Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Edits


First of all, the contest is still going on. I’m actually going to extend it until Monday at midnight because I was silly and forgot to put it on the Campaigner Notice Board. I’ll announce the winner the next day : )

Today’s topic is editing. I’m in the middle of reading it out loud (hello, laryngitis) and have to have two copies of the MS open, one for reading, one for making notes on. It might seem crazy to have two copies, and it is. That’s why I have three.

Hey, you go with what works.

Honestly, I like editing digital copies rather than hard copies. I like that the word count is right below me, that I can highlight any word that bothers me (which is what the third copy is full of…adverbs!) and that I can make notes in the margins that aren’t in my chicken-scratch handwriting. Plus, I find so many things that I either immediately change or make a note on, another thing that’s much easier digitally.

That isn’t to bash anyone who uses hard copies! Like I said, you go with what works. I am interested in learning about the advantages of paper-editing, though. So tell me: which way do you prefer to edit? Do you see a distinct advantage? What do you do when you edit (because I can never amass enough tips)?

7 comments:

  1. The only positive to a hard copy is that sometimes mistakes can be missed in the electronic copy. I don't know why this is, but I find more mistakes when I have the thing in print on paper.

    Although, I rarely print out my work to edit. It's just easier to not have all that paper around.

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  2. I've been working with a hard copy, a red pen and a highlighter on my own edits. I read everything out loud to myself (you're right about the laryngitis) and scribble tons of notes in the margins.

    Then when I go to make those changes in the e-copy, I do the same thing all over again.

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  3. I have more experience with editing on the computer, because it's more convenient, but I did some work on paper copies at my workshop this summer, and you do look at the words in a different way when they're not on the screen.

    Thanks for posting! I'm a fellow campaigner.

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  4. I've edited by computer. I find it more convenient then by hard copy, though you can still, of course, miss something that stands out more on paper.

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  5. I know there are advantages to hard copy, but I try to do it as rarely as possible because I start to feel guilty about killing trees. Besides, there are all the highlighting and cutting and pasting advantages to computers that I love!

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  6. I'm like you - I prefer going digital. It's just so much easier to make changes (helloooooo, cut and paste) and like you said, the word count is there etc. etc. It just makes things so much nicer. :-)

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  7. It depends what mood I'm in. Sometimes the electronic way is quick and neat. I will say, though, it's easier to pick up on mistakes using the hard copy.

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Please validate me.