Goodbye, novel...
By Leca
@lecanis (16647)
Murfreesboro, Tennessee
April 13, 2008 11:09pm CST
So, my computer has some serious problems. I had to reinstall windows, and I wound up having to wipe one of my hard drives. I carefully transferred the things I wanted to keep to my other hard drive, including pictures of my son, writing projects, etc.
I wound up losing most of this stuff, even though I had switched it to the other drive. Somehow in the process of reinstalling everything, my backup drive wound up affected, and now it's missing some things. The pictures are a big one, but since we backed those up on disk fairly recently, most of them are still going to be recoverable.
The novel I was almost halfway finished writing is not, however, and neither is the poetry book I was working on. So there goes my writing. I don't even know if I want to attempt to write the novel again, because I'm so sick of it now, even thinking about starting over from the beginning makes me want to cry.
It's just... gone.
Have you ever lost a major writing project due to computer failure or other issues? Did you restart it, or simply move on to something else? Did you feel like you were about to have a breakdown because you believe your writing is part of you like I do?4 people like this
18 responses
@winterose (39887)
• Canada
17 Apr 08
Yes hon, I did that once too, and I was so upset, I didn't work on the novel for several months and then I went back to it.
The same thing happened to Ernest Hemmingway. I do not remember the precise details but Hemmingway had to type his manuscript on an old manual typewriter. Can you imagine that.
I think in those days the manuscripts were just single pages and he was caring it to his publisher and there was a big gust of wind and his papers were flying all over the place. He lost most of them and the rest went in the mud ecetera.
Anyhow he told his publisher and he was very discouraged, the publisher told him not to worry about it, go back and type it all out again. Even though he didn't have a copy at home. He told you remember the story go type, only this time it will be better because you will improve it as you go along. And that was the Great Ernest Hemmingway.
2 people like this
@flowerchilde (12529)
• United States
19 Apr 08
..oh yea! I remember hearing about that! I heard that his dog ate the manuscript.. 
@lecanis (16647)
• Murfreesboro, Tennessee
18 Apr 08
Wow, thank you for sharing that story, winterose! That actually makes me feel much better!
I do think I'll rewrite my novel, but I'm going to write something else first. By the time I get back around to my novel, I think maybe it'll come out much better too, but I'm not ready to approach it without bitterness yet.
1 person likes this
@mimpi1911 (25464)
• India
14 Apr 08
I am, so sorry to hear this. This is indeed very annoying. Many times when I start to write something, a thoughtful one, and it goes off unsaved due to glitches, it feels terrible! I can imagine your situation. And we will be the loser more than anybody else. But dear, start writing again and this time keep a proper back up.
I just remembered, once I have had lost all my data in my office computer. About 7,000 addresses and details of patients!! The person who was supposed to format the computer did not take the back up of outlook, where I preserved the addresses. And guess what I was devastated. I worked like a dog to recover those manually and then reentered those. After that I have become wiser and keep sometimes, several back ups.
2 people like this
@mimpi1911 (25464)
• India
15 Apr 08
I can understand! But who knows this time may be you will end up writing something better!
Good luck!
PS: I was into real mess but it has taught me things that i will never forget.
1 person likes this
@flowerchilde (12529)
• United States
15 Apr 08
Oh man! That is awful!! I wonder if you can take your computer in somewhere and they can find it? Don't they say you never can really lose anything? or is that you can't really delete anything! What a bummer.. sorry to hear about that..
1 person likes this
@lovespecialangel (3632)
• United States
14 Apr 08
I have had this happen to me a couple of times. I haven't started rewriting my books yet, but I do plan to. Only this time I am going to save it to a disk everytime I write. That way it won't happen again.
2 people like this
@kuirqs (512)
• Philippines
15 Apr 08
That is an awful experience you had, Lecanis! I haven't experienced anything like that, but something close when our computer's power supply got busted. I thought it had affected the files and I was really bummed at first. I'm glad though that everything was fine. Thank you by the way, for sharing your experience, it helps to be reminded to keep back ups of your work.
You have a great talent and I am sure that the novel will come again to you in time. It is a good idea to write something else in the meantime. We miss you at the One Stop Write Shop...there's a Spring Fling Contest ongoing until the 28th. Hope you can stop by one of these days!
1 person likes this
@lecanis (16647)
• Murfreesboro, Tennessee
18 Apr 08
*nods* It is awful.
You know, I was going to post some more stuff on One Stop Write Shop, but I'm a little confused about it. I haven't bought a membership, so I don't seem to be able to post anything else without taking my four poems down, if I understand properly? I was going to buy a membership, and then some other stuff came up that required the money.
@emeraldisle (13139)
• United States
15 Apr 08
Oh I am so sorry that this has happened to you. That is such a shame. I haven't lost my writing in that way but I have lost other projects due to computer issues. Mostly art work that I have done with Paint Shop Pro. I do know how miserable that is and to try and start over feels almost unbearable. I do know that feeling of sick and how consuming it can be. I don't blame you for wanting to cry. I know I have in situations like that.
@emeraldisle (13139)
• United States
20 Apr 08
Well it taught me to make sure I have back ups, which I do need to do again. Just have to find the time to do it.
@Sissygrl (10912)
• Canada
14 Apr 08
I dont do a lot of writing, but i think i wouldnt start it again if i lost soo much of it. here's tip you can try if you start another novel, or restart th same one.. you could always email it to yourself after you are done writting each time!! I know its a pain, but you'll never loose it again!
1 person likes this
@lecanis (16647)
• Murfreesboro, Tennessee
18 Apr 08
That's a really good idea! I think I might start doing that, emailing it to myself! Thanks!
*nods* I have an idea for a different novel that I might work on now instead, but I really like the characters in the one I was writing, so I'll probably eventually write it again as well.
@anniepa (27955)
• United States
14 Apr 08
I'm so sorry about that! You must feel like you're going to have a breakdown. I had a serious problem with my computer a few years ago and a friend of mine THANK GOD fixed it for me for free. She was one of my postal customers and her husband - who is about 50 years older than her - would throw fits if he saw her bills so sometimes she'd ask me to hold her mail for her if she wasn't going to be home so she said she owed me a favor, bless her heart. Anyway, she somehow save everything for me and backed it all up. I didn't have anything all that important, certainly not a novel, but still enough things to be a real pain to have to do all over again. I vote for you writing it again! I'm really sorry about your poetry. You have a great talent there so I hope you have most of it saved somewhere else!
Annie
1 person likes this
@lecanis (16647)
• Murfreesboro, Tennessee
14 Apr 08
It's awesome that you had a friend who would fix your computer for free. 
*nods* I might write it again someday, but I'm thinking I'll start a new one before that. Just to get the taste of ashes out of my mouth before I start over, so I don't ruin it with bitterness.
Some of my poetry is either here on mylot or on my blog, so that helps a bit, and most of the older poetry was on backup CDs. But some of the newest ones that I hadn't posted anywhere are just... gone.
*nods* I might write it again someday, but I'm thinking I'll start a new one before that. Just to get the taste of ashes out of my mouth before I start over, so I don't ruin it with bitterness.
Some of my poetry is either here on mylot or on my blog, so that helps a bit, and most of the older poetry was on backup CDs. But some of the newest ones that I hadn't posted anywhere are just... gone. 
@ahgong (10064)
• Singapore
16 Jun 08
you are not alone in feeling like that.
It has happened to me a few times already. And I am really frustrated.
After the recent incident, I am making a promise to myself, I will buy a newer and bigger HDD every two years to do a back up of all my current stuff!
Even when I back up my files to an external HDD, I still lose data cos the back up external HDD gave way!
I have lost so many photos, I lost count. The one thing I am thankful for is that my wedding photos were all intact!
But I lost almost all of the photos that I took when I was wooing my wife. All those nice pictures are lost!
So from now on.... buy a newer and bigger HDD every two years to do a back up of all my current stuff!! 
All those nice pictures are lost!
So from now on.... buy a newer and bigger HDD every two years to do a back up of all my current stuff!! 
@filmbuff (2909)
• United States
15 Apr 08
I had similar issues a few years ago and I really feel your pain. They were not writing project however, but music projects. Music that was still in the creation process in a music editing software broken down into indivual parts and instruments, loving and painstaking, and often frustratingly recorded and programed and often entered into a staff note by note for instrumetns I didn't have on hand to play.
I sooo feel your pain. My computer was dying, so I backed up everything I thought I needed, then boom...I realized I lost all the unfinished projects I was working. At the time, I was working on two seperate cd's, one of classical guitar music, and one progressive metal album, both of which I doing solo. Gone, all gone.
Give it time, you may want to go back and start the novel over again, or you could just consider it practice for your next one that will be new and fresh. I know that I was so frustrated I didn't even want to go back to working on those cd's, and then circumstances changed and now I will never be able too.
So yeah, it sucks. I've been there.
1 person likes this
@lecanis (16647)
• Murfreesboro, Tennessee
18 Apr 08
Oh, it's horrible that you lost your music that way! How sad! Something that is created so lovingly is hard to lose that way.
Next time I will back up better. Thankfully I had backed up most of my photos and most of my older poetry, at least. I only lost the things I'd written since my last backup, but unfortunately that included the whole novel!
@carmelanirel (20942)
• United States
14 Apr 08
Oh I am sorry lecanis..I haven't lost any writings, but my daughter has and she was so upset.. Now not only does she saved every few lines, but she also posts them up in her blog, that way if something happens to the computer, her writings are safe.
1 person likes this
@carmelanirel (20942)
• United States
14 Apr 08
Your welcome, we learned the hard way when our computer crashed and she had to rewrite her story..
1 person likes this
@skinnychick (6905)
• United States
14 Apr 08
That's horrible.
I had that happen to me once when my mom read my journal and I felt so violated that I gave it to her and never wrote a thing down again (until recently). She took that away from me until I took it back.
@skinnychick (6905)
• United States
20 Apr 08
Your family and mine should get together sounds like they are pretty much the same nutty beings!
@ruby222 (4847)
•
14 Apr 08
Oh what a shame!!!..all of your work gone...that must be a bitter pill to swallow...but im sure you will rally round and start writing away like mad now.
I know nothing about wiping a computer...and once when mine was running very badly i wondered about wiping the system and reinstalling windows xp...i have a disk...but someone said to me..thats its not a simple thing to do..that you need a graphics card etc..so i ws quite scared to do it..if it backfired i would have had to take it into the PC repair shop.
I have deleted and lost photos ..which has made me mad enough...because i always really ought to try to save them on a disk.....
But im sure you must have felt worse than awful when you realised that your writing work had gone...
@Jezebella (1446)
• United States
14 Apr 08
I have lost a book I am writing when my college deleted alumni accounts. I was so upset, but I fortunately had most of the chapters printed out and I did start it all over again. I believe in my book and desire to see it published. Since I started to rewrite it I have changed a lot of the things in it. I think you should at least attempt to restart it. If you believe writing is a part of you, then you should try to finish it and publish it.
@Angelwhispers (8978)
• United States
19 Apr 08
My guess lecanis, and this is a guess, since I can not see your computer, if that you are beginning to have problems with this hard drive, and may very well have bad clusters. That is one possible reason your data did not transfer correctly. One question I have for you, have you looked over your second drive well? I mean they might have gotten placed in other folders and files. Have you done a scan disk and repair, to find and cordon off any bad clusters on both drives? Reinstalling should not have affected the second drive at all.
@xParanoiax (6987)
• United States
29 Apr 08
This has happened to me before.
Only we lost the entire computer to a housefire then.
it is painful, to realize all of your writing is just..gone. I believe my writing is a part of me, an expression of my subconcious and my concious mind's language...and it's really hard to just lose it.
I did end up rewriting my book, but, it's really hard. =(
@wanblygaleshka (72)
• United States
20 Apr 08
I had to reformat my HD a while back, made disc files for everything... so I thought. Still lost a lot of stuff. for instance, did you know that when you create emoticons for MSN IM they're not kept on msn's server, but on your HD? Oh well. Sh*t happens. I hate having to reformat the entire HD, in this case it was due to a 12 yr old and her friend getting on it and downloading all sorts of viruses, worms, trojans, etc. it was the only way to save the comp.
@uklizzie (52)
•
14 Jun 08
This has happened to me. I had my second book almost completed and all I had to do was to proof read it again and make some minor changes. I thought I had backed up my work on a disk when I decided to reformat my notebook.
When I tried to access it there was just an empty folder. I felt sick, just as you do!
It seems that I didn't transfer it to the disk properly.
I started again from the beginning and I found that I could remember whole chunks of it word for word. It is now complete, again.
I now save stuff on memory sticks and keep them carefully labelled! It's fast, cheap and secure. You can also double check that your work is still there just by pushing the stick into your pc usb drive. Problem solved!
