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:

m⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪ﴀýﴀýﴀýﴀýﴀýﴀýﴀýﴀýﴀýĀᴀ⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪⨪t of ýﴀýﴀ

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...