Believe it or not, but some don’t.
Although I totally understand because of wanting to save on paper consumption and ink, not scouring your words on paper is a risk.
For my first two novels, I redrafted and edited on the screen, without paper-editing. I wanted to save on costs and protect myself from missing pages and scribbles that might make no sense in time to come.
Big mistake!
Due to contrast of light and dark on the screen and the artificial layout we perceive on screen, common issues such as grammar, commas, repetitive words and the flow of paragraphs can get masked. We simply miss them, even though they are there in your face!
How many times have you prepped for a festival or a writing conference by going over a document electronically and thinking it was perfect? But when you stood in line waiting to see an agent, a book doctor or someone in the know, you noticed on the paper-copy glaring mistakes that make you cringe.
Now, as I do with all novels, I paper-edit after the redraft.
I can spot a million things on a single page that I wouldn’t have considered on the screen. It may sound ironic that you have to paper edit if you’re considering epublishing, but the punishment of releasing a novel where simple issues were overlooked could bite you for years to come.
And you don’t have to use a red pen when paper editing . . . just whatever pen I find nearby will do.
Edit on paper, or you’ll poop your novel.
Live long.
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I don’t edit on paper, simply because it would double the time to do it – and I literally can’t read my own handwriting *hangs head in shame*
What I do instead is line-edit backwards. I don’t mean reading the sentence backwards, but reading the sentences in backwards order. Then I highlight all the different sentence structures a different colour, and go through analysing each sentence based on structure. I think it achieves similar outcome – it makes you focus where otherwise the eye would just skim.
For grammar and commas I rely on my editor, because quite simply I’m just not that good at it.
It’s always good to have a close knit of reliable people to help with the process
I use my Kindle now instead of paper. I convert and transfer the file from my PC to the Kindle and proofread it on that, making corrections to the computer file as I find errors. The new appearance of the text on the ereader makes it easy to pick up mistakes that slipped by onscreen.
Excellent.
I have to admit that editing on the iPad is awful…. and the urge to surf the internet takes over…