On the verge

Posted by Katy Regan at 11:36 on 28 Feb 2008

• Print
• Share
• Comment

I just screamed, very loudly. Opened my computer this morning to find I have managed to delete my book by accident!!! No joke.

I must have accidentally highlighted everything at some point then deleted it last night. Thankfully I had emailed all but one chapter to my editor and also Egg but I have still lost four days work and about three and a half thousand words.

That will teach me not to back it up properly EVERY SINGLE DAY. It's a hard lesson to learn but a very, very important one. It made me think (and shiver in my boots) about the story of Louis de Bernieres - author of Captain Correlli’s Mandolin - who had his computer stolen from the shed where he works with a third of his next novel saved on it. In an interview I read, his attitude was, 'oh well, I'll write it better a second time around' - what a guy.

I, on the other hand, had a total nervous breakdown and screamed (literally) then cried quite a lot, more out of self-loathing that I could be THAT stupid more than the fact I'd lost a few days work.

Anyway, now I've pulled myself together and I've started re-writing. Miraculously, I can remember most of it so should only take me today to re'do that chapter. It could however, have been so much worse. So much worse, in fact, that it doesn't bear thinking about.

• Next entry
• Previous entry