I got through quite a lot of work in a short time yesterday. It was a busy day.
First of all I read the last few chapters of the NetGalley book. That means there will be a new review posted in the next few days, hopefully tomorrow (Wednesday).
I wrote 816 words for The Fool into the original Scrivener file. I have a Save the Cat template set up on Scrivener now, but I’m still transferring the old version of The Fool over to the Save the Cat version. But it’s not as easy as it sounds.
For example, I can’t just copy and paste what has already been typed from one Scrivener file to another, or even from a Word file (and especially not from a Word file). Well, I could, but the formatting goes all over the shop.
I’ve researched this and tried lots of suggestions and tips, but every time I do it, it still knocks the formatting out.
And so, instead, I’m copy typing it over. It’s actually quicker than trying to sort out the formatting.
But that means that the old version is more advanced than the Save the Cat version. And while I’m in a hurry to get some words down to read out at the writers’ group, I don’t have the time to sit and look at the new version and work out how many gaps I need to leave before starting the current session, if you get my drift. Also, there’s the gap in the chronology.
So that means that until it’s all be copy-typed over, I’m still creating into the old version. I just need to do the copy typing a bit quicker than I’m doing the creating so that, eventually, the new one catches up with the old one.
And that means that yesterday morning I created 816 new words in the old version of the file so that I could read something out at the writers’ group yesterday afternoon.
Before I went out, I also wrote up yesterday’s blog post.
Immediately after dinner I got changed and then drove over to Goldthorpe for the writers’ group meeting – the report will follow later today. We had a good session, and then on the way home, I collected the dog and we went to see the poet who had gone fishing straight after work.
It was too hot for us to stay with him for very long. I took the dog for a quick trot, and then we came home again.
While I waited for him to finish fishing, I did some copy typing, transferring the old version of The Fool to the new version, and I managed to transfer two scenes.
This extra layer of typing is giving me another sneaky read-through too, and I was also able to do some tweaking as I went along.
While I was out, the expected editing job arrived. So I saved that as a new file (I always keep the original version in case anything goes wrong or if there is a query), and I printed off the first section ready to start editing today.
I much prefer to do a first edit on hard copy because I see a lot more and it exercises a different set of muscles than when I’m sat at a desk looking at a computer screen. Eyes and body muscles.
I usually print off the whole lot as well, and try to do the edit in as few sittings as possible for continuity. However, the client has already warned me that a revised ending will be coming in later in the week, so I’ve not printed that part off yet.
No point in doing a job twice, eh?
Doing the screen edit in as few sittings as possible also aids continuity. It gives me another read-through as well, in case there’s anything I missed in the hard-copy edit.
But mostly it means I only have to change the language once, I only have to replace double spaces for single spaces once, and I only have to do any find-and-replaces once.
So I have that to get cracking on this afternoon. I also have some emails to send for the Richard Cadbury book, and some reading to do for that. I’m starting the new NetGalley book. And I still need to hand-write our latest alphabet adventure into the alphabet adventure bible.
If I get chance, I may also do some actual writing.
