Valuable Lesson Learned

Today was a little frustrating, to say the least. I lost my novel!!

Fortunately I write by hand as well as on the computer, it is long winded I know but it proved its worth today.

I decided to clean up my laptop. Cleaned the hard drive and defragmented etc. I then went onto sorting out my documents and folders. A big spring clean.

I downloaded all of my scrapbook items onto disc, sorted out the poems for Sticky Sandwiches and amalgamated all the notes and scraps for my novel into one place.

I then proceeded to fill up the recycle bin...yes you guessed correctly, I filled it with my novel!

What is she panicking about? I hear you ask, she hasn't emptied the bin yet.
No, I realised my novel was in the trash (possibly a good place for it, I don't know), anyway I hit the restore button...but missed and had hit empty recycle bin, instead.

DH, came to see what the noise was about, four dogs scuttled to every corner of Cyprus they could find and the neighbours from the next field, emigrated.

One strong coffee, a stroll in the sunshine and I confess a few tears later, I was back sitting looking at the keyboard and my written file.

Tap, tap, tap went the keys for one hour, I needed a break. I had a scrapbook page that I wanted to make, so I placed the disc that I had loaded earlier in the day, you remember, that moment before disaster struck, well I was gobsmacked, speechless, amazed and furious. Why?
I had actually managed to save my novel amongst the digital scrap pages. Why was I furious?
I had wasted valuable time.

The moral of this story is simply, backup, save data and do yourself a favour.

Backup your work, save to disc from the computer. I had my written work to fall back on but if I had not, fourteen chapters would have been lost.

A valuable lesson learned.