Camp Update: Windows 10 Sends Writer to Brink of Insanity
And Camp NaNoWriMo was going so well! The month had started off a little rough, as it usually does, but then things got rolling, as they usually do. I successfully killed off an important character, which by the time it finally happened, was such a relief, the floodgates just opened and words WHOOOSHED out. It was glorious.
My dreaded character death set all kinds of shenanigans in motion, which I of course had to write about. The aftermath ended up taking about 20 chapters and included four POV characters, including the dead one. I hit 100k on the manuscript and about 48k for Camp, very close to the halfway mark. And then I decided I’d better upgrade to Windows 10.
I had my reasons. Everyone kept saying “Oh, You MUST, it’s mahvelous.” Also, I kept hearing about the deadline at month end, and figured it was better to get it out of the way now, than when I might be staring down a deadline. I was right about that part. So, the installation seemed excruciatingly slow, but that’s okay. It looked nice and all my files were there. Good start. Until I tried connecting to the internet. Nope. I tried this and that and googled endless stuff on my phone for hours. I typed long strings of gunk into the command prompt. I wept. Okay, mostly, I wept.
My poor husband, who is far more tech-savvy than I, tried to help, but he had to drive, mostly. And sleep somewhat. We did figure out my wireless driver-thingies weren’t working, and then I discovered the devastating information that Toshiba doesn’t support all their models for Windows 10. I scoured the list of the hundreds of models they do support, and mine wasn’t on it! Who does that? Toshiba, that’s who!
Still, I held out hope, installed new drivers, tried a wireless port thingy, no luck. By now I’d spent about 36 hours messing around with this (granted, between sleeping and weeping it was more like 20, but still). I was coming up on two days of no writing, and with a 100k goal, that’s just not cool. So I wept a little more, had an ice cream, then pushed the”Restore Windows 7″ button.
Oh blessed Windows 7! I’ve never been so happy to see a thingy in my whole life. And I had internet! Right away! And it didn’t take forever to start up or clutter my desktop with bloatware. I was so thrilled, I immediately wrote two chapters.
So, the upshot of that sad tale is 1) my next laptop will be a Mac and 2) I’m behind on my Camp goal, but not by overly much. I can still do it. And sleep too.
I really don’t want to let my cabin down, because most of them are doing great. One of them even scored a publishing deal over the weekend. What an overachiever! So I’m definitely feeling the heat, which is good, since I perform well under pressure.
For those of you who are TL;DR, if you’re doing Camp, how’s it going for you?
by 
I have thought about updating to Windows 10 on my office pc, but put off by hearing all sorts of scare stories. Now that I have heard yours I am definitely not upgrading!! Thankful I have a Mac for my writing, and it is wonderful. Sorry you had to go through that, Christina.
To be fair to Windows, in this case it was my laptop that was the problem, but in my experience, these kinds of conversions are always a huge pain. I’ve had Macs in the past and loved them, and these days there’s writing software optimized just for it, so I’ll be happy to make the change.
Oh wow, shame on Toshiba for making that clear.
My Window 10 upgrade went smooth, quick, and no bumps, no disconnect from internet and I love it. But to fair, it is a Windows computer, I have a Surface Pro 3. I have not upgraded my older one with Windows 7 because I did not think there was enough room on hard drive for it and all the stuff I want to keep on the old one that still works also was not sure the processing would be up to standard for the new Windows 10 either, but it is like 5 years old.
So sorry for your frustration and stress. I’m doing NaNo. I have half my word count goal but lately been struggling. Hope you have a happier NaNo experience now that you are back online.
Juneta @ Writer’s Gambit
I guess I should have checked with Toshiba first, but MS gave me the go-ahead on my laptop, so I figured it was ok. My husband didn’t have any problems with his upgrade either, so I wasn’t anticipating any more bother than figuring out a new system.
Glad Camp NaNo is going pretty well for you. That middle point can be tough to get through!
oops NOT making it clear and waring you.
What a nightmare! You have talked me into getting a mac next time, too!!! You already know I met my goal at Camp. Validated my stuff today (7500 goal). But I’m actually a bit over 16,000 words on that silly story experiment. Feels like a bloomin’ marathon one tiny bit at a time.
I’ve told myself I can buy a mac when I’ve sold $10k worth of books. So it’ll be awhile. 🙂 I saw you met your goal. Isn’t is nice when a story just tells itself? Reminds me, I need to get caught up on your most recent episodes.
Gah! That sounds awful! I have a Mac but I back it up at least once a week. I suppose I’m doing the Camp, though I’m not going to finish by the end of the month. This story has grown monstrously big. :S
Fortunately all my stuff is backed up in multiple places (learned that the hard way a few years ago), or I would have not just been weeping, but weeping hysterically!