Lots of reading…
Well, it is official. The novel is going full tilt now.
I have been doing nothing but reading old drafts since the last post, and just unable to really focus on anything else (which is SO not the problem I have been having up until now). I thought it was going to be more work than it actually is, but that is not the case thanks to a feature I used a lot at Macromedia: compare documents.
It was something that came up a lot for execs who didn’t want their changes to be tracked, but rather to send me back a clean copy from which to start anew. But, well, I was never really into having someone subvert the process, so I would take what they sent back, go to Compare Documents, select the draft that I sent them, and it shows me what they changed exactly.
So, I read through three major drafts of the novel since I last posted. Found some good stuff, a few things just to make sure are in the final, and just put Post-It Flags(tm) through the draft (see image above.).
Now, I’m onto the online versions, and thought, this is going to take much longer. But no, it isn’t. Because these are versions of the same documents, just with edits. So, compare the documents, check the changes and see if any matter. Going much faster than anticipated. Yes!
The HUGE HUGE HUGE lesson here is to NEVER DO THIS AGAIN. Never have a draft, and then start fresh, because things get lost between drafts that way, and I am wasting time now, making sure funny moments and lines don’t fall through the cracks. but, live and learn, it won’t take too long. I’ll be writing by the weekend.
