you how much heartache for me! Instead of losing the whole chapter, I might lose a sentence or a few words. It's just part of my typing now. Type, CTRL S, type, CTRL S. :)

[identity profile] inzilbeth-liz.livejournal.com 2008-10-29 09:05 pm (UTC)(link)
'Your heart went into the first and your frustration goes into the second' - oh that is so true!

I've had a go doing this already and, yes, it is easy isn't it. Usually I lose stuff because the puppy turns the computer off so this will be very handy even for those more everyday problems! Thanks so much, again.