If you've been following me on Instagram lately, you'd have noticed that I've been trying out a new editing method for one of my current projects. I used to love printing off a manuscript and grabbing a red pen to mark my changes, but I often worried about losing an odd page (or my lovely friends losing them when they're revising my work). Yes, I could have bound them, but unfortunately I didn't have the option available when I was editing. Besides, if you add up all the drafts and edit copies I'd need to print each time, it gets costly. I needed a method that was a little more efficient.
I made the decision to try something new - I've been using iBooks to edit my manuscript, fixing up spelling mistakes and jotting down notes and other thoughts. I've noticed that this stage of the process is sped up significantly, because unlike seeing the daunting four-hundred odd pages stacked up a mile high, I can just fly through and enjoy the story while I edit, rather than thinking about and counting how many more pages I had left. This stage took me about a week to completed from start to finish due to other commitments, but in saying that, I did cover a quarter of my novel each day that I had time to edit.
Next I began making the changes in Scrivener the same way as I would if I'd have written my notes on paper - I put the edited work next to me with my computer screen showing the copy of the manuscript that needs the changes to be made on it. Admittedly, this process had been a little slower than I'd hoped for, taking about two weeks for me to go through. However, this was also the stage that I noticed some little structural errors that I had to change (which I had previously missed). Thankfully, it was an easy fix, though a little time consuming.
Overall, I love my new method. Despite arguments that reading on a screen can alter your attention to detail, I feel I picked up on more missing gaps in my story because I was so intrigued and eager to keep moving forward; I was reading and absorbing the story as a reader more so than as a write. I also had my random notes at a flick of a hand if I needed to jump back and check on a tiny detail. Three weeks can seem like a long time (which it is) but my work is better for it.
My current project is a contemporary romance novel set in Sydney, Australia. Despite all the edits I've done, I am still passionate about this story, and I hope one day soon you are all able to enjoy this beautiful tale too.
Though I'm a day late, this post is actually quite fitting for Valentines Day. So, here's a hint of my latest WIP's title:
2018 Goal Counter:
WIP Word Count: 92, 635
Books read: 5
Short stories written: 4