Construction Zone: Hard Copy to Digital Edits
If you've been reading here awhile, you know that I can't do line-edits on the screen. Or rather I can, but I miss stuff. A lot of stuff. Enough that it's worth the paper and ink to print out a copy of everything. What always fascinates me is that when I finish marking up the hard copy and start going through to make the edits into the digital copy, I always end up changing things yet again. It's kind of like my brain works differently when I see the words in different formats...I never want to leave something I've marked to edit on the hard copy, but I do sometimes change the way that I'd planned to edit it.
This makes me wonder about how different my writing would have been back when paper was the norm. I draft on the computer for obvious reasons, would it be different if I did my first drafts on a typewriter (or, heaven forbid, by hand)? And if the hard copy edit was all I did, without going over it one more time as I type in both the planned and unplanned edits, how would that affect my work?
Not that any of it matters, of course.For me, the hard copy edits are an absolute necessity, as I'm never happy with anything after just a digital edit...I need that paper experience for some reason. And of course I have to have a digital final draft in this day and age. I don't see myself drafting on a typewriter anytime soon either. It's just interesting that the two mediums produce such different results for me.
Are you a hard-copy editor, or do you keep the edits all digital? If you edit on hard copy, do you find that when you type your edits in, you're actually doing a third revision on the fly? And just to mix it up more, if you use an e-reader with e-ink, do you find that documents look different between your computer and your reader?
Categories: Construction Zone
Tags: editing revising writing drafts
I have found a hard copy edit does allow catching more errors, but I rarely have time to do them. Even when I am not too close to deadline, by the time I finish an ms, I am too sick of it to look through it, and usually don't have enough time to set it aside (at least with Harlequins), which is why I am thankful for my editors and copy editors. Also, by the time the ms makes it back to me, a few months later, I am in the mood to look at it again. *G*
But I am editing my own stuff, for Kindle, and I still do it online. I am so used to it now, doing all my freelance, etc online, that I just can't bring myself to print out hundreds of pages.
If I had to write by hand, I wouldn't be writing at all -- mild arthritis makes it painful to hand write more than a shopping list or a birthday card, and my writing has gone downhill on that. I have to really focus to make my writing legible, and even after filling out Tupperware Party invites, my fingers hurt for a day or so. See what it's like getting old? LOL
Sam
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Sam, I was actually thinking of you when I asked about e-ink...I've heard of authors doing a final read-through of their ms on a kindle, because it approximates a paper read-through. Ever tried that?
Yeah, I'm sick of my ms's too when they're finished.
And I actually already have arthritis in my right hand from a bad break as a teen (shattered the back of my hand). So I can't write longhand for any length of time either, and my writing is far from legible. I am semi-ambidextrous though from being in a cast for two months... LOL
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The first paragraph of this post could have been written by me. I'm starting to think we're twins who were born to different parents in different countries a few years apart.
However, being your "older" twin I can admit that when I first started writing it was long-hand and then typed. I wrote those first drafts in pencil so they were easy to change. From there it was pretty much the same process as it is now, I'd edit as I typed and once it was typed I'd do line edits. The big difference was that any typos or changes to the typed copy meant you'd have to re-type the whole thing. Yes, I did waste a lot of paper.
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LOL Carol. I actually started writing long-hand in high school as well, only I used pen. Never could stand the feel of led scratching against paper - still makes me grit my teeth.
Yikes on the retyping over and over and over - thank goodness for computers, eh?
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Um, that would be "lead". LOL
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LOL, I wrote my entire 1st novel longhand and half of my 2nd that way. When I get a big bout of writer's block I revert to longhand.
I agree that stuff is easier to catch in hardcopy, but I just can't afford the ink.
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Sucks that ink is so expensive, doesn't it? *sigh*
Wow on writing all that in longhand! I do like to outline/plan in longhand...for some reason, it flows easier sometimes than on the screen.
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