Crossroads

I had a lovely moment just now.  I very nearly deleted EVERYTHING of importance from my WORK computer.  Indeed, I did lose my yWriter files.  My Work in Progress.  I like to think that I am somewhat computer-savvy.  But it takes one wrong button (two in my case) to screw up a whole world.  Luckily I could retrieve everything again from a different location on my computer, even though Windows said "delete forever".  Stupid Windows.

Now I am at a crossroads.  I no longer have my chapter and a half that I have already written for my WiP.  I must start from scratch.  This is liberating and terrifying at the same time.  I can fix all the mistakes that I made the first time around.  The new version should be much better.  But at the same time I am afraid that I will not be able to keep to my original (and awesome) story idea.

I have so many options now.  Will I just rewrite what I had already written?  Will I start completely differently and keep to my original story idea?  Or will I write something completely different?  I have been toying with the idea of changing my story's period and setting somewhat.  A lot.  I did not want to do it before because it would have meant rewriting what I had already written.  Surprise surprise, I need to do that anyway now.  So do I want to keep my original story idea but incorporate the changes I was considering?

So many decisions to make.  So little time.  I guess I will have to just start writing again and see where my imagination takes me.  I do like plotting just a bit.  But the plot (such as it was) stays essentially the same.  It is just the supporting external factors that would change if I decide to change my period and setting.  Although I might be very naive and in the end everything will be different.  That is just a risk that I must take.  It makes the idea of rewriting a bit more enticing, though.  Who knows what will happen?

Have this ever happened to you?  That you lost everything you've been working on?  What did you do?