Fly with the Birds, Swim with the Fishes

 

I recently lost 30K of a novel in progress and had to start again. What’s the biggest setback you’ve had in your writing, and how did you overcome it?

This question hit me hard. If you’ve lived this scenario, you know the panic, the adrenaline dump, the cortisol crash later—and the litany of profanities you didn’t know existed in the primordial lexicon of pain.

My next novel, Eyes to Deceit—a fictionalized take on the 1953 coup that returned the Shah of Iran to power, sowing seeds for the 1979 Hostage Crisis—is coming out this November from Level Best Books.

A few months back, I hit a Plot Block with Eyes. Not quite a dead end, but my brain cells refused to make a right turn at the proverbial red light.

And then—cue the ding-ding of the Good Humor truck—I was off. Coins in hand, ideas in my head. I pounded out 30,000 words in a single, unmedicated frenzy. I blew off plans to be social. I chose madness over mingling. I became Beethoven at the keyboard.

Here’s a word about my workflow: I create a “Build” folder under the novel’s title and each chapter is its own Word file. Editing this way gives me tighter control over plot and pacing. Eventually, I copy and paste the chapters into a single master document.

That day, my downfall was a perfect storm of muscle memory and one bad habit. The Build folder lived on my hard drive; the manuscript, on my Desktop. To quote Sophia from Golden Girls: “Picture it…”

Ctrl-A, Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V.

Repeat.

And just like that, I had overwritten my full manuscript with a single chapter. Don’t ask me how because I still don’t know.

I didn’t scream. I didn’t cry. I just stared, horrified, at the graveyard of my own stupidity.

All my brain-sweat was now swimming with the fishes.

But there was a fix.

Because my Desktop hadn’t synced with my iPad yet, my savior Deb was able to open the untouched version on my iPad and email it to herself. Crisis (barely) averted.

I was one sync away from disaster. One finish line away from a total wipeout.

Don’t be that guy.

 

Best Practices: How to Avoid Your Own Writing Waterloo

Preventative Measures

Save in multiple places: Local drive, cloud storage (OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox), and a USB key.

Use version control: Save dated versions of your draft (e.g., Chapter-5_2025-09-04.docx) so you can revert.

Avoid editing on the Desktop: Files here are more prone to accidental deletion or syncing errors.

AutoSave is your friend: Enable it, especially in Word or Google Docs.

Cloud backup settings matter: Make sure your cloud syncs regularly—but not instantly, so you can recover from accidental overwrites.

 

If Disaster Strikes

Check unsynced devices: Your tablet or phone might still have the older version.

Look in File History / Versions: On Windows or Mac, check for earlier versions of the file.

Search sent emails: Did you ever email the document to someone (or yourself)?

Check the Recycle Bin: Sometimes deleted files linger like guilt.

Use recovery software: If all else fails, tools like Recuva (Windows) or Disk Drill (Mac) can sometimes recover lost data.

 

This writing life is one-part vision, one-part madness, and a whole lot of Ctrl-Z.

Save often. Sync smart.

Don’t let your words swim with the fishes.