Have you ever…?

[JaxRhapsody]

I’m such a klutz

I was writing last night, my bf was kind enough to make us tacos; a Friday indulgence.

Anyway, I put in maybe 45 - 60 mins into it. And then I managed to delete the whole thing. And I have a new phone and undo is different. So I screwed that up. Then I think Word has auto save on. But the last save is just the first new paragraph and a half. And now I figure out undo. But I’ve restored the old version, so that won’t work.

Ended up having to re-write it. And I have this horrible nagging feeling that I had better turns of phrase the first time. That I’m forgetting things I added when I first wrote it.

So frustrating.

Did something similar ever happen to you?

Em

Did you try History?

 

[Rob_Royale]

I use MSWord365 at home which has auto-save. I save it to OneDrive.
When I'm writing on my phone I use Google Docs. I have yet to lose any work on these platforms.

 

[Blind_Justice]

I wouldn't dream of doing anything but light proof reading on a phone/tablet. Typing more than the absolute minimum on a touchscreen is hell when you're used to touch typing on a decent mechanical keyboard.

As for the save/undo/restore issue Em had: The only solution I've found is to be VERY FUCKING CAREFUL in everything you do. Especially in my (being blind) case. When I'm doing long writing sessions, I'm working with JAWS (a screenreader) and JAWS can be a bit laggy when narrating my actions, especially when I'm firing off a string of commands in quick succession. I've had several occasions where I had sections of the story marked only to accidentally delete said marked sections when a stray space bar or other keystroke slipped past. So I've trained myself to slow the fuck down when it comes to doing critical text manipulation or the simple act of saving the story. Also, since I do all my serious writing on my main PC, I always keep an Explorer window open in the background to make an instant copy of the project I'm working on to have a fallback should I fuck up.

Like Al Lowe, the creator of Leisure Suit Larry always said: Save Early, Save Often. And Chris' addendum: Be slow and deliberate when handling your creative work.

 

[Euphony]

I’m such a klutz

I was writing last night, my bf was kind enough to make us tacos; a Friday indulgence.

Anyway, I put in maybe 45 - 60 mins into it. And then I managed to delete the whole thing. And I have a new phone and undo is different. So I screwed that up. Then I think Word has auto save on. But the last save is just the first new paragraph and a half. And now I figure out undo. But I’ve restored the old version, so that won’t work.

Ended up having to re-write it. And I have this horrible nagging feeling that I had better turns of phrase the first time. That I’m forgetting things I added when I first wrote it.

 

[Mastered_again]

I use MSWord365 at home which has auto-save. I save it to OneDrive.
When I'm writing on my phone I use Google Docs. I have yet to lose any work on these platforms.

So do I. I have it on my phone, tablet and laptop. Still I lost a lot of work on my latest. I'm trying to convince myself that 365/OneDrive got confused, but wad probably me. But history might save me.

 

[TxRad]

I use a program called Everyday Auto Backup to save stories to a thumb drive every hour from either my laptop or my main PC. Easy to set up and works like a champ. You can even do a separate back up to a folder on the hard drives at the same time. There is no such thing as too many backups.

 

[Emilymcplugger]

I’m such a klutz

I was writing last night, my bf was kind enough to make us tacos; a Friday indulgence.

Anyway, I put in maybe 45 - 60 mins into it. And then I managed to delete the whole thing. And I have a new phone and undo is different. So I screwed that up. Then I think Word has auto save on. But the last save is just the first new paragraph and a half. And now I figure out undo. But I’ve restored the old version, so that won’t work.

Ended up having to re-write it. And I have this horrible nagging feeling that I had better turns of phrase the first time. That I’m forgetting things I added when I first wrote it.

So frustrating.

Did something similar ever happen to you?

Em

Yep. Wrote a chunk of stuff for CARRY ON CRUISING - Part 4. Stoopid phone wiped about 300/400 words off that I was really buzzing about.

Just dusted myself off and cracked on.

But OBVIOUSLY being me you already know this (I think I might have to dedicate THERE’S A LOT OF ME ABOUT to you. The irony being you are as far from being a doppelgänger of me that you can get).

 

[EmilyMiller]

Yep. Wrote a chunk of stuff for CARRY ON CRUISING - Part 4. Stoopid phone wiped about 300/400 words off that I was really buzzing about.

Just dusted myself off and cracked on.

But OBVIOUSLY being me you already know this (I think I might have to dedicate THERE’S A LOT OF ME ABOUT to you. The irony being you are as far from being a doppelgänger of me that you can get).

We’re talking to ourselves again, hun .

Em

 

[PandemicReader8]

As mentioned elsewhere, I love Scriviner. But... earlier this year I spent a week - six full days - fighting a phantom chapter. When I compiled - every time I complied - an older version of a chapter I had moved to reference kept showing up. Dozens of times a day. For six days. I'd burnt vacation time to wrap and deliver the project. And every time I compiled, there was this phantom chapter.

Did you know that you can tuck "note cards" into other "note cards"? Maybe not in the actual note card view, but under Windows Explorer-like view.

I thought I'd moved the chapter to reference. Instead I'd accidentally dropped the older version into another chapter and everytime I compiled, Scriviner treated it as part of that chapter. I only found it by accident.

 

[onehitwanda]

As mentioned elsewhere, I love Scriviner. But... earlier this year I spent a week - six full days - fighting a phantom chapter. When I compiled - every time I complied - an older version of a chapter I had moved to reference kept showing up. Dozens of times a day. For six days. I'd burnt vacation time to wrap and deliver the project. And every time I compiled, there was this phantom chapter.

Did you know that you can tuck "note cards" into other "note cards"? Maybe not in the actual note card view, but under Windows Explorer-like view.

I thought I'd moved the chapter to reference. Instead I'd accidentally dropped the older version into another chapter and everytime I compiled, Scriviner treated it as part of that chapter. I only found it by accident.

This is why I hate WYSIWIG and worship WYSIWYM.

with backups in git if it's important.

 

[PandemicReader8]

This is why I hate WYSIWIG and worship WYSIWYM.

with backups in git if it's important.

Even a backup wouldn't have helped. I know this because it didn't. The file, that phantom -or would it be zombie - chapter was supposed to be in the project, just not in the compiled output. Scriviner isn't obvious - isn't blatant maybe - in showing you that a "card" had sub- cards. They just hang out there.

 

[SimonDoom]

I started writing erotic stories a couple of years before I actually published anything, and I had a few stories in various stages of completion before losing everything in a hard drive crash. I had failed to back them up at all. One I recall in particular was the story that eventually became Nude Day Running Adventure. I published that story in 2021, so I probably wrote and lost the first partial draft of it seven years before that. I had to start over.

I've gotten better with backing up and autosaving since then so it hasn't happened to the same degree again.

 

[joy_of_cooking]

This is why I hate WYSIWIG and worship WYSIWYM.

with backups in git if it's important.

Ah a fellow latex fetishist I see.

 

[onehitwanda]

Ah a fellow latex fetishist I see.

I love the feel of a crisply-kerned paragraph.

 

[EmilyMiller]

I love the feel of a crisply-kerned paragraph.

\displaystyle\int_0^1\sqrt{1-x^2}\hspace{2mm}dx\tag*{}

 

[MrPixel]

\displaystyle\int_0^1\sqrt{1-x^2}\hspace{2mm}dx\tag*{}

I love how you worked "squirt" into your algorithm.

 

[onehitwanda]

I love how you worked "squirt" into your algorithm.

she's very good at rooting people.

 

[BodieOhl]

Kinda-sorta similar, but different...
In high school, I was writing a Lit paper. The night before it was due, at about one O'clock, I deleted everything I had written because it sucked.

(Then just started typing stream-of-consciousness for 30 mins, turned it in, and got an A+!)