You’d be surpried how the tools you write with frames the work.
Computers frame us in many ways, particularly through screen size and the way we interface with it. A lot of writers today use Word or Scrivener – yet, no matter how flexible that is, we’re still going to be limited by what the programmers think writers need, and by the way they think writers work.
In this day and age the onus is on to get an edge – to think laterally. And one way to do that is to change your writing framework. Here are some tips:
1. Plan your writing with pen and paper (the most flexible medium I know of).
2. Compose the actual text on the computer, sure – it’s fast, convenient and necessary – but use it like a typewriter.
3. Once you’ve edited it, print the resulting file and do a final edit on paper. Sure, you have to type your correx back into the computer – but the effect here is the change of medium. Spread the pages out on the floor. You can’t do that wuith a screen – and it gives you the whole work at a glance. Does it tell you anything?
4. At any of these stages, you can also change your environment – go and write somewhere new. That’s part of the frame, too.
Do these techniques work for you?
Copyright © Matthew Wright 2013
I love doing a mixture of all these options. Often I’ll write in Scrivener’s fullscreen mode so I can’t get distracted. The fun part is planning in my notebooks (of which I have many, haha). As far as editing on printed paper, I haven’t done that as much but plan to for this novel’s final edit, just to see how I like it.
Solid advice overall!
Thank you! I find paper editing a definite advantage. Costs a bit to get the printouts, but not too bad these days – I did a price check a month or so ago & it turns out here in NZ, at least, it’s actually cheaper to buy a new home laser printer than it is to buy a new toner cartridge. And by that I mean around $NZ90. Insane!
Actually Matt, they do work for me. I do a lot of my “Think writing” and scene blocking in a notebook. I much prefer to edit on white paper using red or green ink, sometimes a highlighter if whole sections need revision. I started working that way because it felt better and I tend to catch more mistakes from the paper version.
This is virtually identical to what I do…I tend to block out my material on blank A4 sheets – though I end up inundated with loose and un-indexed paper if I’m not careful.
What do they say about ‘great minds’?
It’s all good.
I always enjoy your writing posts because they echo bits of my experience and let me dare to hope I’m on the right track – or else they show me where I’m likely to be completely deluded about my level of competence!
I find the more creative aspects of my novel require time away from the computer. I usually take a notebook and pen and go sit in the garden while I plan out a scene or fine-tune a character – then I can sit at the keyboard and write the nuts & bolts part of the scene that I imagined. It definitely helps to change location for the ‘what if…’ aspect of writing. In fact, it’s such a lovely day I must head out there right now…
Thank you! Yes, there’s definitely a lot of commonality in the way writers end up approaching their art – and I think it does, indeed, all point to being on not only the right track, but also much the same track. Not too surprising in many ways.
Glad to hear Auckland’s got some good weather…not too bad in Wellington today either.