Got the synopsis package out the door. And while I was printing it out, I realized something.
I'm so used to reading onscreen that I can't read a manuscript on paper anymore. I just can't do it. I couldn't get into my own book at all. For a minute, I thought that maybe it really did suck, and that I was just kidding myself, so I opened up the file and read the first couple of paragraphs. Wham! I was sucked in.
Now, if I look back, I haven't actually edited on paper since Second Coming, and that was Christmas 2000, right before the last big rewrite. That's the last time I printed out a manuscript to read. I've printed out short stories, and chapters for critique, but I think that's a bit different. In fact, I have no print copies of any current WIPs; just electronic ones on various devices.
I think this is really interesting. I started writing by hand, in Mead notebooks that I'd pick up by the box full once a year (back to school sales, you know...) I didn't edit at all, at first. When I typed up the apt-named Wizards of Despair (first in a quad, and don't laugh! I sucked at titles) for the Avon Flare contest way back when, I edited a little, but not much at all. And I typed it on a manual Smith-Corona typewriter I still own. (That was so fun...)
I'm trying to think. I remember spending an entire summer upstairs in my room on the manual typewriter, but I'm not positive which book that was. I do remember that I still handwrote stories through High School, because I liked to write late at night and I couldn't type late at night due to the noise. And notebooks were portable, too. I could pretend to take notes during class and actually be in the middle of a fearsome battle. *g*
I think I really started typing a lot when I got a word-processing typewriter. It would hold a certain number of words in memory, and then you had to print it out. I think it held something like four pages. So every four pages, I'd have to add paper and print. I remember getting yelled at by my sister for having to print late at night.
After that, I bought another word-processing typewriter, but this one was more of a wordprocessor that looked like an electric typewriter. You could save to a floppy disk, but it only had enough "memory" to open a chapter at a time. So I had to save my work chapter-by-chapter, which was irritating when I wanted to read the whole thing.
I remember printing out quite a bit, too. And the ribbons didn't last through many pages at all. (In fact, a manual typewriter ribbon would last through about 1500 pages, and the ones for the wordprocessor only lasted for about 30-40 pages. I even had a graph, comparing the different types of printers. *g*)
And then, in 1997, I got a computer. And an inkjet printer. I figured that, on average, the inkjet cartridge lasted for 700 pages (black text) and that was a lot cheaper than the typewriter ribbons for the wordprocessor.
I remember thinking it was pretty cool that I could save an entire novel in one file. I made a bunch of printouts, too. My room slowly filled with paper. (I still have most of those printouts...)
And then, I moved. And had loads of stuff. And I decided that I wouldn't print out everything (Although I would like to have at least one print copy of each manuscript) because inkjet cartridges for Chris' printer were so expensive.
We've actually gone through three black cartridges in the three years since I moved here. I think that's actually quite good. Of course, it "helps" that I don't have the printer hooked up to my computer, but that's another story. So I've fallen out of the habit of printing everything out.
And now, I find I can't read on paper at all. Hmm. Very interesting.
I'm so used to reading onscreen that I can't read a manuscript on paper anymore. I just can't do it. I couldn't get into my own book at all. For a minute, I thought that maybe it really did suck, and that I was just kidding myself, so I opened up the file and read the first couple of paragraphs. Wham! I was sucked in.
Now, if I look back, I haven't actually edited on paper since Second Coming, and that was Christmas 2000, right before the last big rewrite. That's the last time I printed out a manuscript to read. I've printed out short stories, and chapters for critique, but I think that's a bit different. In fact, I have no print copies of any current WIPs; just electronic ones on various devices.
I think this is really interesting. I started writing by hand, in Mead notebooks that I'd pick up by the box full once a year (back to school sales, you know...) I didn't edit at all, at first. When I typed up the apt-named Wizards of Despair (first in a quad, and don't laugh! I sucked at titles) for the Avon Flare contest way back when, I edited a little, but not much at all. And I typed it on a manual Smith-Corona typewriter I still own. (That was so fun...)
I'm trying to think. I remember spending an entire summer upstairs in my room on the manual typewriter, but I'm not positive which book that was. I do remember that I still handwrote stories through High School, because I liked to write late at night and I couldn't type late at night due to the noise. And notebooks were portable, too. I could pretend to take notes during class and actually be in the middle of a fearsome battle. *g*
I think I really started typing a lot when I got a word-processing typewriter. It would hold a certain number of words in memory, and then you had to print it out. I think it held something like four pages. So every four pages, I'd have to add paper and print. I remember getting yelled at by my sister for having to print late at night.
After that, I bought another word-processing typewriter, but this one was more of a wordprocessor that looked like an electric typewriter. You could save to a floppy disk, but it only had enough "memory" to open a chapter at a time. So I had to save my work chapter-by-chapter, which was irritating when I wanted to read the whole thing.
I remember printing out quite a bit, too. And the ribbons didn't last through many pages at all. (In fact, a manual typewriter ribbon would last through about 1500 pages, and the ones for the wordprocessor only lasted for about 30-40 pages. I even had a graph, comparing the different types of printers. *g*)
And then, in 1997, I got a computer. And an inkjet printer. I figured that, on average, the inkjet cartridge lasted for 700 pages (black text) and that was a lot cheaper than the typewriter ribbons for the wordprocessor.
I remember thinking it was pretty cool that I could save an entire novel in one file. I made a bunch of printouts, too. My room slowly filled with paper. (I still have most of those printouts...)
And then, I moved. And had loads of stuff. And I decided that I wouldn't print out everything (Although I would like to have at least one print copy of each manuscript) because inkjet cartridges for Chris' printer were so expensive.
We've actually gone through three black cartridges in the three years since I moved here. I think that's actually quite good. Of course, it "helps" that I don't have the printer hooked up to my computer, but that's another story. So I've fallen out of the habit of printing everything out.
And now, I find I can't read on paper at all. Hmm. Very interesting.
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