Ever lost all your work? (1 Viewer)

[alonewiththegods]

today i accidentaly broke a usb stick which had about two years worth of writing material on it. Only some of this had been backed up. I am devastated, distraught and heartbroken and both cursing the gods of misfortune and myself for not backing up all of the work. I took it to a local shop who said they could not repair it, So I am going to see if i can get a specialist company to extract the data although I don't have much hope. I know there are worse things going on in the world but this is still a very painful blow to mine. this is probably the worst thing that could happen to me outside of health issues, the loss of a loved one, or some hideous act of betrayal, so I am feeling very lost and upset by this. it feels like a grieving process in itself. I know there's a fair few other writers on here and just wondered if any of you have had a similar experience? and if so how you bounced back from this? I'm trying to take this as well as I can but it has really hit me hard. or if Buk himself had anything to say on the matter? I know he didn't use anyhting as unreliable as a usb stick but i remember him having some poems stolen one time. Any friendly words of wisdom would be appreciated at this point.

 

[Black Swan]

Loosing what you wrote sucks, but is the lesser of these four evils.

Loosing your health and you can't do much much of anything, even write.
Loosing a loved one, you cannot replace that.
The act of betrayal hurts but doesn't kill you, you can always write about it.

The best will resurface I'm sure. Hang in there.

 

[mjp]

First of all, if the media itself inside the stick isn't broken, the data can be retrieved. But it won't be cheap to get it.

Secondly, buy one of these IronKeys. You won't be able to break that with a hammer. I've been using the same one for six or seven years.

Third - well, you can probably guess.

 

[hoochmonkey9]

that sucks, truly. nothing I can say can help you. but I feel your pain.

but because I'm old and believe in killing trees, I print everything. I print the first draft, the second, the seventh hundred and twenty first, I print them all. yes, it's because I'm vain, but I've never lost anything and I've been writing for a long time.

and I support reforestation. in theory. I don't like the outside,

 

[mjp]

Using a lot of paper is good for the environment. For every tree they use for paper they plant three. Keep printing.

 

[Skygazer]

today i accidentaly broke a usb stick which had about two years worth of writing material on it....]
[... or if Buk himself had anything to say on the matter?...]
[... but i remember him having some poems stolen one time. Any friendly words of wisdom would be appreciated at this point.

Really sorry about your disaster, two years worth is an awful lot of work to lose, I hope you are able to get it retrieved somehow.
Thinking about Bukowski's attitude to that kind of thing, pretty unique really, if the story about the birth of At Terror Street and Agony Way is to be believed, where the poems had been left behind at John Thomas's place only to be thrown in the bin!
Luckily they had recorded them, but Bukowski had forgotten all about them and only months later did they reinstate them by Thomas retyping them off the recorder and Bukowski checking them. So it would seem he didn't bat much of an eyelid over stuff like that; very cool and nonchalant, but atypical.

* See Author's introduction to Burning in Water Drowning In Flame for the story.:)

 

[alonewiththegods]

Thanks guys, I will persevere regardless of the loss and purchase an iron key. Oh and back up all work, also in the form of paper print if i have to, even if it adds to the stacks of junk already cluttering my place, I guess its better to add to the mess that is my room than the madly congested mess in my head. Its just another bump in the road to get back up from... cheers for the insights, once again.