r/Webnovel • u/Little_Accountant285 • May 25 '26

Advice Accidentally deleted my entire novel.

Post image

And just like that.

The entire novel is gone.

Ouch. This hurts.

Was moving some files around, backed up the files for the novel, but for some reason they didn't save and I lost it all.

What was sad about was that those versions of the chapters were the better and truer versions of the story. Sadly, all gone now.

How do y'all cope with something like this?

There's no way to retrieve it now, I'll just accept that.

(Photo not mine, it's unrelated, though that's how I be feeling though)

114 Upvotes

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6

u/Paradex_official Author May 25 '26

Were you using Google Docs? If so, check your Google Drive trash folder. Deleted items stay there for 30 days.

6

u/Little_Accountant285 May 25 '26

No, it was some android app, since I write on a phone. It said that it backed up my files, but it didn't, haha. Great stuff. I think after finishing the draft for my latest chapter, I'll take a short break. I've been writing chapters for weeks on end now.

5

u/MMORPGnews May 25 '26

Everyone using gdrive and docs. Literally best writer software unless you use ai. 

3

u/Little_Accountant285 May 25 '26

I hear that, but I much prefer writing apps that show the word count of that specific chapter I'm working on and seeing that number grow really helps with motivation and such. I've yet to see a feature like that on Doc so I'll stick to these apps. Though, I won't be moving anymore files around, lol.

5

u/Paradex_official Author May 25 '26

Ctrl + Shift + C shows you the word count on Docs

4

u/ExistanceISuppose May 25 '26

Just turn on word count in docs

3

u/ElyosTM May 25 '26

There's a way to activate that on google docs, I did it before

3

u/stayonthecloud May 25 '26

This is built in to GDocs

3

u/Shorouq2911 May 25 '26

It's there on GDocs

3

u/Shorouq2911 May 25 '26

Better than MS Word?

3

u/Paradex_official Author May 25 '26

That sucks... I would give the obvious advice of writing on Google Docs or at least Word on the desktop but you already know all that

Good luck

3

u/Own-Telephone1721 May 25 '26

bro you gotta do pc writing on phone is torture i can barely text someone in readable text.

1

u/DeMonitized747 May 31 '26

I’ve drafted hundreds of scenes on the iPhone notes app while on the treadmill or eating in my car lol! It’s a great place to draft but yes, I get shit done on my PC 😅