Monday, February 11, 2013

Lost: A Writer's Tale

So eep. I spent a bunch of time this week writing my planned blog post: Twitterpated, Part 3. For once I actually sat down before Sunday night and organized my thoughts and had the thing all ready to post for you. And my post was actually going to be useful (or so I told myself in my massively narcissistic mind).

I just wanted to add a picture.

Just a picture!

And then, oh yeah, I needed to add this other link to Twitterpated, Part 4, because yes, I was just that organized this week.

Happy, no?

*Sigh*

No, it was not happy at all.

Because when I closed Part 3 (after SAVING it!), Blogger ate the post and then spit out a second, identical copy of "Twitterpated, Part 4."

The thing is, I don't really need 2 copies of the same post. And I betting you don't either.

So I flailed in woe for a minute. Made my husband put his book down to come make sure I wasn't going crazy. Then stubbornly refused to try to rewrite the thing.

And in the end, I thanked my lucky stars I only lost a blog post instead of a chapter (or worse, a whole book!).

Still. Blogger and I? Not on good terms right now.

Have you ever lost a piece of your writing? Tell me about it to console my frustrated little heart.

And maybe by next week I'll be over my Blogger tantrum and try to reconstruct my Twitterpated post. *sigh*

11 comments:

Stina said...

I haven't lost a post to blogger. And it wouldn't be a big deal if I do, since I write my posts in Word first. But I did write a massive synopsis once (back when I was doing that before creating outlines), and for some reason, my computer didn't save it even though I repeatedly clicked on save. Once I realized what had happened, I had to frantically type everything down before I forgot the story. I. Was. Not. Impressed. :)

Old Kitty said...

I've not lost a post to blogger (at blogger!?!?) but I did get locked out once by Blogger who made me seek around for a mobile phone number (I don't have a mobile phone! Cell phone!) to unlock my account (and Youtube etc). I nearly gave up and out of blogger! I remember emailing as many of my blogpals to say I'm so out of here!! LOL!!

Awww hope you find some blog lurve soon! Take care
x

Hilary Melton-Butcher said...

Hi Janet - thankfully I haven't lost a blog post - but I draft in Word .. I hate it when it bombs me out of a comment I've made .. usually a decent length one - where I interact ...

Good luck, de-stress, relax and oh yes, in case you're not breathing - remember that necessity of life!

Cheers Hilary

A.L. Sonnichsen said...

Oh yes, Janet, I'm with you! So sorry! :( I've accidentally erased whole in-progress blog posts because of a combination of keys pushed accidentally. And the other day (this was really frustrating) my computer wasn't letting me send emails because we had this really weird site blocker thing up. So I kept sending the messages and they'd look like they were sent, and then they weren't sent. That was frustrating, too. I rewrote one email three times before I thought about copying & pasting it in Word before pushing SEND. Blagggh. Hang in there!

Susanna Leonard Hill said...

I've been very fortunate (touch wood!) not to lose any important writing yet, but I have knock-down, drag-out go-rounds with blogger and most other forms of technology on a regular basis, so I feel your pain! May I offer you a chocolate donut? :)

LTM said...

oh, heck! That is the WORST!!! And I was really looking forward to Part 3... LOL! :D

I hope you forgive Blogger for being so naughty and rewrite it soon. ;o)

This one time, at band camp... j/k

But this one time, when I was trying out for a spot on the LSU college newspaper, I'd written my whole article, and I was so proud of it, what do you think I did? I kicked the plug out of the outlet at my feet before I'd saved it.

Needless to say, I didn't get a spot on the student paper. :P

*hugs* <3 NTM

Slamdunk said...

Ahh sorry Janet. That is the worst feeling. I have not lost anything online in a long time, and hope the pain of it happening before is responsible as I either make sure that the system is saving what I write or I am copying it.

Ha, now that I say that I am sure I jinxed myself--I'll be boo-hooing soon about losing a work.

R. Garrett Wilson said...

Yes, I have lost a piece of writing. Actually, two pieces at the same time, although not a whole lot of words in either case. I used to haul around my new stuff on a USB flash drive, and every two to four weeks would back it up on my computer. That wasn't often enough. Actually, even if I had backed up each night, that still wouldn't have been enough for one of the two lost pieces.

Piece one: I was writing a short story, and I was about 3,000 to 3,500 words into it, or roughly 2/3 of the way through the storyline. To this day, this piece is my favorite work, and I haven't had the heart to retry it because I know it wouldn't be the same (and probably not as good). Had I been backing up nightly, I still would have lost all but maybe 1100-1500 words – this piece was doomed by the drive crash. I currently have 314 words of the piece. I had been chatting with a friend and sent him the opening paragraphs the day I had the idea, two days before the crash, and I was able to recover the intro from the chat logs.

Piece two: In researching for a short story that would probably have turned out to be novella length, I interviewed a police dispatcher from Los Vegas. I didn't have a recording device, so I transcribed the interview on the fly. I had taken the information from the interview and modified it to be part of the story. That is totally gone. This interview and the story segment based on it were done several days before the crash, and I only have myself to blame.

I no longer use USB flash drives as my main storage device and I only put something on these drives as backups of what is saved elsewhere.

Jenny S. Morris said...

So sorry to hear. I have lost work before. And I got upset but then just rewrote it. (I think it ended up being better.)

Good luck!

Sharon K. Mayhew said...

What is a twitterpated? I bought a passport yo back up my computer on...Hopefully it will prevent me from losing work. It was around $80, but that is much less than having your computer and documents restored...

Marcia said...

I've not lost anything major, fortunately. What I do lose occasionally is blog comments. I always highlight and copy before I click post, so that I can just paste on my next attempt.