At Least I Know

Now at least I know what I did.  It doesn't make it any easier, and the file is not recoverable, but at least I know.  Note to self - NEVER try new software when finishing up a book.

So... I've learned that in order for Dropbox to save a file, you have to be working out of the Dropbox folder on your desktop.  Not out of the Word folder, but the Dropbox one.  I wasn't.  That's why, when I emailed the file to myself, thinking I was sending the most recent file, I emailed from Dropbox and of course it sent the one I worked on there last, which was 8-29. 

When I finished my book, jubilant - I shouted to my husband I was done.   72,211 words, 345 pages. I saved it, promptly emailed it to myself (not noticing I sent an old version), and emailed by BFF Anna to tell her I had finished.  I then thought of something, went into Dropbox, opened the (wrong) file, and then hit save.  To be fair, the warning did come up.  But I, still thinking I was in the most recent version, hit save anyway.

And thus overrode (and destroyed) the old file.  It's gone.  Not recoverable.  I have tried everything, including calling a computer repair shop. 

My beautiful ending - disappeared.  I have to try to recreate that, plus all the explanations and stuff that I wove back through the story.  I am now at 321 pages, no last chapter yet.  Very sad.  Still sick.  But a little bit wiser.

Oh, I wish I had waited to try Dropbox until after I'd finished the book.  You lose the first chapter of a new book, no big deal.  But the ending?  The tying up all the threads - the suspense, the romance, the secondary character's romance.  Aiiiiiyyyyyyy.

So now you know.  A word to the wise.  And that's how I'm spending my holiday weekend. Rewriting and praying I can remember what I did and didn't do.