Gosh, darn it! I told my father not to delete it. But he deleted it. I told him, "I'll finish it eventually, I'll keep chugging along. I just didn't get it done in a month."
I seriously had intended to finish my novel. I'd been working on it some since November ended. I'd gotten it up to a little more than 25,000 words. I had no way to back it up. Any time I e-mailed it to myself, the e-mail came up with no spaces in it. And 25,000 words is an awful lot of material to read through and re-paragraph.
We don't have a floppy disk drive, and I didn't know how to put it on a CD. So, it happened.
My Dad was cleaning off the computer. Deleting pointless files and removing trash items from the desktop. I had my novel saved on the desktop and in applications. I did all I could to keep it from dying, this iMac G5 is too confusing for me.
He came acrossed it while I was gone. He dragged it over to the little waste basket. And he clicked "ok" when it asked him if he was sure he wanted to erase the selected files. And my novel was thrust into oblivion.
I didn't have it written down by hand. I'd made no notes. The whole thing was spur of the moment improv. My plot was moving nicely. My characters were becoming well-developed. And the dialogue was brilliant. All of my dialogue is. My English and French teachers agree. But it doesn't matter how amazing my dialogue is because its gone.
I'd worked almost two months on it. I dedicated at least a total of 24 hours of work into the thing. And it was very good. My dad, who ended up deleting it, had read it and loved it. As a teacher who almost majored in English and Journalism instead, I value his opinion on my writing ventures.
But it didn't matter. He thought I was done, and so it is done. I'm not going to cry, nor have I. It just makes me angry. I could almost do this, ( ). But I'll do this instead, ( ).
All of them are dead, at least till I rewrite. George is gone. Though his name was actually Derek, and he just thought his name was George because he thought he was King George III.
No more will Derek (a.k.a. George) kill leaders of the American government thinking them to be the signers of the Declaration of Independence and thus traitors who deserve to die in the king's, or Derek (a.k.a. George)'s, name.
No more will the twisted cop who flips the bird to lonely, old women be twisted. No more will be bribe the owner of the pawn shop who lives on Grace Street.
Its just saddening. I'm going to go make sure that the novel isn't still alive somewhere.
Edit: I've already heard the Ernest Hemingway story, so I do not need to hear it again.
Posted by Katarain (Member # 6659) on :
I'm sorry for your loss.
Maybe the rewrite will be even better!
Posted by SteveRogers (Member # 7130) on :
I hope so. All I have to do is remember all of my plot or at least remember enough of it to make up the rest anew.
Posted by Teshi (Member # 5024) on :
The rewrite is always better!
I've nearly been in this situation a number of times and now I keep my various works in numerous places and copies at once in different places.
Posted by SteveRogers (Member # 7130) on :
I might rewrite it as a short story. I'm better in that medium anyway.
Posted by Synesthesia (Member # 4774) on :
Oh, heaven's, I don't even KNOW what I'd do if someone deleted my novel. Which is why part of it is on Deadjournal. But perhaps it will be better in another incarnation.
Posted by aiua (Member # 7825) on :
Deadjournal? XD
Posted by SteveRogers (Member # 7130) on :
Yeah, that is what I was thinking. Are you talking about LiveJournal? And, while on this note, what is LiveJournal? Or is that even something?
Posted by aiua (Member # 7825) on :
Nope, DJ is the anti LJ. LJ is another blog type thing. A collection of journals that people can comment on.
Posted by SteveRogers (Member # 7130) on :
Ok, then what is DeadJournal?
Posted by aiua (Member # 7825) on :
quote: What is DeadJournal.com? DeadJournal.com is a journal site (much like LiveJournal), but as you will quickly see, not all journals are apple pie and fruitcakes. Here is where you find the journals that nobody else wants to see, or even host.
We love pissed off people, if you're a pissed off person who hates incompetence, please sign up now!
I'm an apple pie and fruitcake kinda girl.
Posted by SteveRogers (Member # 7130) on :
Interesting....so LiveJournal is what exactly? Just an online journal that other people can read? Or do you have to do something specific to join?
Posted by aiua (Member # 7825) on :
Um. You make a journal, add friends and be added youself (or, if your like me, have no friends:D) and then you all comment on each other's journals. There are communities for like minded people (ie, the orsonscottcard community and possibly a hatrack community), etc. Your journals can be public, private, or made so only a few people can see them. Very customizable.
But this is a bad summary, so... I dunno.
Posted by SteveRogers (Member # 7130) on :
How does one get one of these LiveJournals? Maybe I could brainstorm there...
Posted by aiua (Member # 7825) on :
Here would probably be your best bet.
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
Oh, God. We just unleashed Steve on the LiveJournal community. I don't know who to feel sorry for. Posted by aiua (Member # 7825) on :
Sorry!
Posted by aiua (Member # 7825) on :
Steve, did you ever get that list of songs I sent you?
Posted by SteveRogers (Member # 7130) on :
Tom- Its not big deal, I probably won't be able to figure it out. And I don't have any friends to read it anyway.
Posted by Soara (Member # 6729) on :
That's horrible. you know I think you can generally get stuff out of the recycling bin. at least in Windows you can.
Posted by SteveRogers (Member # 7130) on :
I don't think I can here...
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
Seriously, Steve, in the future, here are three ways to keep your stuff safe on a Mac:
1) Buy a keychain USB drive. They're under twenty dollars, and even the smallest one will hold a book's worth of data.
2) Create a folder into which you save all your stuff, so it's not sitting on your Desktop.
3) Create a separate user profile, so that your Desktop isn't your dad's Desktop. That way, you can save as much as you want to your Desktop and he won't see it to be bothered by it.
If you need instructions on how to do any of these things, just let me know.
Posted by SteveRogers (Member # 7130) on :
1) I don't have money. If I get money, I will. I wouldn't know how to use it on this computer. Or on any other computer...
2) How might I create a special folder just for me?
3) You can do that on this computer?
Posted by TL (Member # 8124) on :
If someone deleted 25,000 words of my work, a murder would surely follow.
Too bad, man. I feel for ya.
Posted by SteveRogers (Member # 7130) on :
I couldn't kill my father. Then a 12 Angry Men-esque court trial would follow. And after seeing both versions of that movie, I have decided that there is no way I want Tony Danza to be on the jury when my life is at stake.
Posted by quidscribis (Member # 5124) on :
I would be severely upset. I feel for ya, Steve. That's rotten. Posted by Morbo (Member # 5309) on :
Have you tried undeleting it? If you have any hope of doing that, the sooner the better. Any delay could cause it to be permanantly written over. Maybe you could still save it, or part of it.
Someone familiar with Apple will have to help, I cannot.
Posted by Telperion the Silver (Member # 6074) on :
Holy moly Steve. What did your Dad say when you told him how important it was to you?
Posted by Shanna (Member # 7900) on :
Does Mac have a version of System Restore like Windows does?
My computer caught a nasty virus so I restored my computer to a month old System Checkpoint and noticed that alot of files I had permanently deleted were restored as well.
There might be hope.
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
quote: 1) I don't have money. If I get money, I will. I wouldn't know how to use it on this computer. Or on any other computer...
2) How might I create a special folder just for me?
3) You can do that on this computer?
1) To use a flash/keychain drive, you just plug it into a USB port on any Mac or modern PC. It will appear as another mounted disk drive.
2) If you do #3, this would be unnecessary. But otherwise, here's how it works:
a) Open your root drive. There should be an icon for it on the Desktop, and you should be able to click on it to view the folders inside. (There are other ways to get to the same spot, but this is probably easiest.) b) Option-click (or right-click, if your mouse has two buttons) and select "New Folder" from the menu that will appear. (You can also get this option from the File menu.) Name the folder something like "Steve's Stuff - DO NOT DELETE." c) In the future, when prompted to save a file, save it to the Steve's Stuff folder instead.
3) If the default account for the system is an administrative account (which I suspect), you should be able to go to System Properties (by clicking on the little apple icon at the top left) and, under Users, add a new user. By default, that user will not be an admin, but will have administrative control over their own Desktop and anything saved within their personal folder (which will be created by default); you can change this, however. You may also want to change the default login behavior to prompt for a choice between the two accounts when the machine is started, but that's not necessary; if you log off at any time, you'll be taken to a menu that will permit you to make that choice and log on as your new account.
Posted by SteveRogers (Member # 7130) on :
I'll try that stuff here in a bit. I need to shower or something. Just got back from a thirteen-ish mile hike.
Posted by Historian (Member # 8858) on :
quote:Originally posted by Soara: That's horrible. you know I think you can generally get stuff out of the recycling bin. at least in Windows you can.
On a PC, even if it isn't in the recycle bin there is a good chance that it could recovered using other "specialized" software.
![[Frown]](frown.gif)
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). But I'll do this instead, ( ![[Cry]](graemlins/cry.gif)
).![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
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