Slow news week.
Prior to last week I had had Microsoft Office open on the computer all year.
This week, I didn’t. No manuscripts, no nothing. I have not touched the story. A clean break, cold turkey styles. I decided I needed a rest. First for myself, to let my brain concentrate on other things for awhile. But secondly for the story itself. Before I go and start ripping it to shreds I want to get a bit of space, a bit of perspective.
Basically I want to forget the story.
When writing you know all the details, you know both what is on the page and what is supposed to be on the page but you also know something else: You know what you think is on the page but may not actually necessarily positively be there. In your mind all the details are there but perhaps you didn’t write them down as well as you thought or your allusions were too paper thin or whatever.
So if I forget the story (as best I can in a couple of weeks) I should be able to get back to the manuscript with a fresh set of eyes. No, that’s too cliche. Let’s say I’ll get back to the manuscript with a head full of other crap instead. So with a brain thus distracted when I go to review the manuscript it will be quite clear what is and what is not written down. If something is missing I can add it in. If I’ve hit the nail on the head so many times that the nail has gone through the wood and out the other side, I can delete with impunity.
That’s the beauty of editing.
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Although I haven’t been writing the story, I’m never too far away from ‘And Here The Wheel’. I’ve been working on the podcast and episode # 5 should be out this week. Some of the characters will be making cameos in some other E:D stories so I’ve been helping with that. I’ve been keeping up with the forums, helping out Lave Radio and getting involved in other ventures such as Jagged Alliance:Flashback.
What you say? Another Kickstarter? Are you insane?
Well, yes, yes I am. I loved Jagged Alliance as a little teenager. I won’t ever have the time to play this game probably, but I want it made and I want to support it. (Sound familiar?) I even made a ‘teaser trailer’ video for it.
So it hasn’t been a week of rest, its merely been a week of ‘being busy with other stuff’.
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Something I have been thinking about is how do I approach the next step in my manuscript. If you have read my plan You’ll know that I’m behind schedule and that I planned to print out the manuscript to review it.
I am wondering if I’m just being a stubborn old-school editor here. I always like to read paperbooks versus ebooks and I like to do my line edits on paper. But for the first step, simply highlighting areas of weaknesses and suggesting fixes, do I need to print out?
Using appropriate headers to make chapters easy to find, notes, bookmarks and other whiz-bang things kids use these days, can I just toughen up and do it on the screen? A few advantages: it saves me the cost of printing and once complete it saves a step of transferring the notes from paper back to the electronic copy. That is quite appealing.
On the other side, working on paper just feels more comfortable, which is an important factor too.
What do you think? Am I being silly? Is there some tool I don’t know about which makes this alot easier? Any advice / thoughts / blatant attacks appreciated.
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So keep an eye out for the next episode of the ‘Commander’s Log’ and don’t stay away for too long because I should have a few interesting things to say when I start the editing process.