Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Wordless Wednesday - NaNoWriMo Meltdown

My real Wordless Wednesday post is below this one, but the words "Wordless Wednesday" couldn't be more apropriate for the way I'm feeling today. I'm wordless at the calamity that befell me last night.

To sum it up, my NaNoWriMo Novel was moving right along. I was a bit behind where I should have been word count wise, but not so far behind that a serious writing session or two this week wouldn't have caught me up. In fact, after a session about an hour and a half long last night, I was reaching 6,500 words, and feeling pretty good about what I had so far.

Now, I'm no fool, so as I write, I save constantly. And because I've been trying to sneak some writing in during my lunch hour at work, my novel is contained on a protable USB drive thingy (yeah, I'm technical). Or it was. Because I have no idea what the hell happened last night, but as I hit save for the last time in the evening, I received an error message, and before I could even do anything, my Novel in Progress went all wonky, and I was left with something that looks a bit like this:

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UM, yeah...I then spent the next hour trying to recover my work, to no avail. I went to bed WAY too late last night and I have NOTHING to show for it. Today I am exhausted, devastaded and completely discouraged. I had some really good stuff written, and I'm not sure I can bring it back. I'm not sure I can recreate it...and I'm not sure I have the motivation to start all over again with NaNoWriMo...

So, here's where I ask for your help. If you have any idea what I can even call those wingding characters that replaced my novel, or any clues as to how I can try to recover what I lost, I'll take ALL help. Leave me a comment, send me an email, I'll be forever grateful. And if there is no help to come, then help motivate me not to quit, because I'm right about ready to throw in the towel, I'm so upset, but really, I'm no quitter...but...oh, I just can't focus enough to start over again. I feel like I murdered my characters just as they were beginning to bloom. Bringing them back from the dead is a task I'm not sure I can handle alone.

I'll fess up that I cried a little for them last night. And whether due to the devastation, or to the lack of sleep (or perhaps a combination of both), my nerves are fried today, and I'm in no mood for Whisper Wednesday...and yet, there they are, the Nazi and MIA, sitting and whispering, and chatting, and raising my blood pressure and oh, if I don't snap today it'll be a true testament to my self-control.

Okay, I now need to go concentrate on work and step away from the NaNoWriMo that never was...

10 comments:

Beckie said...

Oh my, I am so sorry. I wish I knew what to do. Is there anything on the drive or is all of the data corrupt? Did you only lose yesterday's work or the entire novel?

I could go on with the questions, but I will stop now.

Anonymous said...

Sorry to hear that. But you still have some of the written novel right? There's no reason you shouldn't continue. It's okay not to finished. You can finished after December.

I know there are applications to recover files, some are free and some cost money but I think for some you can download a trial version.

Here's an article about recovering files
http://cybernetnews.com/2007/01/11/cybernotes-how-to-recover-deleted-files-for-free/


Hope this helps.

Rebecca said...

That sucks! I wanna cry for you! But I'm sure there's computer savvy people out there who can help you recover it!! 8-\

Julia Phillips Smith said...

Your novel is worth getting an IT techie recover it for you. It may not be completely lost - just hidden. A HORROR, to be sure, Karina. Definitely worth tears.

But Karina - Woman! - pick yourself up, take yourself by the shoulders (after giving yourself a BIG HUG for support) and lead your way through the tears back to your Work In Progress. Give yourself a kleenex, some wine, some chocolate, a Red Bull - whatever it takes to get your butt back in front of the keyboard.

DO NOT - I repeat - DO NOT stop your novel because you can't look at the stuff you've already written. Put blinders on and charge ahead! That's right! Charge ahead! This happens to writers. Just ask my cousin. She schedules catastrophe into the writing process because it's not IF it's going to happen - it's WHEN.

Jill said...

here is what hubby the computer genius says:

hmm.. I know there is a utility from microsoft to repair damaged office files of all sorts. If you could convince her to email you the file, would have to zip it first or i think it would be flagged as a virus, and I can at least try to help.

I am more than willing to try, though. Feel bad for her loss, but to me it sounds like a fun challenge!!-Matthew

so there you go. free offer of help. meeces dot pieces at gmail dot com

Robin M said...

Oh karina,

don't give up. Pick up where you left off. I have been saving mine on my desktop and on the usb dongle dingle dangle thingy.

Take Jill up on her husbands offer. there is a way to restore it.

Do a file search too on your computer, using the file name. You may just come across a bak file which is a backup.

If you were using "word" it has the following instructions:

Recover the text from a damaged document

On the File menu, click Open.
In the Look in list, click the drive, folder, or Internet location that contains the file that you want to open.
In the folder list, locate and open the folder that contains the file.
Select the file that you want to recover.
Click the arrow next to the Open button, and then click Open and Repair.

Good luck, babe.

Just keep swimming, just keeping swimming.

:)

Robin

Junebug said...

Looks like you got some great help, I couldn't be of any except to say don't give up!

Anonymous said...

Oh I do hope someone comes up with an answer.
Take care

Karina said...

Thank you all so, so very much for your comments. I'll have a more detailed post tomorrow, but for now I want to share that I have managed to save it!

Beckie, I had lost ALL of it, but once I've managed to recover it, now I've only lost yesterday's work...I can live with that.

Lissa, thank you for that link...I wasn't able to recover it through that one, but something written on that page gave me an idea on how to search, and I think it led me eventually to the solution.

Frigga, thanks girl. Don't cry for me though, it's all better now. ;-)

Julia, you rock. What a great pep talk that was, I'm going to print it out and put it by my computer, so that when I need encouragement not to quit, I can just read it.

LilMouse(Jill), what can I say? I'm completely touched that your husband would offer his help. Please tell him I say thank you. I am truly grateful.

Robin, thank you. I'm swimming, I'm swimming...full laps!

Junebug, thank you, I will not quit, I promise.

Pamela said...

I'm late for the meltdown. Thank goodness it all turned out well.

I'm looking forward to getting my signed copy.

heh heh