"Captain Brown" is a rather large story that I have worked on for years, perhaps since 2007. During Covid, I became ill several times and was surprised to find out that I survived. Along the way I forgot about that story.
This year, I was surprised to find it again languishing away on a Thumb Drive. Then I found it seemingly hidden on my Desktop. I have no idea if they are of similar vintage. Then, last night I watched Robert A. Heinlein's, "Starship Troopers" on YouTube. This morning I must face that my "Captain Brown" copies many of those scenes and I have decided that for me to publish it would be plagiarism perhaps. I use Windows, and the only way I know to delete a file is to highlight it and press Delete. In old DOS it was rather simple to undelete files, but not now. I feel sad about this.
Comments
Windows undelete
Back in the days of WinXP, pressing the "Delete" key to delete a file simply moved that file to the "Trash can". So unless you emptied the trash can, recovering that file was as simple as opening the "Trash can" and either moving it to a different location or right-clicking on the file and selecting "Restore". I believe that more recent, and more bloated, versions of Windows have probably retained that same paradigm.
I use Linux with KDE as my graphical user interface. And it uses the same paradigm as explained above for WinXP. Using the command line interface is a different kettle of fish.
Cheers,
Jessica Nicole
Please Don't
Please don't delete your major creativity. Even if you decide not to use it, it doesn't do any harm to keep it. You may change your mind, you may revise it, etc.
-- Daphne Xu
Slim chance, but ...
Look in the Windows (10) Recycle Bin,
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Any chance you have been doing backups?
Windows 'search' from File Explorer may be able to locate items based on partial name. Works on 'hard' drives and also USBs.
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Good Luck!
Not plagerism
It was said a long time ago that there is nothing new under the sun. Stories in similar settings will feature similar situations. What makes the difference is your characters and presentation of the material. As an example, think of a basic rom-com. Boy meets girl. Circumstances separate them as one or the other denies the attraction. In the end true love prevails. If everyone following that formula is a plagiarist we need bigger jails. The same is true for space operas and oaters.
Even music. I mean, John
Even music. I mean, John Williams pulled many of the themes for his best works from Gustav Holst, "The Planets" (specifically Mars. Listen to that, and you'll find Star Wars _and_ Raiders of the Lost Ark)
Some accuse him of theft. I point out that variations on a theme have been part of music for centuries.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.