Tragedy Befalls All Great Writers

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Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 17 total)
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  • #13555
    Hannah C
    @hannah-c
      • Rank: Knight in Shining Armor
      • Total Posts: 362

      There are many things we as writers fear but out of all of them two stand out the most: rejection and losing one’s masterpiece. And today I was visited by one of these. In between writing I was doing some chores while listening to music. I saved my work before closing the lid on my computer thinking it would carry on playing while shut. For whatever reason this made my computer crash and turn off completely and, in essence, delete the entirety of the story I was working on and no just what I had written today.

      *Weeps*

      I suppose I can complain too much since I didn’t lose a grand amount but still it’s disappointing. Be warned.

      HC

      #13557
      Daeus
      @daeus
        • Rank: Chosen One
        • Total Posts: 4238

        *Closes eyes. Winces.* Oh, man. I’m so sorry. This happened to me a while ago. I can only suppose there is a good reason for it β€” somewhere where we maybe can’t see it.

        Ever since this happened to me, I’ve been sinking my files to a dropbox account. Dropbox is essentially a cloud storage system. That way, even if every file on your computer gets destroyed, you can still retrieve your content safe and sound. You can also have data retrieved from your computer, but this will cost a little. It might be worth it though depending on how much was lost.

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        #13558
        Kate Flournoy
        @kate-flournoy
          • Rank: Chosen One
          • Total Posts: 3976

          Oh no, @Hannah-C! That’s awful. I’m so sorry. *weeps in sympathy* Thankfully nothing this dire has ever happened to me. It almost did onceβ€” I accidentally hit ctrl-A (highlight) instead of ctrl-S (save) then continued typing before the command had fully gone through… and you know when you highlight something and keep typing, whatever you keep typing replaces the highlighted stuff.
          It had highlighted my entire three hundred page document. *cringe*

          Thankfully I was able to edit/undo, but let me tell you I was totally freaked out for the rest of the day after that. πŸ˜›
          That’s when I got myself a thumb drive and starting transferring my work to it and my mom’s computer, so if something happened to my copy I’d still have at least most of my work.
          A little late for such advice, I know. πŸ™ I’m so, so sorry. I feel so bad. *sniffles, dabs eyes with tissue* Are you going to be okay?

          Daeus
          @daeus
            • Rank: Chosen One
            • Total Posts: 4238

            Uum, @kate-flournoy, get a dropbox account.

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            #13560
            Kate Flournoy
            @kate-flournoy
              • Rank: Chosen One
              • Total Posts: 3976

              @Daeus that’s sounding more and more like a very wise idea. πŸ˜€

              Hope Ann
              @hope
                • Rank: Eccentric Mentor
                • Total Posts: 1092

                @Hannah-C I’m so sorry. I think losing a story is even worse than getting rejected. That happened to me once; well, I’d backed-up fairly regularly so I only lost a few chapters but still…it was several days worth of work. And I discovered several other things I’d lost in the computer crash weeks or months later when I went looking for them. ;( I did get dropbox after that crash, thanks to @Daeus. πŸ˜‰ So now everything is β€˜safe’ enough…as long as a file doesn’t get corrupted. That happened to a friend of mine an she lost about a third of her book, so I still do manual back-ups onto a flash drive ever few weeks.

                INTJ - Inhumane. No-feelings. Terrible. Judgment and doom on everyone.

                #13570
                Hannah C
                @hannah-c
                  • Rank: Knight in Shining Armor
                  • Total Posts: 362

                  Thank you everyone, it’s nice to have a couple of virtual shoulders to cry on.


                  @Daeus
                  I might look into it. Maybe I’ll just ask for it for my birthday.


                  @kate-flournoy
                  *hands tissue* there there. I can totally understand how you would be really paranoid for the rest of the day, t kinda makes your heart stop just thinking about it. I’d probably stop writing for the rest of the day.


                  @hope
                  (I hope I tagged the right Hope there) I think you’re right about it being worse than rejection. Sounds like you lost more than I did *hands sympathetic ice cream cone*. What actually happened when my computer shut down was the file did get corrupted. When my brother tried to recover it for me it said that it had something like 52 thousand characters in it but all it was was a bunch of pound signs. πŸ™

                  HC

                  #13571
                  Daeus
                  @daeus
                    • Rank: Chosen One
                    • Total Posts: 4238

                    @hannah-c dropbox is free unless you get a business account, which is totally unnecessary.

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                    #13572
                    Hannah C
                    @hannah-c
                      • Rank: Knight in Shining Armor
                      • Total Posts: 362

                      @daeus oh ok cool! Thanks, I’ll look into it. Does it need WiFi to work though?

                      HC

                      #13573
                      Daeus
                      @daeus
                        • Rank: Chosen One
                        • Total Posts: 4238

                        @hannah-c I believe so, but it doesn’t take much. Probably about as much as you just used visiting this page.

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                        #13574
                        Hannah C
                        @hannah-c
                          • Rank: Knight in Shining Armor
                          • Total Posts: 362

                          @daeus how about no internet at all because often times I’m writing without any access to the internet which was where I was yesterday when my file got corrupted. Though I suppose if I had Dropbox then I could had most of it saved, just not what I’d written yesterday.

                          HC

                          #13575
                          Daeus
                          @daeus
                            • Rank: Chosen One
                            • Total Posts: 4238

                            @hannah-c I believe you’re right. You would have lost a little, but not much.

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                            #13576
                            Hannah C
                            @hannah-c
                              • Rank: Knight in Shining Armor
                              • Total Posts: 362

                              @daeus I’ll still look into it because I can upload it at night when I get home.

                              HC

                              #13636
                              Vanna
                              @vanna
                                • Rank: Charismatic Rebel
                                • Total Posts: 48

                                *shudder* This is why I use Evernote. I also keep addition copies of my chapters in Word on my computer.

                                #13643
                                Hannah C
                                @hannah-c
                                  • Rank: Knight in Shining Armor
                                  • Total Posts: 362

                                  @vanna what is Evernote?

                                  HC

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