Hello, writers. I've just sent the manuscript of Jinx 3 to HarperCollins, which leaves me with all kinds of free time. Maybe I'll mop the floors and wash the windows. Or do another rewrite of Jinx 3, what the heck.
Many thanks to teh GussieFN for suggesting tonight's topic...
Do you edit on paper or on the screen?
I do both. I see different things on the screen from what I see on paper. There are errors I don't catch until I see them on paper.
There are also things I don't catch unless I hear them, so I try to read aloud at least the first two chapters of each manuscript, even though reading aloud kind of hurts my jaw. (You gotta suffer for your art, y'know.)
I read on the screen when I'm doing content editing that may involve moving blocks of text around. (Although I have also done this with paper... using scissors and tape to cut and paste.) And if I know I'm going to have to write whole new paragraphs, it's better to be working at the computer.
When it comes to line editing and proofreading, though, I really need a printed page in front of me. Unfortunately I no longer have my lovely old HP network printer that would let me reuse paper.
Still, I can reuse the same printing of a manuscript through four or five bouts of editing, by using a different colored pen to make changes each time. I just write the date and the ink color on the first page (“10/12/13-- Green”). After each round of handwritten edits, I go to the computer and type in the changes. I don't reprint the manuscript until either I've run out of colors, or the manuscript has so many changes that the printout has become wildly inaccurate and/or impossible to read.
It still takes me three to five reams of paper to produce a 360 page novel, though, not counting the printouts that come from the publisher. (Some publishers have gone to copyediting on-screen, sending printouts only at the proofreading stage. Others are still doing copyedits on paper on the theory that you just don't catch all your errors on-screen.)
How about you? How do you edit? Screen? Paper? Both? Read-alouds?
Here's tonight's unrelated challenge.
We've talked before about the importance of engaging at least three senses in every 800 words or so.
But there are more than five senses. We also have a sense of:
balance
direction
proportion
justice
the ridiculous
Write the following scene. Engage at least two physical senses. Also engage one of the senses I mentioned above.
The hero of your story knocks on a door. S/he's been sent there to find someone. Supposedly the someone can tell your hero what s/he needs to know.
But no one answers the door. Instead, the door opens on its own, revealing a scene which the hero did not expect at all.
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