I was reviewing my manuscript this morning for by book-in-progress, Close Your Church for Good, and was shocked to discover that somehow, somewhere, I lost about 15,000 words.
I was not happy.
Anger, frustration, panic, and despair better describe what I was feeling. I think I might have screamed in agony.
But there is one good thing. 95% of what I lost has been posted in one form or another on this blog. It will probably take me a dozen hours or more to figure out what I lost, and then copy and paste it back over, reformat it, and adjust the transitions, but at least it wasn’t all completely lost. If that had happened, I probably would call it quits on this book, even though I am only two chapters from completing the rough draft.
Any of you writers ever had this happen? How did you recover?
Update: I type the manuscript on two different computers, and to get it back and forth between the two, I send emails to myself. Thankfully, the last time I emailed it to myself was on Thursday. I went and checked my “sent emails” folder and there it was! So I only lost a few thousand words. Phew! That’s not so bad. It is possible the final few thousand words are on my other computer, which I will check later today.
Jeremy, you didn’t have a backup copy somewhere? Do you need some disks so you can make backups of something so important?
Yes, my first thought was – backup.
Dropbox can be your greatest writing friend: http://db.tt/MjciuinZ
Sam, UnkleE, Blake,
Yes, I do back it up…kind of. I use Carbonite.
And then I also have it backed up through my email. (See the update to the post above).
I will look into Dropbox. I haven’t heard of it before….
Man, that sucks. I feel for you. I’ve lost things – had hard drives crash, etc. and knowing you should back things up doesn’t mean in the business and distractions of the day, you do.
I studied computers in college and of all people know the importance of back-up. At work, I’m meticulous about it. At home? Not so much. Ha!
I’m glad that you can get the bulk of it off the blog, but what a pain. I’m glad you’re not chucking the book, though.
“Amen” to Jeannette’s relief at your book not being “discarded”. I’d like to pass it on to numerous brethren once it’s available in manuscript form… I’d prob. even pay for a few hard copies (if it were to be published to print)!
So much of your book details what I already think, but just don’t have the time (or haven’t taken or redeemed the time) or even the opportunity to “verbalize” it. What a gift to be able to hand to my brothers!
Some of them might not think of it as much of a gift as I would, but then they’re just not as “heretical” as me! : )
“Carry on my way-ward son,
There’ll be peace when you are done.
Don’t you cry no more.”
[Plus some rockin’ music to those lyrics.]
Word up,
M.
Jeannette and Mark,
Thanks for the encouragement! Yes, I will stick with it.
I have not pursued any traditional publishers with this book, and am not really prepared to get it published in paper. Maybe I will use CreateSpace at Amazon…. we’ll see.
At the bare minimum, it will be put at in ebook format, and initially, will be made available for free through my email newsletter (see the grey signup form below).
I second using Dropbox–then you do not have to worry about emailing it to yourself. Or you could type it in Google Docs. I really save very little on my hard drive anymore.
crazy lemon