Sometimes I really don’t like myself very much. Today’s one of those days. Give me the Computer Idiot Award.

Last week I blogged that I thought I had the wrong POV in a chapter, which was why I was stalled out. Instead of deleting what I had–in case my new stuff didn’t work–I created another file. Switching the POV was exactly what I needed to do. The pages flew and it was really working. I was so pleased with what turned out to be an entire chapter over the course of two to three days. I saved the new material in my new file name and all was right with my world. The next day I decided to go in and muck around with the previous chapters. I added some pages and fleshed out a couple of scenes. When I started to save my work, I realized I was in the old file. Hey, no problem. When I was saving, I simply saved it to my new file and blithely went on my way.

Hel-lo. Anyone home in my brain? I FREAKING WROTE OVER MY ENTIRE NEW CHAPTER. An entire chapter that rocked–gone, vamoose, bye-bye, nada, no more. And of course, Ms. Clever didn’t figure it out until today, after she’d saved over the file many more times. Right after I realized what I had done, for about 30 seconds, I thought all was not lost because I had a hard copy on my desk. Hey, I’d just key it back in. Nope. I’d printed the hard copy after I’d saved the old file on top of the new. Brilliant.

I suppose there’s no point in relaying this story if I’m not going to be absolutely truthful. I cried. Blubbered like a big baby. For quite a while, in fact. Then I turned up DMB really, really loud and worked out with some arm weights (good for inner hostility). Then I sat back down and went back to work on what I had.

This evening three friends told me they think a data retrieval specialist may be able to retrieve the old file. Bright and early tomorrow morning, I’ll be tracking down a data retrieval specialist. In the meantime, I’ve started a new practice which I will abide by from now on. I’ve created a secondary screen name and emailed myself my work. And I’ll do that tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after….Not replacing files or deleting them, just leaving them out there. Insurance against another really stupid move on my part.

And for now, I’m going to have a glass of wine, go to bed, and hope for the best tomorrow.

Jen