11: The Orange Binder

I finished my “Jamie” draft one (I did have a draft zero) in January, and since then I’ve been carrying around a printed copy all over the central Indiana coffee shop scene. It’s my next revision in the process, and it’s starting to become a defining piece of me as a writer.. Others are teasing its presence, mainly because it’s so old school. In the age of cloud saves, Scrivener, and writing tablets, I’m busting out the old pencil and paper. Why?

For me, there’s something to be said about seeing a project from a macro point of view. My mind works best when I can flip back and forth, finding plot holes or grievous errors. Scrolling through a document program isn’t quite the same. Plus, my chicken scratch is littered between the margins and along the blank left sides, something more difficult to do on a Word document. If I used a red pen, my manuscript would look as if it had been mauled by a bear. I use pencil for the eraser.

I understand the idea behind multiple rounds of revising, but I’m struggling with this. My first readthough was intended to be a look into plot holes, but I can’t get past the poor grammar or overuse of certain words. As of now I am about half way through this round. It’s taking a long time for two reasons: first, schoolwork has been brutal this month; second, I’m going through my revision like a parent goes through her kids’ lice-infected hair.

Spring break is coming up, and a personal goal is to complete this revison round and make the changes I need into the computer version. Then I suppose I’ll reprint the manuscript and start the process all over again.