Worst Thing for a Writer
Worst thing for a writer. You know what really sends the agony level high in a writer? Losing work. There is nothing worse. Because you'll search forever for it in backups, wonder how it happened, and then grit your teeth and reconstruct, hoping you can get it as good as it was.
Yes, I lost something yesterday, the final draft of chapter 16 of Heart Secret. I was working on chapter 20 when I realized this. Sickening, like when you make that awful mistake at the day job. I'd thought that I'd had a critical scene in it that I'd slaved over the motivation in.
I have multiple backups of everything, and the working copy (pretending to be the final) was saved everywhere.
I think it was one of those "walked away from desk, came back, was asked if I wanted to save the file and absently hit 'no' deals, so all my fault.
It threw me for a couple of hours before I beat back the hysteria and rolled up my sleeves and went to work.
To find out that the critical scene was in chapter 17 WHEW, 16 just needed a little twitching.
Operator error hits us all.
May you be free of sickening mistakes this year.
Robin
Yes, I lost something yesterday, the final draft of chapter 16 of Heart Secret. I was working on chapter 20 when I realized this. Sickening, like when you make that awful mistake at the day job. I'd thought that I'd had a critical scene in it that I'd slaved over the motivation in.
I have multiple backups of everything, and the working copy (pretending to be the final) was saved everywhere.
I think it was one of those "walked away from desk, came back, was asked if I wanted to save the file and absently hit 'no' deals, so all my fault.
It threw me for a couple of hours before I beat back the hysteria and rolled up my sleeves and went to work.
To find out that the critical scene was in chapter 17 WHEW, 16 just needed a little twitching.
Operator error hits us all.
May you be free of sickening mistakes this year.
Robin
posted by FantasyAuthor RobinDOwens | 9:00 AM
5 Comments:
I have finished reading H&S. I liked all of the four stories and I think that you sent the best one in for the competition. I liked Genista's story the best. I also really liked the Clovers' story. I liked them all, however, those two were my favourites.
Tine
Great job.
giThat's terrible but accidents do happen, so don't beat yourself up over it. And it'll make you all the more careful in the future to make those backups.
Janice~
Tell me about it! Forgot to clock in at work and didn't discovered it until clocking out--twelve hours later. Now I need to hunt my manager down and make sure he fixes is (if I don't witness the change, it will not get fixed--how sad is that?)
Oh God. I know the feeling. Heart drops to stomach, cold sweat times. I am a bit paranoid about things like this, so I save on two flash drives, and two computers. That is about the only thing that will let me relax. I am glad you got it all worked out in the end, but it is awful. If it makes you feel better, I am sure it will be awesome and I can't wait to read it! ;)
Thank you folks, this was strictly operator error because I was in a hurry. Something I'll think about 2-3 times later.
Thank you Tine!
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