Thursday, April 29, 2010

Lost It

Right now I'm having a "what the heck?!" moment.

I got an earful from the CWC crew last go 'round because of a section in my submission that was missing. I had a new chapter, with a new character, and at a little more than half of the page, I ended with {more here} and that was the whole chapter. Boy howdy, did they give me the what for.

The thing is, I had gone back to that chapter and written the rest of it later on. That's why I didn't think of it when I was printing, because I'd written it. At first, I thought it was a simple oversight where I'd printed the wrong version of the file. It was an "oops" to be sure, but I had it. Or, so I thought.

I've been looking for the file on my laptop and all I can find is the file with the missing chunk. Now I'm baffled, because I don't know where I saved that file. The only thing I can think is that it's on my PC, which would be weird, but it's possible. Luckily, I do have a hard copy of the missing part (another reason why I know I wrote it and why I know I wasn't just imagining that I had). So, the good news is that even though I can't find the file, I haven't lost the words. The main mystery is where on earth did they go?

Note to self: figure out a better way of keeping track of what file's on which computer and which copy is the most recent.

3 comments:

N said...

Maybe you could do a search on your computer with one of the lines from the missing section? That seems to work for me - but that may be due to the wonders of Windows 7!

Ali said...

Great idea! Thanks.

Debbie said...

If I'm working with multiple copies of something, I try to put the date into the name. Or the color, but you don't use that method. ;-)

I've also put things I'm deleting into a separate file called Cutting Room Floor. That way they aren't gone forever. Then I can use one version of the manuscript at a time.

The trick is remembering to transfer it to all the computers, memory sticks, etc. Mailing it to myself helps. I think Fleur gave me that hint.