When Your Worst Writing Nightmare Becomes Reality: My WIP Files Were Targeted in a Cyberattack

Losing my home helper dog, Charlie, has already been one of the hardest emotional blows I’ve taken in a while. He passed away on Mother’s Day, and my birthday was the very next day — two days that should have been filled with celebration, not heartbreak. Charlie wasn’t just a pet; he was part of my family and my writing life. He used to lay beside my desk while I worked, resting his paw on my foot while he snoozed throughout the day so he’d know the moment I got up. The house — and my writing space — feels unbearably empty without him.

And while I was still trying to process that loss, life didn’t slow down. My eldest son graduated high school, which meant party planning, last‑minute errands, and showing up for ceremonies when all I wanted to do was lie still, wallowing in my depression, and stare at the ceiling. I was celebrating one of the biggest milestones of my son's life while feeling like something inside me had died with Charlie. It was joy and grief tangled together in a way that left me emotionally drained and barely functioning.

Grief has a way of hollowing you out, and for the past couple of weeks, I’ve barely had the strength to write, edit, or even sit at my computer. I’ve been heartsick, exhausted, and simply trying to exist.

Three days ago, I finally logged back onto my desktop — and discovered something I never imagined I’d have to face as an author.

Someone tried to hack my computer.

Cyberattacks are unfortunately common these days. But what happened next is not common. The attacker didn’t go after my banking info, my business information, my emails, or even my personal data.

They went after my WIP files.

Specifically, the Warriors of Anaa series.

Books 1 and 2 are already published. Book 3 was ready for release. Books 4 through 7 were in various stages of completion. And every single one of those manuscripts — every chapter, every scene, every hard‑won paragraph — was targeted.

The files are corrupted.

It Took Me a While to Realize What Actually Happened

At first, I didn’t even understand what I was looking at. I thought maybe the files glitched. My mind was racing through every possibility that I could come up with... Maybe Word crashed. Maybe my computer had a bad update. It felt ridiculous to even consider the idea that someone would intentionally target my works‑in‑progress (WIPs). Who does that? Why would anyone go after unfinished manuscripts?

I’m not Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, or Nora Roberts. Going after them would still be absolutely wrong in every possible way (and yes, I felt bad for even thinking that) — but at least it would make some kind of twisted sense. They’re household names with massive readerships. But me? I’m an indie author who’s still fighting for visibility, still trying to carve out a place in the literary world. I struggle every day just to get my work noticed. So why would someone target my manuscripts? Why go after someone who hasn’t even made a name for herself yet? It felt absurd — which is exactly why it took me so long to even consider that this could be intentional.

My manuscripts were still reading like normal in most places — but scattered throughout the narrative were these bizarre, randomized sections like the snippet below. The more I opened, the more I saw and the more disgusted I became — random formatting, missing pages, broken sentences, corrupted structure... It quickly became apparent that this wasn’t an accident. It wasn’t some weird glitch. It wasn’t user error.

This is what the corruption looks like — random formatting, missing text, and broken structure throughout the entire manuscript. (Warriors of Anaa #3, Actions Not Words)

It was deliberate.

And that realization hit harder than the corruption itself. Above is a screenshot of what the corruption looks like — broken formatting, missing text, and sentences that no longer make sense. This is only a tiny portion of the overall damage.

According to the tech who examined my system, the attacker didn’t gain full access, but they got far enough to damage the files before being blocked. The only thing that stopped them was the fact that I had a VPN running alongside my antivirus, malware protection, and firewall.

One of the manuscripts should be 172 pages; it now shows 166. Entire chunks have vanished. Random sections are missing. The file structure itself is compromised, meaning I can’t safely copy/paste anything without risking further corruption.

Every affected manuscript has to be rebuilt from scratch.

Thankfully, I have printed drafts and a few PDFs saved on my ReMarkable — but what if I didn’t? What if this had wiped out years of work entirely? And that’s another thing… because the files are corrupted, they won’t even print now! I can’t get clean hard copies at all. I tried to print them so I could at least map out the damage on paper (never underestimate the impact of old-school methods), but the printer refused to process the corrupted pages. Even that safety net was gone.

I’m devastated. I’m angry. And I’m sharing this because authors need to know this can happen. We protect our stories from plagiarism, piracy, and AI scraping… but this was different. This was someone actively trying to steal or destroy my work.

It feels like every step forward becomes three steps back in some twisted way. But if my experience can prevent even one author from losing their work, then at least something good can come from this mess.

⚠️PSA for Writers, Authors, and Creatives: Protect Your Work NOW

This is the part I want every writer to read and share. If you create anything — books, art, scripts, poetry, research — you need to protect it.

Here’s what I learned the hard way:

1. Use a VPN every time you’re online.

It was the only thing that stopped the attacker from fully accessing my system.

2. Keep multiple backups — not just digital.

• External hard drive

• Cloud backup

• Printed drafts

• PDFs saved to a separate device (tablet, ReMarkable, etc.... something that is offline so hackers cannot reach it.)

  
  

3. Turn on every layer of protection you have.

Antivirus, malware protection, firewall — all of it.

4. Don’t rely on a single device.

If your computer goes down, you need another way to access your work. (Even if it's an old school composition notebook.)

5. Check your files regularly.

Corruption can hide until it’s too late... run auto-scans in the background, update your hardcopies as you add to your manuscript, use a waterproof/fireproof case for your hardcopies, etc.

6. Never assume “it won’t happen to me.”

I never thought someone would target my manuscripts. And yet… here we are.

Please, please protect your creative work. You pour your heart into it. Don’t let someone else destroy it.

Final Thoughts

This has been a brutal few weeks — grief, exhaustion, and now the loss of months (and in some cases, years) of writing progress. But I’m not giving up. I’ll rebuild every manuscript. I’ll rewrite every missing scene. I’ll keep moving forward, even if it’s slow and painful.

And I hope my story helps you protect yours.

Stay safe. Protect your art. And keep writing — even when life tries to knock you down.