Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Panic Stations - and Sweet Relief

Paula panicked when she lost a chapter - and cried with relief when she found it again!

Last week I told you how I had finally reached the end of my current novel on Monday. The initial editing process involved looking at the penultimate chapter (Chapter 27) as there were a few things I wasn't happy with. I decided part of this chapter would be better somewhere in the final chapter, so on Wednesday evening I copied and pasted this part into a new document, and saved it, ready to be inserted into the chapter when I decided just where was the best place for it.

On Thursday evening, I looked again at the final chapter. Opened up the Chapter 28 file - but all it contained was the section I’d copied and pasted the previous evening.

First reaction – bewilderment. Where was my original Chapter 28? I’d sweated blood over that chapter! Where was it??

I proceeded to search high and low. First for ‘Chapter 28’. Nil. Nada (apart from the copied and pasted section). Panic set in. Had I lost the chapter? Would I have to rewrite it? Big groan.

Remembering phrases I’d used that I thought might be unique to Chapter 28, I typed them into the search box: new conservatory, grandfather clock, Edwardian Afternoon Tea. Nope. Nothing came up.

Where on earth was that last chapter? It had to be somewhere on my computer, or on Dropbox (where I save all my docs – religiously!)

After an hour of searching, I was ready to scream (or cry). I knew the last section of the last chapter was a good one, but could I remember it all to rewrite it?

Now depression set in. This novel has been hard enough to write in the first place, the final chapter took me over a week to write, so this seemed to be the most unjust cut of all!

I vented on Facebook (and thanks for your input there, Jen!). Another FB friend directed me to Microsoft Support and ‘How to Recover a Deleted Document’. I knew I hadn’t deleted the original Chapter 28, but I had a look anyway.

After ploughing through various options (none of which worked in recovering my Chapter 28), I found one which said something about recovering ‘previous versions’. Now you may already know all about this facility, but it was new to me. So I explored this option and found a ‘previous version’ of Chapter 28 dated November 24th, the night I knew I had finished the chapter.

Clicked it, and YES! It was the original chapter!

I can’t even begin to describe my relief on recovering this file. If I had been ready to cry with despair at losing the chapter, I was even more ready to cry with relief on finding it again. From the 90+ comments on my FB status about losing and then finding the file, it seems all writers can relate to this!

Eventually, I worked out just what had happened.

When I saved the part of Chapter 27 that I’d decided to use in Chapter 28, I intended to save the file where I pasted it as Chapter 28A. But I forgot the ‘A’. So when I saved that document, it took the place of the original Chapter 28.

It wasn’t a back-up problem as several commenters on FB assumed, it was a file-naming problem. You can bet your bottom dollar that I’ll check and double check file names in future!

Have you ever had that panic over losing a file? It really is a devastating experience, when you think you’re going to have to rewrite something that you’ve already worked so hard on.

In this case, I had a happy ending –and learnt that a file can be found somehow, if you know where to look!

 

11 comments:

  1. I lost older versions of things when my computer died, but my husband was able to recover them for me, luckily. I don't back things up as often as I should, even after the computer crashed, but I plan to going forward. Glad it all worked out okay, Paula.

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    1. I back up after each chapter and also every night (on Dropbox) - I'm paranoid about losing my work! Didn't work this time though, as on Wednesday night I simply backed up the wrongly named file, which took the place of the full chapter!

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  2. Every night I always back up on to an external hard drive. I've been through the panicking stages thinking I've lost something. But not any more. Thank goodness. I'm glad you found your lost pages, Paula. These things come to test us, or is it to learn us a lesson?

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    1. I backed up as usual on Wednesday night, Margaret, but in this case it might have been better if I hadn't, as I would have then found my original Chapter 28 on Dropbox the following evening! But you're right about learning a lesson from it! I shall be extra careful when naming 'new' files, and I now know where to find previous versions of files. All's well that ends well, as they say!

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  3. I always back up my work on flash drives.I am glad that this ended well, Paula.

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    1. Backing up was what actually caused my problem this time, Tonette! If I hadn't backed up on Wednesday with the wrongly named file, my original file would still have been there on Thursday. As it was, I had to search hard for that original file!

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  4. Whew! I am feeling your joy and relief, Paula.

    This happened to me once when I was working on my masters degree. I was creating lesson plans, and saving each one in turn. They were similar in format. At one point I saved the new version, but forgot to save the previous one. User error all the way in this case. It would have been nice to know how to retrieve a previous version of a document. I didn't know that was possible.

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    1. I didn't know you could recover previous versions, Debra - but I do now!

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  5. The idea of having to rewrite (recall while sobbing) is one I certainly am familiar with, Paula.
    I have misplaced files and never figured out how or why, but most times a computer search eventually retrieved them. The worst is when the document has a deadline.
    I'm glad you found yours!!

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    1. I can't even begin to describe my relief on finding my original Chapter 28, Ana. Especially as I knew I'd written a good finale!

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