Fun with search and replace

AnnieColleen · Dec 28, 2006

So I'm working on changing a scene from 3rd to 1st person and figured I'd search-and-replace 'she' with 'I'. Easy, right? Except I forgot the characters were also talking about two other female characters. So apparently my MC is really getting into the history she's learning, or else she's (I's?) hallucinating.

I was amused.

Carrie in PA · Dec 28, 2006

TrainofThought · Dec 28, 2006

I changed my WIP from 3rd to 1st person, never thought to do a search and replace because of other characters. The change in POV is taking me twice as long to revise, but my gut tells me 1st person is better for my story. Good luck with the revisions.

Julie Worth · Dec 28, 2006

AnnieColleen said:
So I'm working on changing a scene from 3rd to 1st person and figured I'd search-and-replace 'she' with 'I'. Easy, right? Except I forgot the characters were also talking about two other female characters. So apparently my MC is really getting into the history she's learning, or else she's (I's?) hallucinating.

I was amused.

You can save yourself a lot of trouble by first isolating the dialogue so that words within quotes are not replaced. You can turn it red, for instance, and then only replace words in black.

AnnieColleen · Dec 28, 2006

Good thought with using colors. I forgot sometimes what tricks Word can do.

It wouldn't have helped completely, though. I also realized the narrator was riding a mare!

ToT, thanks for the good wishes! Same back to you.

PeeDee · Dec 28, 2006

<wet_blanket>

I don't think I could change a book from 3rd to 1st person just by searching and replacing. If only because I write very differently in 1st person than I do in 3rd person. 3rd person, I have the narrator talking, whether visible or invisible to the reader, and the narrator has a tone of voice that is how the story is told. In 1st person, the tone of voice comes directly from the character who is speaking, and thus sounds like him. It changes everything for me.

I've always thought that was how a good 1st person novel works. I've seen some (and own some) 1st person novels that feel like 3rd person, just with the word "I" instead of "he" tacked in, and I always though they came off as stiff.

Maybe it's just me.

</wet_blanket>

flannelberry · Dec 28, 2006

Tell me more about using the colour option. Can you highlight certain things in one colour and then only change that colour?

Tell me more!!!

Jamesaritchie · Dec 28, 2006

Third

I can change third person limited to first person, or first person to third person limited, very quickly, but not by using seach and replace. I think this would only screw things up.

AnnieColleen · Dec 28, 2006

PeeDee said:
<wet_blanket>

In my particular case, I'd only written a couple of 3rd-person scenes for this character, and they weren't working, hence the change. And search-and-replace was just a starting point that didn't work quite as planned. A learning experience, right?

johnzakour · Dec 28, 2006

Once back in my geekier days I wrote a perl program to do this, ignoring phrases between quotes. Writing the program probably took longer than just replacing the words by hand.

Now to my simpler older mind, it seems far easier, safer and in the end faster to go through by "hand" replacing the she with I.

Plus to older me, changing a book from 3rd to 1st person is more than just changing the pronouns, it's also changing the perspective as the 1st person would see things differently than an omniscient 3rd person. Going through by hand allows you to do this.

Julie Worth · Dec 28, 2006

flannelberry said:
Tell me more about using the colour option. Can you highlight certain things in one colour and then only change that colour?

Tell me more!!!

How to turn your dialogue red? In Word it's easy! I posted this in the tech section a while back, but I’ll copy it here, as it comes from a couple of threads.

Put “?@” in the find box, and put nothing in the replace box. Select a font color of red for the replace box. Make sure the “use wildcards” box is selected, then replace all. Most or all of your dialogue should turn red.

(Tip: You can copy “?@” here with Control-c and use Control-v to paste it in the find box.)

The method also allows you to quickly locate problems with your quote marks, like so:

To find missing leading quotes or excess trailing quotes, put ” in the find box and select the automatic font color for the find box. Find next will then take you to the first problem area. Keep doing that until it can find no more.

To find missing or backwards trailing quotes, or excess leading quotes, put ?“ in the find box and select the red font color for the find box. Hit find next, and so on. Once you’ve corrected them all, select all from the edit pull down menu, change everything back to the original color (automatic) and redo this procedure as a check.

But what if you’ve been using straight quotes? Use this method to turn straight quotes into smart quotes:

Turn on smartquotes
Turn on wildcards
Cut and paste the stuff in red, without spaces:

FIND: "<
REPLACE: “

FIND: "
REPLACE: ”

sfecphory · Dec 28, 2006

I used to amuse myself at work by using 'search and replace' in business letters. I would search for something basic, like the letter "i" and have it replaced with a phrase, such as, "and upon my word, I shall avenge you." Then I'd search and replace for "e," replacing it with "and her skin does glisten in the moonlight." You can get some pretty avant garde expirimental writing done that way.

PattiTheWicked · Dec 28, 2006

I always thought the best use of search and replace was the one someone posted online, where they took a passage from "Harry Potter" and replaced every instance of the word "wand" with "penis."

Much hilarity ensued.

Marlys · Dec 28, 2006

In my last book, I decided to change a minor character's surname from "Tate" to "Smart," and did a "replace all." Unfortunately, I forgot to check the "Find whole words only" box, and ended up with phrases like "He hesismartd" and "They visited the essmart."

Thank all the gods for the "Undo" option...

scarletpeaches · Dec 28, 2006

PattiTheWicked said:
I always thought the best use of search and replace was the one someone posted online, where they took a passage from "Harry Potter" and replaced every instance of the word "wand" with "penis."

Much hilarity ensued.

Reminds me of a 'breaking into someone's computer and replacing each letter E with the word smeggycock' incident at college.

Hilarity indeed prevailed!

Fun with search and replace

AnnieColleen

Invisible Writer

Carrie in PA

Write All The Words!

TrainofThought

A flowering bud of bitchiness

Julie Worth

What? I have a title?

AnnieColleen

Invisible Writer

PeeDee

Where's my tea, please...?

flannelberry

Jamesaritchie

AnnieColleen

Invisible Writer

johnzakour

Dangerous with a Keyboard

Julie Worth

What? I have a title?

sfecphory

PattiTheWicked

Unleashing Hell.

Marlys

Resist. Love. Go outside.

scarletpeaches