Cut and paste

Remember typewriters? That funny looking machine with keys that when you hit it, a large metal needle like thing would slap down on your piece of paper and leave the imprint of a letter?  If you made a mistake, you reached for a little bottle of White-Out, sort of like white nail polish for your error.  And if you had to move sections of what you were writing around, well, limber up those fingers and type it all over again.  Or you'd just leave it be, so you wouldn't have to go through all the trouble.

If I was working on a typewriter instead of a computer, I'd be halfway to Insane by now.

I reached the end of my first draft this past weekend and realized that the killer is not who I thought it was.  It made so much more sense that it was another character.  Problem was, there was a timeline issue.  If that other character really was the killer, then the timeline was off, events had to be shifted around a little — not much, but enough.

Ah, cutting and pasting.  My new best friend.

I have moved entire chapters around.  I have taken phrases and sentences from one place and inserted them into another place.  I could flip-flop faster than any politician if I wanted to, and I have, but without the publicity.

Many of you out there started with typewriters, too.  Do you enjoy cutting and pasting as much, or is there something else your computer lets you do while writing that gives you that little thrill of power that a typewriter couldn't?

And in other news: Alison let it out of the bag yesterday, but yes, my book has a title! THE MISSING INK. The winner of the title contest is Mary Stella, so if you can contact me with your mailing address, I can send you a small prize in appreciation.

Karen

Comments

[David Terrenoire]

My editor told me a particular scene wasn'ty working where it was. It was slowing down the pace just when the plot should be flying.

I didn't want to lose the scene as it carried a lot of water, so I moved it back about ten chapters.

God knows the rewriting is so much easier now than it was when I was beating on my Olivetti portable.

[spyscribbler]

I don't think I'd be a writer without the computer. I sometimes use the program, Q10, because it makes the whole screen just your typewritten words and it makes cool typewriter sounds.

But it does delete and cut and paste, too. :-)

[Louise Ure]

My favorite computer trick is to find the particular word I'm looking for somewhere in a 100,000 word document without having to flip through the pages.

I know we take word processing for granted now, but I'm always secretly gleeful when I remember that I used the word "agave" in that scene and can find it tout de suite.

Love the new title, Karen!

[Jeff Shelby]

I'm with Louise. Being able to search a document for something is priceless.

I have an entire file of chapters that I've cut from various novels because even though they didn't work for that particular book, I feel like they might be usable in some capacity later on.

[AlisonGaylin]

My first little job out of college was writing blurb reviews of plays for the LA Reader. These were 100-150-word reviews. I had to type them out on a three by five card and drive them to the offices and turn them in. For that tiny little review I would go through so many three by five cards it was ridiculous. My cut- file from HEARTLESS was 290 pages long, so my habits haven't changed. I'm a huge rewriter. If we were still on typewriters, my carbon footprint would be enormous. Al Gore would kill me.

[Mary Stella]

I won? Wow! Thank you.

Aside from the obvious ease of revising manuscripts without retyping the things word by word, I love the speed of a computer. I'm a pretty fast typist. Some of my friends say I'm freakishly fast, but they exaggerate. The last time I was tested, years and years ago, I clocked in at 87 wpm on an IBM Selectric. I'm pretty sure I can type over 100 wpm on a computer keyboard. Not that my brain ever thinks that fast, but still. When I have to do something in a hurry, I love that I can zoom along on my responsive keyboard.

[Lori G. Armstrong]

I love the find and replace function. Wanna change a character's name? POOF. Done.

I hated typewriters. But I will admit to writing in long hand. There's something freeing about it.

[Jen of a2eatwrite]

I love everything about computers in terms of being able to cut and paste, etc. I was a fast typist - it's how I put myself through college, in fact - but I so much prefer the instant ability to revise mistakes as I go without stopping to even think about it.

I like your new title - it works! ;-)

[patty smiley]

The only thing I don't like about computers is when they develop a mind of their own and force me to accept words I never intended to use, like name from my address book that it thinks are words.

[Clea Simon]

LOVE the title! Congrats on getting the draft done, too.

For me, the search function is invaluable. Usually somewhere in a re-read, I'll start wondering how often I've used a particular word. Search and - bingo - there it is, three times in two pages. Makes it easier to edit. As for cut and paste, yup, love it, too. Particularly because I can cut out unnecessary backstory passages that I adore and put them in a "save" file and not feel like I've really gotten rid of them (even if they never see print).