Am I going crazy? Didn't I change that?

[sierramcconnell]

So one of the things I frequently find myself going through on my MS in beta is comment boxes that say 'perhaps this should be changed to that' and I look at it and go...

"Wait, I know I already changed that, because I know so-n-so commented on it."

And when I look, it's not changed in this one, but I know I changed it. I remember changing it, because I edited it in red ink pen (I was sitting at the coffee house, not the table or the pizza bar, and I was watching that one guy with the hat walk by right before) and yes, looking back to beta two times prior to this one, they did comment on it.

But...I...I don't...I don't understand...if I remember changing it, I remember seeing myself changing it...and I have the red ink to prove it on the hard copy...

How...how is it not changed?

Am I going mad? Is this a writer thing? Or is Word playing games with me? Is the MS so big that it's corrupting itself and going back like a crazed labyrinth, changing its own paths until nothing is what it should be?!

What is this?! What if it happens before the final submission and all the changes revert in a strange crazy twist and it gets rejected because Word thought it funny to do such a horrible thing to me?! OH DEAR GOD THE BETRAYAL.

[breathes]

But honestly, has this happened to someone else? Is my document corrupted? What is going on here?

[Cookie]

Totally had that happen. It is usually when I have written new scenes though. Maybe it was just deja vu of an idea that I had never actually written down and thought I did.
But yea, I've fixed things only to have people point them out later. Word, you wily program, stop messing with my MS!

[Moni12]

It's happened to me before too. I think what happens is that you're trying so hard to remember it and in your mind going through the motions of changing it becomes like a memory that isn't really a memory. It happens a lot where people remember things that aren't real memories because they daydreamed it, thought about it, dreamed it and there is also the misinformation effect (I'm horrible at explaining things so it'd be best for people who want to know to just google the term).

[Fenris]

I have that problem too occasionally, but it's usually because rather than send my MS out to one partner at a time, making the changes they suggest and then sending it off to another, I have multiple crit partners working on the same draft. That way if, say, two or three comment on the same thing, I'll know it really needs to change, whereas if just one points it out it becomes more of an option (though I usually do follow their advice, to be safe). But that means when I go through and make the changes one suggests, and then get back another copy from another crit partner saying to make the same change, it becomes deja vu. I know I did this, where'd it go? Oh yeah...

Of course there is the effect Moni12 pointed out. Sometimes we think/are told about something so much we think it's actually happening even if it hasn't. Such things have happened to me once or twice, thankfully never in my writing. For me, the deja vu is due to crit partners critiquing the same stuff rather than each others' critiques. Maybe it's more effective that way, maybe not.

[Watcher55]

I think everyone's memory plays tricks.

I don't use beta readers (I didn't know there was such a thing before I joined Bransforum), but I've had similar experiences when I was sure I fixed something but then discovered that the changes weren't there. I blame the software and fix it - again. Days, sometimes weeks, later I find the correction scrawled in a legal pad or in an orphan doc in my "useful trash" file.

[bcomet]

Hi.
I've had the experience several S.C.A.R.Y.times when I needed to erase/delete a few words or a line and then Word CONTINUED to keep erasing my document at a high speed. Gobble. Gobble. Gobble. I had to quit the program, push save, it was like it went mad. (Or maybe I mistakenly pressed a BIG erase/delete mode without realizing it???) (Is there one of those???)

I believe in versions. Save and Backing Up Everything. I open new version every time I plan to make edits or major changes, rewrites, etc. I can always go back then. And then, with the beloved first /earlier version(s) saved, I am more willing to have at the present editing version I am tackling: Edit-Version #2 - SAVE and Backup, Edit-Version #3 - SAVE and Backup, etc.

If you do this (save versions) also (and I highly recommend it), is it possible you opened an earlier version?

Anyway, such a big project as a novel is a LOT to think about in details, isn't it.

Best of luck that this doesn't happen for you or anyone again!

[Robin]

oh yeah... I hate it when the Gremlins come out to play. Those damn little creatures should at least be polite enough to leave me some post it notes ;)

I'm with BComet-- I have different revised versions saved. I always save with dates too. For instance, I'm doing some major changes this week, so I'm saving them as MYTH.draft.12.1.10 or something similar. I get so lost if I don't use dates.

[sierramcconnell]

I use First Draft, Second Draft, and so on. So I know which version is with which set of betas. And since this is at Final V2, I know I corrected it in the Final V1 before saving as Final V2 to continue.

It was for the Holy Lord and Lord needing to be capitalized, and it was one of those things I looked for on my list of things to make sure were correct. Twice.

So I know I did fix it, I remember fixing it and saving it, because that line in particular was in need of a rewrite as well. So it's not that I forgot that I did or imagined I did (I don't do that), I actually did. I was sitting on the sofa in the middle of a Wednesday evening edit session, watching Man vs. Food, feeling like I didn't want to write but was writing anyway.

And this has happened many, many times before for things like 's, spelling corrections, whole paragraph additions that are on one file that I know I sent and saved over from my email, and so on.

I think for sure the document is corrupted on one or the other computer. Probably the Windows 7 computer...since it loves so much to be a happy spyware checker. >.>'

[NickB]

I like the labyrinth theory...though I have caught myself saving to the Wrong Version.

One time, I found what I had done: The MS was changed to the New Way in an older version. Otherwise, for me I think it's a combo of everything mentioned.

But I think I don't do the weird memory stuff as much when I've worked out just before writing. Age, perhaps. Working out is a necessity. ;)

[sierramcconnell]

I was also thinking, I work on this at work (MS 2007) and at home (MS 2003) and I get the error at work sometimes about 'loss of fidelity' but I didn't think it meant anything. Perhaps what it means is 'I'm not doing a damn thing with any of this stuff you're saving'.

And when I look up exactly what fidelity means (since a search of the error garners not much of anything) it tells me 'truth, facts, meaning, accuracy, exactness'.

So ie 'loss of the REAL MEANING OF YOUR MS' read: Word is going to lose your data, dipwad, don't use WORD 2007.

This is why I hate upgrades.

I find it only did that when I used the word Jesus. Thank you, Lord Father Almighty, for corrupting my document.

[PhilipIsles]

I believe in versions. Save and Backing Up Everything. I open new version every time I plan to make edits or major changes, rewrites, etc. I can always go back then. And then, with the beloved first /earlier version(s) saved, I am more willing to have at the present editing version I am tackling: Edit-Version #2 - SAVE and Backup, Edit-Version #3 - SAVE and Backup, etc.

I posted my advice on How to Backup Your Manuscript earlier this week, if you're interested :)

[Watcher55]

I don't know if this relates to your particular issue, but the other day I had a similar experience.

My desktop and laptop are synced (sp?) via router so the "Document" files update every 5 mins. I added text using the laptop and an hour later I opened the file on my desktop and the addition was missing! NOOOO! Then I remembered I forgot to close the file on the laptop so it didn't update.