The benefits of editing from hard copy

1 - bloated, rambling stream of consciousness.
2 - query agents
3 - stroke of luck
4 - sign contract with agent
5 - about a dozen rounds of revisions
6 - repeat

1 - Baggy, saggy, throw-whatcha-got-at-the-computer, no looking back, usually in one long wordspew, no chapters.

2 - Longhand. Tightening, dropping dialogue tags, rambling introspection, other crap. Divided up into James-Pattersonesque short chapters.

3 - Back onto the computer in manuscript format. As the longhand chapters I wrote were so short, I can give them a quick overview and see if any need to be jiggled about, stuck together or rearranged as I type.

Done.

1. A quick first draft, very loose
2. Edit and re-edit each chapter on paper until I kill several small forests. Update electronic copy as I go.
3. One edit pass on paper through the entire manuscript, and update electronic copy
4. Sit on it a few months. Write some other stuff.
5. One electronic revision, then on paper again.

Nicole

I also prefer to editing on hard copy, when it's more than just polishing for spelling and grammar. It's refreshing for my eyes to see the text on paper, away from the screen--even though the font hasn't changed, it still looks different.

First draft - I'm closing in on finishing my ninth complete novel, so by now I've gotten pretty good at clean first drafts. I'll have spots to fill in with research, places to go back and double-check a date/character name/whatever. I'll fix the gaps, polish it up, and give it to my betas. Edit again based on their feedback.

In the past, this is when I'd let it sit, read it in a few weeks, tighten anything else that didn't seem right, then start querying. Now the polished draft goes to my agent, who makes suggestions. Then to my editor. I'll print drafts to use for both agent/editor revisions, so I can really sit down and immerse myself in the story. It's easier to do that at a table, surrounded by pages, than at my desk.

I'll do light spelling and grammar on the PC. For heavier editing I almost always go off a hard copy, or scratch the section entirely and rewrite it by hand. Generally if I have to edit a section too much, I step back and rewrite it again while keeping in mind the essence of what I was going for without looking at how I tried to say it the first time.

Funny, I just read a blog entry about this by John Connolly:

http://www.johnconnollybooks.com/2008/11/final-day.html

1. Write it the best I can the first time so I don't have to deal with all the revising.

That's honestly what I do...though I proofread it sometime later to catch the typos and small plot errors. I do that before I post it to the Web, to avoid embarrassment. I used to do drafts, including reading the entire hardcopy backwards word by word, but even back then it was mostly just checking small things rather than majorly redoing anything.

I have to do this from the monitor now since printing it all out would be a huge waste of paper, ink, and money. (My stories are HUGELY long, and there aren't any laser printers for sale around here, even if they were affordable. ) There's minimal difference, between onscreen and hardcopy, in how I approach fixing up my work, but I do recall that when I used to print things out, it made things slightly easier in that 1. I didn't have to stare at a computer screen all the time and 2. I could carry the hardcopy and work on it elsewhere, not just at the computer (we haven't a laptop, either). Good times.

But basically it's all done on the monitor now. Even if we did have a better printer I doubt I'd proof from hardcopy, I'd be killing way too many trees.

My plan:

1. Get it down (screen). Include overuse of being verbs, reliance on adverbs, bare-bones narrative and lack of research. Takes a lot longer than it should & is not seen by any eyes but mine.
2. Go through it (screen). Do big, messy changes or additions. Plump up narrative with introspection and description, research settings, fix plot holes, characterize properly.
3. Go through it again (screen). Refine the prose. Insert strong verbs, rewrite the bland parts, add witty observations, fix grammar, merge or split up sentences. Result is a presentable MS ready for beta reading.
[let it simmer]
4. Print it out and go through with red pen (hard) while considering changes from beta readers.
5. Final draft (screen). Add in changes from hard copy. Decide on chapter breaks, insertion of flashbacks, etc.

... & now I go to nitpick my first chapter even though I'm only 18k words in.

I write on computer a lot. Until I get stuck, then I break out the pen and paper.

When editing I usually work on computer for the first few passes through. Eventually I print it out and then destroy it by marking it up.

Working with actual paper and pen (whether writing or editing) lets my brain think differently. But it can be counterproductive in the middle stages of the process. I find it works best on rough drafts and very polished material, but not the quasi-decent stuff inbetween.

First draft - full of crap.
Read it and write down the big problems.
Edit for the big issues.
Another edit to fix the small crap.
Another edit just cuz I'll find more crap.
Send to crit partner.
Crit partner shreds it.
Edit.
Print.
Edit.
Out the door.

Ironically, this is actually the first novel I've been writing that I retained interest enough to actually go back over it again. So, current strategy is...

1. Write first draft in three chapter segments on seperate word files, each segment usually about twenty thousand words. The separate files are generally because every time I've tried to write the full book on one or two word files, the entire thing starts to feel like this huge literary blob, and so every ten thousand words seems to be contributing less and less...

2. Compile every sixty thousand words, or nine chapters, into one file for easy revising. Store original twenty thousand word files in secure place in case someone ever steals my precious book, for lawsuit purposes.

3. If I'm in a writing mood, continue novel trail blazing. If I'm in a bit of a block, as I find myself now, start from the beginning of what I've written and revise up to the point I left off at, hoping eventually the block will get jarred loose.

That's basically it so far. Presumably, when I'm finished the three sixty thousand word blocks that Part 1 of my novel consists of, I'll combine them and see how they mesh together, making any changes or edits that crop up. Right now, though, focusing more on the present than what I'll do in the future.

I typically do a print-out after I have gone over the electronic PDF copy many, many times.

Printing out nearly a hundred thousand words (double spaced) isn't something I'd want to do too many times. It does help a lot though, your brain is in a different "mode" when looking at paper than it is when you look at a screen.

Definitely much easier to edit on hard copies. The red pen is simple, elegant, efficient, visible, and fast, and doesn't cause eye strain and headaches after a period of time.

First draft on computer with extensive offline & online time doing research (hard SF) then a final spellcheck. I usually have extensive handwritten notes at this time.

Second draft on computer basically going through and revising chapter sequences, fixing continuity problems, spelling errors, and checking chapter lengths. A grammar check is usually done about this time as well.

Print out of complete 2nd draft. Go through by hand adding in notes and revising, fixing problems, adding character elements, and checking the science.

Third draft consists of fixing those problems found in the first longhand run-through.

Fourth draft involves going through the thing on computer and adding in afterthoughts, doing another spellcheck and grammar check, fixing logic problems, and adding in character elements that were taken out in any of the other 3 drafts.

Fifth draft is a readthrough on computer. This is followed by completely printing out the entire work and going through it longhand. This is the sixth draft.

Seventh draft is fixing the problems noted in longhand on the computer that arose during the sixth draft then sending this draft out to selected beta readers for their complete read-through and opinion.

Any problems noted by the beta readers gets fixed and this final draft gets copied with a master set on the shelf, an archived copy put in a safe off-site place, and several other copies archived in various other places (a couple of jump drives, a CD burn, backups of the backups, etc.).

I now build the synopsis, outline, and query letter (although I'll have played with the query letter, testing the waters, at this stage)

At this stage I start querying agents and hoping for lightning to strike.

I also usually have at least 3 different major projects unfinished and about a dozen short stories in one form or another by this time as well.

Jings. That's a lot of drafts. I have only two or three and it seems to suit me just fine.

Funny that I'm getting more interest these days and I write far fewer drafts.

I'm obsessive, I guess. I want the work to be as polished as I can possibly make it before I start querying. In between the first draft and the seventh, portions of my work are seen by a writer's group (which includes published science fiction authors from the Analog forum), but it's only after the 6th/7th that anyone really gets to read the whole thing in its entirety other than me (and my research helpers (this last time 2 PhDs at Cal and 4 PhD candidates, also at Cal) who always get a copy of the first draft).

Because of the research I do my first draft sometimes comes out looking more like a lecture than a story (sometimes complete with footnotes) so a lot of editing is usually needed (and before you ask, I'm unpublished thus far novel-wise, but I used to work as a journalist and technical writer which is probably why I've needed to unlearn a lot of what I thought I knew - and maybe why I do so many drafts).

BTW, by the time of the 7th+ draft, I figure I've written about a quarter of a million words on the same damned 80k word book!

Yes, it does get frustrating at times.

First draft, which was too short and most of which I trashed outright

Outline (yup, did it after the first draft)

Second draft, which remains incomplete (last 20K not there) while I revise to bring everything in line what how the story developed. I'll grab all the hard issues and deal with them and editing.

Likely somewhere in here I'll discover I'm running short and have to add something to bring up the word count.

Then a pass over it to check for viewpoint issues.
Anothe pass for repetitions (These last three steps are done on printed copies).
On the computer, search for empty words and words that are easy to repeat.
Then back to printed versions for three proofreading passes.

I can't edit on paper anymore. I get itching to go fix it... and I have more room on screen to just change the line/ paragraph/scene to what I want rather than trying to squeeze into margins. And I don't like going through the doc again just to make the changes I've marked on paper.

I don't read any more closely on paper than on screen. It's all mindset anyway. I just slow down and read very carefully, focusing on the individual sentences/ paragraphs/ scene instead of the whole story.

But whatever works. Some people even eat coconut.

I used to edit off hard copy but found I was missing too many things, especially at the nitty-gritty stage of editing. I'll do a hard copy edit off the manuscript I pass to my beta reader but that's about it.

For final proof and polish I zoom the screen to 130%/140%. The jumbo words jump off the page, forcing me to read what's actually there (rather than what I expect to be there). It's easier for me to spot the dropped words, typos, etc, when they're right in my face!!

I am performing my fourth round of edits - from hard copy - and I am distracted because it's difficult. I searched the forum to see if I was alone and it appears I am not, although the thread died eight-and-a-half years ago.

I found the methods above encouraging and thought that it might be useful for others who are new, like me, who are flirting with the finish line of a major work and wondering how much editing is too much.

I, too, print off my first drafts and edit them. There's something oddly satisfying about striking out text and adding things in the margins and/or in between the printed lines. It keeps my thoughts organized, and the manuscript organized, as well. Also, it saves on the eyeballs so I'm not constantly looking at a computer screen. By the time I have the second draft typed out, I find it much easier after that to tighten up the weak spots that are still kicking around. I know many people nowadays just edit right on their processor, but I don't do that until the last couple polishes. Before that, it's all on the paper, and scribbling things into my notebook.

Sorry! I used to be a VBulletin admin for a different forum where it frustrated veterans when newbies didn't use the search function but started new threads instead.

I thought the advice in here was great.

Sorry.