How many trees do you kill when revising/rewriting

NicoleMD · Oct 20, 2007

Just wondering, because I seem to go through an awful lot of paper. Sometimes I feel guilty, but I can't edit very well on screen. Each chapter usually gets printed out four times as I'm working on it, and every once in a while, I'll print out the latest version of the entire manuscript.

And what do you do with all of that paper when you're done with it?

Nicole

The_Grand_Duchess · Oct 20, 2007

I save mine and recycle it as drawing paper for my kids or note paper for my own classwork. I try not to just throw it away. You can just you know, recycle it.

a_sharp · Oct 20, 2007

I lost count but I don't worry about it. I figure as a writer I've got a legitimate claim to trees. The guys to go after are the mass mail junkies. And Santa Claus. Sorry, kids, but all those cards and letters really add up.

I print double-sided and own a small wastebasket-size shredder.

maestrowork · Oct 20, 2007

I'm weird... I don't print until I'm ready to submit.

Billingsgate · Oct 20, 2007

Enough paper is wasted in my house that I do the reverse: I print drafts on paper that's already been printed on one side. Thus I like to think that my drafts have no effect.

Ava Jarvis · Oct 20, 2007

I print from time to time, because hardcopy is more stable than bits in your computer in some ways. Of course, it's still nothing compared to if your book actually gets published.

Scrawler · Oct 20, 2007

During the edit/revision stage, I printed mine 8-10 times at least. Probably more. So that's at least 10 reams of paper. It all got recycled.

Haggis · Oct 20, 2007

I edit what I can in the 'puter, then I print out the file for a hard copy edit. For whatever reason, I see so much more that way. After making those changes in my Word file, I dispose of those pages at work where we recycle. So please, keep Al Gore off my backside.

JeanneTGC · Oct 20, 2007

I do it all online, and print out just before submittal. I hate it when I discover something AFTER I've printed. The screams of anguish are terrible.

Kojiro · Oct 20, 2007

As it stands, only electronic bytes live and die while I'm "revising" (although I call it "deciding on a better sentence structure"), so no trees are currently harmed in the making of this book.

Tornadoboy · Oct 20, 2007

Haggis said:
So please, keep Al Gore off my backside.

Better watch out, I've heard that even as we speak he's leaving his heated swimming pool at his mansion, taking his private jet to your state and having his armada of SUVs drive him to your house to lecture you in person.

blacbird · Oct 20, 2007

Every goddam one I can.

caw

Shady Lane · Oct 20, 2007

I don't edit on a hard copy, and I don't usually submit to agents who want hard copies. So I kill no tress until it's in print.

Theoretically.

NicoleMD · Oct 20, 2007

The_Grand_Duchess said:
You can just you know, recycle it.

Me? Recycle? You're talking to the woman who hasn't thrown a single receipt away in the last twelve years. I suspect I'll have a pile of old manuscript pages stacked in my closet as tall as I am in a few years.

Nicole

JoNightshade · Oct 20, 2007

I know almost exactly how many pages I've used. When I started the novel I'm now querying, my husband bought me a box of reams. You know, like the file-drawer size box filled with reams of paper. I now have one and a half reams left.

I had most of my drafts stacked up here and there around the apartment until I finished my "final" draft (for the time being). I then emailed it to myself, put a copy on each of my computers, and left a copy on my USB hard drive. I waited a few days, then rounded up all of my printed versions and made a trip to the recycle bin outside.

dmytryp · Oct 21, 2007

No hard copy revisions for me. I feel much more comfortable with a laptop where I can play around with the sentence until I'm satisfied.
I did print out an earlier versions, when I didn't know any bettrer

reenkam · Oct 21, 2007

I try to edit a couple of times on the computer, then I print out one copy 1.5 spacing, 10pt font, usually double sided. I go through that a couple of times (with different pens and/or highlighters) and then enter those edits into the computer. Then I do another go through in the computer and that's it.

I don't submit to agents who want hard copies...I'm a po' college student. I don't have enough money for ramen, let alone 12pt double spaced single side manuscripts.

*sigh*

spacejock2 · Oct 21, 2007

I think I posted this in another topic (if so, forgive me) but this is my stack, from ideas in the red folder at the bottom, to ARC at the top. And I've yet to hear back from my editor on the latest version.

Full explanation and a couple more editing-type pics here:
http://halspacejock.blogspot.com/2007/10/how-many-drafts.html

Elodie-Caroline · Oct 21, 2007

Hi,
For myself, I do all of my writing and editing on my PC, otherwise I would probably use enough trees to fill the Black Forest!

To be honest, I hate having to print out the three chapters etc., that usually go along with the query letter and synopsis. I wish I could send out my work on CD-roms instead.

P.S. For editing purposes; I send myself e-mails of my work onto Googlemail and then download it again to my PC as an html page. This way, I can only read it and not edit it as I go.

Elodie

Shadow_Ferret · Oct 21, 2007

I'm a green writer. I don't kill any trees during the entire writing process. Not in prewriting, not in writing, and not in postwriting. The only time I use paper is sending out queries and partials.

Chumplet · Oct 21, 2007

In the last two and a half years I probably offed one small sapling. I go electronic as much as I can. I may have gone through two packages of paper in the last two years, and it all gets recycled or it's still sitting on and around my desk.

GeorgieB · Oct 21, 2007

Electronic editing as much as possible, but there's a time when it's got to go on paper. I like to sit and read my stuff, blue/red pen and sticky notes at the ready. When I do that on the puter screen....

So I've killed a couple of trees.

Azure Skye · Oct 21, 2007

I used to print out all of my current drafts to make revisions on hard copy but after I started doing it on the computer, I only do it when necessary. I still make one hard copy after the first draft is finished though. The first edit needs (for me) to be done on hard copy.

ETA: I try to print all my drafts on already used paper. Saves money.

Zelenka · Oct 21, 2007

I try to edit as much as I can on the computer first, but I do tend to print out a lot, especially when I'm editing the first draft as that tends to be huge. I do use paper that my dad's laboratory usually just throws out, though, so I don't know if that counts as recycling. I don't recycle it afterwards, as most of the hard copies are still in folders or boxes around the place, covered in red pen, but I suppose I should think about it some time.

My biggest tree-killer when rewriting is probably my notebooks. I go through a load anyway, but usually during the edit / rewrite I change whole chunks of plot and have to write it out longhand to work out all the kinks. For my fantasy book, I'm up to notebook #4 now, and only just about to start the first rewrite.

Azraelsbane · Oct 21, 2007

I don't keep track, it'd be depressing. Lets just say I had to go with a laser printer because the price I paid for black ink cartridges in the span of a month was more than triple the price of my ink jet printer.

How many trees do you kill when revising/rewriting

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