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/lit/ - Literature

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6784240 No.6784240 [Reply] [Original]

So, I just lost my whole book I have been writing because my word file got corrupted for some reason.

How's your writing going, /lit/?

>> No.6784244

>>6784240
>writes on a computer
>doesn't use cloud storage or backups or both
you deserved it tbh

>> No.6784252

>>6784240

>Not having a back-up of important files.

They say the burned hand is the best teacher.

I hope you learned your lesson.

>> No.6784258

e-mail everyday

>> No.6784263

>>6784240
Nigga just always Ctrl+A, Ctrl+C, open notepad, Ctrl+V, Ctrl+S, close notepad.

.txt files don't nearly get corrupted as much as .docx
You may lose formatting but it's a really good alternative for a backup... or just save it twice as different names fuccboi.

>> No.6784274

>>6784240
Deserved.

>> No.6784279

In my view every serious writer should remember every single word he has written

>> No.6784281

>>6784240
Try doing a system restore or whatever back up your OS has, if you have a recent restore point.

It may not save the entire work, but you could salvage a majority.

>> No.6784296

>>6784279
Nice try fuckass, you're real cute.

>> No.6784298

>>6784279
>implying anyone can remember the exact arrangement of 60,000+ words
>implying if Joyce rewrote Ulysses it would be even near the same (7 years to write it)

>> No.6784306
File: 29 KB, 500x500, 1436025598137.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
6784306

>>6784244
>writes on a computer
>doesn't go with the more patrician method of pen and paper

Absolutely disgusting.

Writing with a nice gel ink pen has a very tactile and pleasurable feel, imo. Also allows me to edit until the very end so that I'm not second guessing myself every sentence (I do write ideas in the margins though).

>> No.6784317

>>6784306
>a nice gel ink pen
Welcome to Junior year of high school summerfag

>> No.6784321

>>6784240

LOL You dumb nigger

>> No.6784381

>>6784296
>>6784298

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmCI579_KYM

how many pages has he played by heart? this is common to any professional musician. and this is barely his entire repertoire

there was a time writers were once kind enough to write things people could remember.

in oral cultures memory was valued and exercised. now we read a book like an ephemeral experience that we can recall little of, except for the "jist" of it or some summary notes.

>> No.6784405
File: 1.41 MB, 3264x2448, image.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
6784405

Pretty good actually.
Hard copies and cd's containing work are safe and sound.
Stiff upper lip, anon.
Learn from your mistakes.

>> No.6784429

8100 words on a bleak public-transportation narrative. most depressing thing I've ever tried to write because 1) the subject matter is depressing, and 2) I'm having trouble keeping it interesting while also trying to convey monotony.

I'm getting there though.

>> No.6784433

>>6784429

>8,100 words

LOL

>> No.6784471
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6784471

>he didnt have backups of his backups of his backups

>> No.6784472

>>6784381
That's because they were paid to memorize it, you ignorant swine.
YOU ARE A F A G G O T

>> No.6784484

>>6784405

try one million

>> No.6784502

I'm buying a computer next week, starting the novel a week after that

>> No.6784507

>>6784502
do it

>> No.6784514

that's why I use gdocs. welcome our NSA overlords with shitty ISIS fanfiction.

>> No.6784598

>>6784240

okay, so you just lost a shitty book. Now start over and write it so it's actually good.

>> No.6784602

>>6784598
This.

Use the opportunity.

>> No.6784622

>>6784240
>How's your writing going, /lit/?
1400/~80000 words

>> No.6784684

>>6784622
what are you writing?

>> No.6784749

>>6784240
It was shit either way, mate

>> No.6784761
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6784761

I've done the hard part, I've told most my friends and family that I plan on writing a novel. Just got to write the thing now and I'm done.

>> No.6784789

>>6784761
>telling people about your novel before being at least half way through

>> No.6784799
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6784799

>>6784684
a story about a conflict between a family and a woman who borrowed money to them

that's it, that's the story

>> No.6784850
File: 111 KB, 803x688, image_0.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
6784850

>>6784381
Nice bait; you're saying literary tradition has devolved by growing into something that has the potential for much more complexity and consistency while still maintaining its ability to convey simple emotions. You are truly a rusemaster. You got me.

>> No.6784855

>>6784240
>he can't rewrite his book from memory
>no backups
you deserve it

>> No.6784860

>>6784381
What a shitty example. A writer could use synonyms and rearrange sentences and still be writing essentially the same content. If a player changed intervals or times he'd be playing a different song.

>> No.6784884

Almost at 20k words. I think it is going to end up being a lot longer than I had originally intended.
I have no idea how or if I will get it published, it vacillates pretty often between experimental and more traditional prose, has some integrated poems and shit.

>> No.6784901

>>6784860
Content not separate from form

>>6784860
We still call John Cash's cover of "Hurt" "Hurt" although it differs a great deal from "Nine Inches Nail."

James Joyce put a lot of effort into wordplay. Change a sentence in Finnegans Wake and you change the meaning as well, since the representation of the object is as important as the object itself, for the content becomes synonymous with form.

>andrewpaulmurphyc narratives

But people still find peace in discussing or reading explanations for a book. Why not write just a book that is an explanation of itself then? If that is what people really want, if people only want "the content" then well, easy, write a plot in as few words as you can, you will never need many.

>> No.6784909

>>6784381
the amount of sheer memory/rote learning required to learn music (scales, keys, songs etc) has always put me off learning to play even though i love jazz. that and having no musical aptitude or patience to practice. it's pretty amazing how much stuff they know.

>> No.6784918

Search for all files ending in *.bak.
Your autosaves should do the trick.
If you have autosave turned off, you're too dumb to operate a computer. Buy a typewriter.

>> No.6784930
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6784930

I know that feel OP. About 15 years ago I rarely used a computer for my writing and wrote everything in composition notebooks. I was about 100 pages into a promising novel (mythological sci-fi world builder, sue me). One day I go out to my car to find that I had left the passenger window down. There was a torrential downpour the night before. My notebooks had been left in the front seat. Needless to say that draft along with various other notes were unrecoverable. It was then I learned the virtues of virtual backups.

>mfw hundreds of pages of notes up in smoke

>> No.6785138

>>6784381
>I don't understand how music works

>> No.6785224

>>6784306

>not refusing to touch anything that is not a fountain pen

There is a special place in Hell for people like you.

>> No.6785238

Do a search with the key *.tmp

Absolutely do not install any new files to your computer. You may still be able to fire up a deleted file viewer and see if there are any temporary files still existing.

Also, remember that as a novelist, your work is your livelihood (potentially). Don't be afraid to pay someone to reclaim the file, they aren't gonna comment on your porn collection, and it will be well worth it.

Don't be like Joyce.


Other than that, it seems kind of retarded to be using word. I've only ever seen that happen with word, it has never happened using Open or Libreoffice.

>> No.6785272

>>6785138

I do though

>>6784761

>He who boasts of what he will do succeeds in nothing
>He who is proud of his work achieves nothing that endures

That said I wish you luck, just that post showed a pleasant sense of awareness to you. Or something like that I'm not a writer

>> No.6785302

on a scale of 1-10 how hipster is a typewriter

>> No.6785746
File: 316 KB, 768x1892, horse.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
6785746

>>6784240
/g/ faggot here
Do you still have the file? If it still contains the raw data then it should be salvageable.
I might be able to help.

throwaway123123@cock.li

>> No.6785753

I'm doing good! Just finished chapter one. I'm editing as I go along, so when I say finished I mean Finished. I'll proof read it again when the whole thing's done. It's a novella, so 8 more chapters to go and I've got the full outline figured out. Looking good, getting into it.

>> No.6785839

>>6785302
10s across the board, but they're fun. I recently dusted mine off, they're fucking cool.

>> No.6785853

>>6785746
no, deleted it and emptied recycle bin

>> No.6785865

>>6785746
Aw poor cute horsie

>> No.6786025
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6786025

>>6785865
I work with alpacas and horses out on a ranch outside of town. Horses are cool but there so fucking stupid it hurts.

>> No.6786032
File: 256 KB, 640x348, george-r-r-martin-dos.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
6786032

>not writing your works on an old DOS computer

>> No.6786033

51,000 words into the 8th draft of my novel. This is the last draft and then I can finally shelf it.

>> No.6786303

>>6784901
>John Cash
>Nine Inches Nail

>> No.6786316

>>6784240
>not having even a single backup
pleb, I have triple backups of important things plus I mail my stuff to myself regularly. Letting Windows handle your important files is like letting Peter Singer look after your newborn.

>> No.6786320

>>6784429
>loses ten pages
>problem

>> No.6786436

>>6784240
How many words did you lose?

>> No.6786503

>>6785853
wow, smart move op

>> No.6786542

>>6786320
>can't read
>posts anyway

>> No.6786624

>>6786025
>but there so fucking stupid it hurts.
horses are stupid you say?

>> No.6786695

>>6784381
>can't come up with literary example
>instantly switches to classical music

>> No.6786721

I want to learn to write better prose. I just don't have the writing skills to compose a good story. I have a lot of interesting ideas that I think are original enough to merit writing, but my prose is very, very weak. I guess I'll practice with a few of my less-interesting ideas first, and then try my better ones when I can actually write worth a damn.

>> No.6786769

>he doesn't use Google Drive
C'mon man.

>> No.6786773

Slowly. I'm fussing over yesterday's paragraphs more often than crafting new ones.

>> No.6786781

>He doesn't print out a physical copy of his work in progress every so often to read over and edit

>> No.6786794

I have the plot framework all written out, with a really strong intro and outro finalised and the first couple of scenes done but I keep making myself too hung over to continue.

>> No.6787056
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6787056

60,000 words, and it reads like /lit/ compilations, which is not what I was going for.

I need to learn to write actual freaking prose. It's 60,000 words of telling, some action, and much contradiction; pretentious drivel.

Also I keep forgetting which revision I last worked on (drugs are a helluva drug).

>> No.6787079

Procastrination is what's up. Set up a vps for storage and editing files, which syncs latex files to different server. I have some idea of general stuff what's going to happen and the enviroment, but I feel I need to flesh out characters more, not to make them just autistic robots. At this point I've done mostly planning and rought drafts(wrote first chapter few times over etc.) Can you be too perfectionist when writing /lit/? I think I may let the small details bother me too much, and it makes me lose the focus of bigger picture at this point.

>> No.6788811

But you see, you didn't really lose anything, one could argue that it was just warped and transferred to another domain, which is digital, and by not finishing it, how can you claim it was objectively yours? Each perspective of live is correct, nothing is objectively true!


>this is what postmodernists actually believe

>> No.6788933

>>6784405
Holy shit!

>> No.6789012

>>6784381
You don't read a book multiple times. You play a piece tonnes of fucking times before you get it right; you'd have to be a tard not to have memorised it.

>> No.6789223

>>6784930
That hurts my heart to read

>> No.6789337

>>6784240
Working on a sequel to the first novella I experimented with in the fall for fun. First was 52k words, sitting on 24k words of the sequel right now and no back ups livin' life on the edge like you OP.

Good times, should probs get back to work on that right now.

>> No.6789390

>>6784799
picture made me kek

>> No.6789397
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6789397

has anymore from /lit/ actually ever had any publishing success that we know of?

>> No.6789428
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6789428

>could write the greatest trilogy ever made
>lost my way on how to write
>can't get my shit together
>depressed

>> No.6789458

>>6789428
Become an alcoholic, all great writers become alcoholics.

>> No.6789463

>>6789397
Tao Lin

>> No.6789471

>>6784405
>I label boxes with book #s so I can look patrician and all.

>> No.6789933

>>6786721
Post an example of your prose, anon. I'll see if I can suggest a few ideas and maybe point you to some authors you might be able to take inspiration from.

>> No.6790217

>>6785302
truly hipster
I think if your going to such lengths just write in a notebook or on loose pads

>> No.6790287

>he doesn't write by hand
You were probably awful anyway.
>>6784306
Why would you use a ballpoint when fountain pens exist?
>>6784909
Jazz is simple and relies on improv sessions, any dip can play it.

>> No.6791586

>>6785746
>also /g/ master race here
was about to make the same offer

>> No.6792101

>>6789397
I'm on my way. When I deem myself a success, I'll come out as a /lit/ poster and probably be berated out of existence.

>> No.6792119

How hard could it be to extract plain text from a corrupted docx?

>> No.6792213

>>6792119
docx happens to be the worst format ever, specifically designed to obfuscate text so unwanted clients can't read or edit it.

>> No.6792376

>>6789397
I've published a few essays/chapters in academic anthologies. Peer-reviewed and edited, but of course one doesn't get paid a penny, so I doubt that counts.

>> No.6792428

>>6784240
It's goin alright. I'm sorry about your work, dude.
I use a couple of flash drives for security, keep em in my secret space.

How long'd you been working on it?

>> No.6792436

>>6785224
>>6790287
Ay niggas catch that fountain pen in your necks.

>> No.6792451

>>6789471
>>6789471
Fine,

Pick a book number and a page (books run generally 375-450 pages)
Will delivar once off work at 330 (2:07 now)