My favourite part of any authors website is when they talk about their tools and writing process, so I hope you’ll forgive the occasional post here about how I made the book.
Sometimes the old ways are best
One day in 2010…
So there I was, sitting in my hut, staring at the screen on my 15″ MBP and going nowhere.
There were too many words. And lots of them were in the wrong place. Worse, I couldn’t see them all at once and as every wise parent knows, when you can’t see them all, trouble is not far away.
I’d been shoving them around in Scrivener all morning. I knew I had to kill some of them but I’d grown fond of them all. My screen was just not big enough.
Sometimes the old ways are the best. I printed them, on paper no less, and began to cut. Then ably assisted by sellotape, pritt stick and staples I had pasted together a new version. For you youngsters, this is the way it used to be done.
Half an hour later I had the whole thing stitched together and ready to go. Then it was just a case of copying and pasting on screen to match.
This happened to me a couple of times while I was writing. And my lesson for today? Either get yourself a bigger monitor or do it the old way. I recommend it if you are stuck.
I absolutely agree. Paper is the answer for editing anything complicated.