There I sat at my desk on the verge of tears. Fleeting moments of inspiration were over. Folders were opened and closed as I searched for a possible solution to my heartbreaking incident. What was that incident you ask? I had just completed a scene transition and the beginning of a following scene. I felt at peace with what was “on paper”. I showed it to my supportive wife who gave me to nod of approval. I felt accomplished.
Out of nowhere came this sudden change. My desktop decide to take a siesta and restart. What was the cause of this? Could it have possibly been the automatic updates I have so cleverly ignored for the past few days? I was unsure of the cause but one thing was for sure, everything was forced to close. Normally this is not a big issue (I work in IT full time) because software has become so stable that sudden shutdowns are inconsequential.
After the computer restarted I opened up my Google Drive folder to access my “in-progress” novel. Scrolling down to the last page hoping to complete the following scene I had just began I found something horrifying. There it was, plain as day, missing paragraphs. My heart stopped as I scrolled up and down searching for what I was missing. I closed Word and re-opened it hoping to see the auto save feature kick in and rescue me from such peril. Auto save failed me and there was no turning back. This caused a rush of emotions such as anger and sorrow. I was ready to quit completely.
Through such a harrowing experience I have come away with one piece of wisdom:
Do not rely on auto save. Stop and save the document as often as one can.
Sorry you’ve lost some of your work. Unfortunately, we’ve all been there at some time or other. Save often is the best approach. I save like the obsessive compulsive that I am.
I started using Scrivener last year and that saves after a second of inactivity. A brief pause and its saved. They do a free trials might be worth a look.
I have been hearing a lot about Scrivener as I have researched writing practices. I will check into that free trial. Thanks for the comment!
No problem. If you check it out I hope you like it.
I hear you on this one. I pretty much hit the save button after every paragraph or so. It makes me wonder how much more efficient I would be if I simply switched to pen and paper?