Evening, squiders. I just need to get through this week and then things will calm down, fingers crossed.
I mentioned last week how my spouse was asking about my printing out the chapters to edit them, and then last night I saw the reasons in action.
Brains are weird. They work in strange ways, and sometimes the simple act of changing the way you’re looking at something reveals new issues, or provides a new solution, or any number of things.
I write primarily on the computer. I might handwrite sometimes, but in general I find it doesn’t flow as easily for me, and I do type up everything I handwrite anyway. I’ll re-read on the computer as well, and do lower level edits and revisions there.
I’d like to think I’m catching most of the issues there, but experience says I’m not. For some reason, printing a chapter (or a story) out onto paper resets something in your brain. Maybe it’s a visual thing. Maybe it’s a texture thing. I’m not sure and I’m too tired right now to go and look. But you see things on paper you miss on a screen.
Also, with a paper copy, you can more easily make bigger changes. I know someone who will physically cut the paper version apart if things need to be reordered. I like to underline or highlight problem words so I can see how often I’m using them, and I’ll use the margins to brainstorm solutions or ask myself questions, or point out something that’s not working and list possible fixes.
(Also there’s something very satisfying about scribbling out a section that is not working.)
As a final step, I will read the story out loud, because this again resets something in your brain and reveals new problems you didn’t know you were having. (Normally sentence-level flow issues, at least for me.)
Right now I’m working on the re-typing phase of Chapter 20.
(Revision steps go something like this:
- Print out chapter
- Read over notes I made about chapter
- Do paper edit with red pen, highlighting overused words, noting things that need changing, writing myself notes
- Re-type the chapter, making changes as I go, which includes fixing plot level issues or confusing areas, as well as fixing flow or voice as needed
- Repeat with next chapter)
When I did the paper edit on Chapter 20, I was pretty impressed with myself. “This is a good chapter,” I said. “Interesting things happen, and this is a good plot development, and the characterization is also working really well. I think I only need to clean some things up and add in more explanation in a couple of places.”
Last night I spent about an hour on the retyping phase. And that’s where I found this particular issue.
There’s a bunch of looking, gazing, glancing, etc. The viewpoint character’s eyes are doing ALL the work.
THIS is why I revise in multiple mediums. AND why I retype. My initial readthrough didn’t catch this issue. I didn’t catch it in the paper edit. But by working back through the chapter again, rewriting the chapter, it was obvious. And now I know I need to do another sweep to catch and fix filtering issues.
Because, invariably, when I notice something, readers will notice it too. Without fail. Sometimes I’ll leave something in before I send a chapter out for critique, and if it is something I’ve noted, someone else will always bring it up.
After all, if something’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right. And I really, really want this to be the last revision on this book.
Do you know why different mediums help your brain see different issues, squider? Favorite thing about working on paper versus the computer?
No guarantees about Thursday or Friday, but hopefully I’ll see you then!
