Thursday, March 20, 2008

Old Skool

I think I'm done with editing for today as my hand is going to drop off. How did I manage at school? The top of my ring finger is as flat as a board and throbbing with aubergine blood.

My philosophy teacher at school made us write our essays by hand, because he'd relied solely on his typewriter at college and consequently developed a scrawl that a doctor would be proud of. We went along with his request but privately dismissed it as another teacher eccentricity. Paper schmaper, I thought, banging away at my college keyboard, smug in the knowledge that technology would save me.

Dear Mr. Atkinson - I'm sorry about all the moaning because you were right after all.

Turns out I can only tackle all aspects of an edit 'old skool' - using pen and paper - because I take more in. I also give myself more time to mull over details such as characteristics and style than if I was editing onscreen.

I will be returning to my laptop soon as the smaller details are best wrestled with there - hopefully by Saturday, as I've covered half of my story on paper so far - but I managed to come up with some good ideas for colour and pacing today. I'm chuffed.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello,

Theo B here... feel like I should introduce myself, think I've been known as 'the filmmaker' in these 'ere parts.

It's interesting what you say about the pen & paper... I hadn't thought about it until I read your post... but at some point with a heavier writer, I do need to print it out and take the pen to it. Something about scrawling notes in your margins?? I see things that I haven't seen before that on the screen. And the act itself, ritualistic almost... there's a tangibleness to it.

Just wanted to say, you rock! Like Keith Richards rocks... except, I can understand what you're saying! ;)

Yvonne said...

Awh Theo, thanks! I'm amazed at how much I got done today, just scrawling away on paper. I just hope the whole thing makes sense when I've finished with it.

Anonymous said...

There's something quite therapeutic about using red pen to slash across the paper - much more satisfying than the mark-up edit function in Word.

And it's definitely easier to concentrate with paper than onscreen - the pixels start dancing after a while, words slide off the screen and you miss things or there is the immediate lure of the internet if you're on the computer :-)

Yvonne said...

Jen, those pixels do start dancing after a while. And the Internet is a cruel distractor!