Thursday, August 30, 2012

Gazillionth Draft

So I'm up to my gaxillionth draft of Dragons' Nests.
In honour of reaching my gazillionth draft I demanded my Beloved resurrect the printer. It was thus duly lugged in from the back shed. (Yep, that  one, the one my Sprocket locked my Beloved and my Poppet in) The printer has been in a box since we left Vanuatu as I thought it was broken, and my Beloved thought it was fine but somehow never got around to sorting it out.
We were both right.
The printer was fine.

The cord that connects it to the computer was not so fine. Rats had obviously been busy and it was in pieces. *
Luckily, my beloved got out the soldering gun and the above was the happy result. Nifty, huh? I was impressed. This is one of the many reasons my Beloved is my Beloved. So the printer was connected to the computer with strict instructions not to so much breathe or the sky would fall in and the printer would die.
And what do you know, it printed! I now have a hardback copy of my manuscript. You know, of actual ink and paper.
Editing an ink and paper version is curiously different to editing on the computer. I seem to be picking things up a lot quicker. And the whole 'pen-in-hand' seems to make me a lot more ruthless.
Possibly not as ruthless as the Poppet, however.


But I'm liking it. I'm a little bit perplexed that there's still so much to fix. I was sure I'd gone over the first page at least a hundred million times, and yet there was still stuff I was correcting.

How about you, can you edit on the computer, or do you prefer a hardcopy? Or a mix?


*This was sort of ironic as when we were first going out and living in the Solomon Islands I gave my Beloved a puppy who might, or might not, have had a chewing problem. Anyway, all my Beloved's computer cables were destroyed. I blamed rats. Not such a long shot as rats did, occasionally, eat our hair at night. This time my Beloved actually believes me. It really was rats. 

7 comments:

  1. I very nearly printed it out to edit, but then decided that really I was going to have to get better at letting trees live sometime. I edited my own book on screen too...but a friend who helped printed it all and put it in a binder. So...both! :-)

    I'm happy to re-read and edit anything you like, of course...I'm so intrigued and can't wait for more!

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    1. I always feel so bad for the trees... I try to use scrap paper and double side and cram two pages to a sheet normally... but this time I couldn't fix the settings and it all just shot out! Maisie will draw on the back though!

      I will definitely be holding you to re-reading if you don't mind. A new (and hopefully improved) Nell will be heading you way soon! With much much thanks!

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  2. I love reading ebooks, but I can't edit anything on screen. I'm a printer. Sorry trees.

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    1. It is just a different experience! I don't know what it is but when I see something all printedI can tell so much quicker when it's just-not-right! I'm sorry trees...
      I'm trying to balance it with the 4 camellias and the rose I've just bought to plant... but they're not really trees...

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