Friday, November 24, 2006

One File Too Far


Oh boy! Dontcha' just hate it when you're editing a story. Streamlining for word count and clarity, and all of a sudden you realize...somewhere along the way that you've been editing a much older version of the file? Happened to me the other day. I wanted to scream, and curse and jump around in a circle gnashing my teeth and pulling at my hair. Yes, it was that bad. I was halfway through a 100,000 plus manuscript when I noticed some of the scenes I had added long paragraphs of explanation to were gone.


What could have happened to them? Did the computer troll come and eat away at my file? Have a woken in some alternate universe in the moderately-recent past? Could I have been halucinating and not written such profound words at all? - No, I merely pulled up the wrong file and started working on it like the nimrod I am. So, what did I do, you ask? Well, it was a simple solution, but one that made me a little nervous. I cut off the last half of the file I'd been working diligently on and erased it from memory, then pasted the back end of the more recent file onto it. I'll have to cut and paste several other smaller scenes, but essentially it's fixed. Not fun. Not fun at all. Anything so I wouldn't have had to do the damn thing all over again.
Speaking of which I should probably get back to working on that one file and then finished my WIP.
-Kat

2 comments:

Aj said...

Omg! I know the feeling! you just ask yourself why is God just punishing you and you just managed to waste yet another hour of your valuble time.
(you can sense the anger)

Anonymous said...

Yup. Have done this many times. This does not tend to increase one's productivity--and can make you bald when you tear all your hair out! I finally started (trying to remember) to start a new DATED version each time I worked on a wip, then I always open the most recent one. Ummm. I've still goofed once or twice, though...gggg