Losing a written chapter

[TeenFan]

Why is this system logging me out while I'm writing a chapter?
I preview the chapter written, to post it next. I am required to LOG back in.
The chapter written disappears.
I use the back arrow/button, but the page where I was writing never shows up again.

Is this happening to other people?

It's only a couple hours of my life, but I don't like doing the work twice..
Yes, I thought I had hit save once earlier, but I must not have.

[Sad Ken]

Writing stories (or even just long posts) in a forum always comes with the risk of this happening.

You're better off writing them in Notepad or a word processor and then copying them in.

[Blondie]

I agree with Sad Ken, Teen Fan. I found out the hard way a long time ago, and have been using a word processor ever since. I use MS Word, but any word processor would provide a good safety valve. You may have to do some reformatting after you copy and paste (such as paragraph spacing, using italics, etc.), but it's worth it to ensure you don't lose your hard work.

If you still would rather continue as you have, maybe clicking "Remember me" when you log in would prevent the site from logging you out.

[TeenFan]

All very good points mentioned.
But it's only happened the one time
Plus I didn't remember to hit save at any point
I was able to rewrite in in about 45 minutes, and added a few touches the first version didn't. So all is okay.

Now if I had worked on a very long chapter, taking days or weeks to perfect...then accidentally deleted it like I've heard another author
mention one time...that would be a real disaster rather than an annoyance.

[jimmythehand]

Adding on to what's already been said, it's in any case a good idea to have an original/backup copy of any story you don't want to lose (and perhaps you do make a copy after you've posted it here first; I'm not suggesting you don't).

Due to the required combination of available time plus enough motivation being rare for me, my own story writing over the years has tended to be (very) short stories under various names on sites like Experience Project, posting fake 'real life' occurances, and the occassional chapter on collaborative sites such as CHYOA, none of which I felt worth backing up anywhere.

My one attempt at a longer, multi-chapter story, written over two or three years in my late teens/early twenties was on the old Ask Jolene site. I was still living with my parents at the time, using a shared, family PC, so I didn't want to save any copies on the hard drive and was paranoid enough about being caught that I didn't save anything to any sort of external storage either, since I would have had to hide that somewhere and risk it being found. I had a number of chapters written, all unpublished, when Ask Jolene unexpectedly got taken down and the the entire story was lost.

Given how often sites of this nature get taken down or have content removed, it's something that could happen to anyone that only posts to a site - we've all seen stories that get lost when sites go and you just have to hope they'll resurface from someone's personal archive one day - and is definitely something to guard against if you can!

[Dormouse]

Yes, I always write my stories in Word and then paste into whatever forum I'm posting to.

It usually takes me weeks or even months to write a story and I'd never post an incomplete story. Once I think I've finished I go back and check I haven't missed anything out.

[TeenFan]

Yes, I always write my stories in Word and then paste into whatever forum I'm posting to.

It usually takes me weeks or even months to write a story and I'd never post an incomplete story.

Different ways of getting it done. I typically write a chapter every day, taking approximately 2 hours to compose the next chapter, then I
post it. The worst that can happen (which did happen) was losing the effort of a couple hours, so in all not too big a deal.
If I was writing out an entire story first, then I'd use another method.

I often don't know exactly what I'm going to write when I sit down and do a chapter. It leads to some interest twists and turns in the plot.
I keep the reader guessing what happens next when I surprise myself all the time.

I certainly don't try to recommend others writing that way.
If I waited to post an entire story it would never happen for me. Some of my stories are over 60 chapters and still have a way to go.

[RaccoonBatteryStaple]

Why is this system logging me out while I'm writing a chapter?
I preview the chapter written, to post it next. I am required to LOG back in.
The chapter written disappears.
I use the back arrow/button, but the page where I was writing never shows up again.

Is this happening to other people?

I had this happen while writing up one of the times I was pantsed. This is, unfortunately, one of the drawbacks of today's internet. Because of malicious activity by others, in the name of security your session will time out.

There are only two solutions... Preview every couple of minutes to keep the session active (disruptive) or as others have suggested, use another text editor. If you're in the Windows ecosystem, there's Word (which will save backups as you go in case of power outages/computer crashes) or Wordpad (fewer features but also fewer distractions, comes with Windows so no extra cost, no autosave).

[Dormouse]

Yes, I always write my stories in Word and then paste into whatever forum I'm posting to.

It usually takes me weeks or even months to write a story and I'd never post an incomplete story.

Different ways of getting it done. I typically write a chapter every day, taking approximately 2 hours to compose the next chapter, then I
post it. The worst that can happen (which did happen) was losing the effort of a couple hours, so in all not too big a deal.
If I was writing out an entire story first, then I'd use another method.

I often don't know exactly what I'm going to write when I sit down and do a chapter. It leads to some interest twists and turns in the plot.
I keep the reader guessing what happens next when I surprise myself all the time.

I certainly don't try to recommend others writing that way.
If I waited to post an entire story it would never happen for me. Some of my stories are over 60 chapters and still have a way to go.

Lots of times I want to change something in an earlier chapter. Much easier to do if I haven't already posted it. A story I posted elsewhere (which was discussed in here a while back), as I was writing the final chapter, I realised a couple of characters should have been in their pyjamas in chapter 2, so I added that to the chapter before posting.

[neverdoubted]

Second everyone else. Write and proof the story somewhere else, then copy and paste to the forum. The only problem I've found with this approach is italics. Having to go back and re-italicize everything is annoying and I always think I've missed a few.