This Wild Knight's morality has increased by +15. (It's too bad that I don't have a working printer, and that I only have paper and pen...)
Nice one on finishing, im going to add my two pence here, (im paraphrasing this next bit by the way) but creating your first draft is like shoveling sand into a pit to build castles with later, basically, the first draft is to get everything down and out of your mind to later go back and perfect, much like making sandcastles. personal experience time here, ive got Jack Bickhams book (had to order it from the states as it isn't sold here) its got some good points, but there is nothing better than getting someone you trust to read over it and point out where you need to fasten the thumb screws and tighten them... and to point out the gaping plot holes! (seriously) because, it is the person reading who will pick up on the issues, and to have someone go over it who isn't you helps a lot (fresh eyes and all)... My main project currently (Order Of The Black) i know, will have some issues, and some plot holes, in fact, i can think of one right now (and i have made note elsewhere of it) and will go back once ive finished writing to edit it. here is a thought, which im finding helps with writing: unlike quite a few people on here, i use a word processor (either MS Word or Open Office, it depends cause i have both) and to keep track of everything, i have a computerised project file (Of the MS Office variety) that i keep all the information in. from characters to places even down to the seperate threads that are in it, and where they start/stop and how they need to be continued. and i know im going to thank myself for that when im editing, as otherwise, im not going to be able to fix plot holes and indescrepencies. as well as any character indescrepencies (at the moment, i have a stupid amount of characters in it, which i may need to shrink)
@ChaosReigns , good analogy! I also use Open Office. I keep a current draft copy, notes and story breakdown files open while writing, so I can go back and forth as needed. Just in case I also keep an actual paper notebook and a pen next to me while I write too. I'm really enjoying the rewrite process so far. Much more than I expected!
Just a quick question all i have finished my first draft of a novel of mine, and i want to have a printed copy that i can put in a lever arch file, what would be the most effective way of printing it off and saving costs? Note: this is just a copy of it for myself, no one else is going to see this, so paper/ink quality isnt going to be an issue.
Why would you want to print a first draft? Just save a copy. It's faster, easier, and cheaper. You have to do two or three edit passes before it's worth printing. And then it's so you can edit it on the page, with the margins changed to catch the things you miss on screen.
don't you have a printer? to save ink and paper when printing a copy to edit, i select 'draft quality' and change the margins to .5" all around and instead of double-spacing, go to 1.5... you can also print on both sides, if your printer has that option available...
i do have a printer, but its an OAP in how long it takes to print. @JayG i edit better on paper, thus requiring a print off of it, and it means that i can spot any glaring errors that there may be....
Some people prefer to read a physical copy, and make notes/corrections on it etc. I know I like to have a paper copy in front of me if I'm reviewing something, even at work. To the OP, what I did was print them off a few chapters at a time; mostly at home and some wherever there was a good fast printer available (e.g. college or work).
Thanks @VM80 that was useful, ive been able to print off all bar the last 46 pages of it (theres 178 of the suckers) now i have to wait for my ink cartridges to arrive
I print all my drafts. I hate reading prose on the screen. I prefer to take a paper copy to my favorite reclining chair and read it over, with red, blue, and green pens in hand. I sometimes do this when critiquing work here in our Workshop. You can buy used black-and-white laser printers off Ebay for cheap these days - well under $100. Just make sure there refurbished and in good working order. My roommate got an HP Laserjet 5 in great shape from Ebay for $75. Having your own laser printer doesn't have to break the bank.
I always print off my drafts, because I just don't catch mistakes on screen as well as I do reading paper. One thing saves a LOT of paper. Set your MS in double columns, so it reads as if it were a magazine. Then print it single-spaced. It's very easy to read because of the double-columns, and probably saves about half the paper. Plus you've got a lot of margin space to write corrections, etc. This won't save ink, but it saves paper—and it saves time! More words on the page.
I've gone both routes printing it out myself via a printer and I've gone to Office Depot and had it printed out. At the time I think it was cheaper to go to Office Depot. Could've been my printer though, tt sucked down ink like a boozer with a bottle of Jack Daniels. It's always nice to have an actual paper copy of your story. Much easier to scribble notes on or cut and paste and rearrange the scenes.
Printing my manuscript is the last step in my editing process. I read it through in print, catching issues I certainly would have missed had I just left it on screen.
I'm in the midst of my novel's rough draft. I started it off with the intention of having it be a broad stroke for the first and second series of revisions. Lately, it's turning into a large outline instead. I'm not sure if it's a good thing or bad just yet. I'm wondering if anybody has had this issue with their rough drafts before? (BTW, off subject, I've been using Scrivener for my dissertation and just recently began using it for my rough draft as well. Wow, I'm sold on it!)
I don't know, what's a broad stroke? My initial draft was 134K word duology (or something close, I've forgotten the exact count). But it was definitely a very rough draft.
A broad stroke is a essentially a very rough draft. A draft minus all of the details and variables that come along during the editing phase. I'm nine chapters and a prologue into my rough. 33k+ words. I'd put more time into it if I could but I'm defending my dissertation in April and every waking second is going into that .
My first drafts are based upon a rough outline, starting from where I think the story should start, and writing toward a planned ending, with major events along the way planned out. Some are moved or dropped, with others added. So my first draft doesn't read like an outline. It reads list a story that needs tightening, some revision in word choice and dialogue. But so far my first drafts (novels and short stories) have been pretty complete, with less than 10% added or removed overall.
I don't usually outline (I'm experimenting with using an outline for a novella right now). Instead, I just plunge in and write a first draft. Of course, during the writing of it, a ton of new ideas come to me and some of the old ones have to be discarded, so basically my first draft functions as an outline. I butcher it with gusto when I'm finished with it, write a lot of new material to fill the gaps and include the new ideas, and that's my second draft. Except, for all practical purposes, it's my first draft - the first one that tells the whole story in the order I want. After that, I just refine and refine.
for me, the first draft of anything isn't much different from the final one, which is just an edited and polished version of the first draft... with short pieces, often just one editing round is needed...
I think I'd say that a rough draft is a completed 'full' version of your story. The first one. Then you start editing. You can add or subtract elements to refine the story during the edit, but my definition of a rough draft is a full, but unpolished version. Anything less than that is probably just an expanded outline—which is not real writing, but just planning.
