A Slight Delay.... · 1:06pm Mar 25th, 2017
Just a little update here to tell you all that there will be a slight delay in chapter 7's release.
So here's the thing. I use a piece of writing software for my fanfic work, with maybe one exception. That would be WriteItNow 4 (there is a WriteItNow 5, but I just haven't gotten around to updating). Anyway, it's a good piece of software. It really is. Definitely recommend it.
Last night I was copying something into the Notes section (because it has those) and I hit the wrong button or something and the file reverted to an earlier state. Impulsively, I tried the "restore from snapshot" feature, which I had not tried before, and I didn't read the label right and the end result was that the file was reset to a point in... January.
Now before you panic, there wasn't much lost on current progress. I was tinkering with another version of what will be chapter 7 scene 1, and yes, I did lose some work there, but not all that much. The file as it is now still has the two drafts I'd done of that scene way back.
What irritates me is everything else that was lost. For my own sake, I will have to put back the text from the finished chapters. Not especially hard since whenever I was done with a chapter I saved a Word copy of it for FF.net publishing purposes, and italics transfer over in WriteItNow (though I have a thing about using bold in there... I can get into that some other time).
What really irritates me however is everything else that was lost. Lots of personal notes were lost, notes for future ideas were deleted, notes in character sections (there's a whole section for characters). Event data was also lost, what days specifically events were. The program lets you list events too.
Now most of those missing notes and ideas are still in my head so I should be able to put in the essential things well enough, and as far as dates I was very good about tracking those in text, I hate that I have to do it at all. I slipped in personal thoughts as I worked on these and I hate that those records are lost.
So yeah, I've got a little extra work to do. Not that this should reflect badly on the program. Even with all the time I've used it, I haven't used it to its full potential and this is actually a first for me.
And now I'm going to be more diligent about A) Exporting the file when I'm done with something, and B) Using the auto-save. It seems like it wasn't on or something and I now set it to keep up to 10 backups and take one every 40 minutes.
Seriously though, Write It Now is a great program. I was just a klutz.
If you're interested in the program, look it up. You can download a demo version for free from their site, and yeah, you have to pay for the keys to unlock the full version. But here's the thing: If you pay for it once, that's it. If you switch machines, just download the demo and use the same keys to unlock it again. You can also install it on multiple machines the same way.
Good luck in the rewrite!
4471619 Yeah, I lost a bit more of drafted material than I thought, and the loss of the notes and ideas I'd written out (as well as some character data I can remember 99% of) really irritates me.
I managed to put back in the old chapters but it's so tedious because there are extra spaces between the paragraphs when they get pasted in that I have to remove...
Thank you for the well wishes though.
I might have to have a look at that program, though I'm rather bad at not clicking the destroy all of your work button so maybe google drive and it's revision history is a better fit.
I second the good luck on the reorganization/rewriting.
4472284 I'd recommend it. I think the initial purchase is expensive from what I recall, but again, you can use it on multiple machines and never have to buy it again in the event of a computer reset or change. Correction, I just checked and it IS expensive. But you should still check it out anyway.
And to be fair, I think my problem was that I wasn't using the backup feature right. It wasn't set correctly or something. Or maybe it has something to do with where I put the file. By default it creates a new story file in the C drive, but after that I always save the file to my jump drive. I'm not sure where the backup files are.
And I REALLY should have taken a better look at the date and time stamp on that snapshot. But it was late and I was starting to panic I suppose.
But if you want to look, here: Write It Now
Looks like they got rid of Write It Now 4 and just have 5.
And thank you for the well wishes.