Nathan Bransford - The Forums

I was talking with a friend today about writing and the subject came up regarding editing your WIP. I thought about it and came to the conclusion that I am a paper and red pen editor. Meaning - I will print my MS and then do edits with a red pen.

How do you edit? Print the MS and jot your corrections/thoughts on the paper, or are you an on-screen editor? I'm hoping that I will turn into an on-screen editor so I don't have to use so much paper and printer ink...not very cost effective or environmentally friendly

~Kristie

I am an on-screen editor. The idea of printing everything out and marking it up on paper and then having to transfer all of that onto the screen makes me kind of have a panic attack. I'd much rather do everything on screen at once as I go. I do have a sweet notecard system that I use to figure out plot and pacing problems, which is about the only form of editing I do that is not on screen. I can also do this process in excel, but I enjoy buying note cards, highlighters, and post-it notes too much. The excel version wasn't nearly as satisfying when I tried it.

Both. Printing it out and reading it allows me to step back and look at the bigger picture. But I'm not going write new dialogue in the margins! If I don't like something, I'll just write "need better dialogue here" and continue on. The actual revising happens on the screen, but the printed page helps me with overarching pacing and characterization problems.

Both and one more.

I'll do an on-screen edit, in which my eyes only catch a certain amount. Then I'll take it to my e-reader, where my eyes catch even more, and I'll do a final one on paper. And I guarantee there will still be typos!

CV

It depends on the stage for me. My first edit is on screen, but since I write the barest of details into my first draft it's more like a fleshing out rather than a real edit. After that, print and red pen, baby! I cannot edit my own novels on screen (though I can do Matt's just fine). I have to have it on paper, feel the pen in my hands, and read the words in a different way than I've been staring at them for months. Otherwise I skim over everything and don't get any real work done.

wilderness wrote:Both. Printing it out and reading it allows me to step back and look at the bigger picture. But I'm not going write new dialogue in the margins! If I don't like something, I'll just write "need better dialogue here" and continue on.

Yup. What wilderness said.

Quick pass on screen, then hard copy to my alpha reader (she prefers it), mark-ups in pencil/pen. If I'm making a really big change, like adding a whole new scene, I'll just make a note and do the change on computer, but most edits I hand-write first. If I run out of margin, that's what the back of the paper is for!

I find the change of format helpful; it makes it easier to look at the text with new eyes. Also easier to compare two sections if I need to check for consistency or follow-up. I do feel a bit bad for the trees, but on the other hand, it means I have a hard-copy back-up!

I like the idea of paper and pen (I'm not in editing mode yet, so I'll cross that fire when I get to it). But I also know that printing will cost me a lot of money, so I don't know. It's likely I'll end up just saying "forget about it" and just re-writing the whole thing anyway because the first one will be such a disaster I won't be able to look at it

Maybe not with a red pen, but still. When I print my piece of wriitng out, I see my mistakes more precisely.

Hi,

I was a paper with yellow marker and red pencil and double space and margin editing fiend.
I have other people helping me and we recently all went on screen using MSWord with its change and review tools I think it's great because ; as long as they turn the features on I know where they've made corrections and where they have noted a plot glitch or some other problem with the writing. I can also write notes if I want to stet it in case they look again and wonder why I let it stand.

My advice though is that you will need specific bookkeeping on file versions and lots of backups. Cloud or something. Two things that drive me buggy are finding out all the corrections have vanished or that last weeks work took a walk.

I'm a pen and paper kind of person. I prefer it because writing out the new stuff makes me slow down and actually focus on the words. When I'm reading it on screen I tend to go fast because the changes can be made quickly with the click of a button. On paper, I have to slow down because I write much slower than I type. Plus, I can use all my colored pens for the edits, which is always fun.

guichizango wrote:I'm a pen and paper kind of person. I prefer it because writing out the new stuff makes me slow down and actually focus on the words. When I'm reading it on screen I tend to go fast because the changes can be made quickly with the click of a button. On paper, I have to slow down because I write much slower than I type. Plus, I can use all my colored pens for the edits, which is always fun.

I used to tap away at a smith corona non electric to me the computer word document is like fire was to the caveman. People can't read my handwriting ,h**l i cant read my handwriting.

For day-to-day edits I can get by with editing onscreen, but if it's a full edit of the overall manuscript I've gotta print it out. I usually tackle edits with my trusty blue pen.

If I'm editing my own work, I prefer to print it out and mark it up. As others have said, changing the format makes it easier to see with fresh eyes.

I do a lot of work copyediting manuscripts for others, though, and in that case I find that on-screen editing works fine. Since I'm reading something for the first time, I don't have any difficulty moving slowly and scrutinizing each word.

One thing I really hate about copyediting with paper and pen is the additional time it takes to transcribe corrections to the electronic document. Also, there's the possibility of transcription errors—maybe you got something right in the paper mark-up, but you copied it wrong into the computer. I'd rather just do it once in the electronic document and maybe give the whole thing a second pass if I feel it needs it.

I've never even thought about printing it off and then penning my thoughts down in red...

It'll make it easier. I usually get my laptop out, make a pot of tea and put a film on for some distraction every ten minutes or so.

I usually write on notepad and i rarely print them out unless i am totally finished with writing