the craft. printing process.

You know what may be one of the hardest things to do other than actually sitting down to write? Reading your work without changing anything in the revision process.

I feel like this thought process comes from my study of music engineering. When you’re constantly tweaking volume, E.Q., or compression, eventually you get to a point where you have to bounce it all down. Back in the day, this was in real time, meaning the whole song would play in its entirety. But you couldn’t edit anything at that point, at least not until it was finished.

After I get to a solid point in a draft, I have to bounce the story down, so to speak. Which in writing, is printing it out and having it bound for me to continue my revision process. This is after I’ve already done a ton of rounds of tweaking within the Word document on my computer.

It’s absolutely a mental game at that point. But there are a few reasons this has become an important part of my process:

It helps the story feel like a tangible thing. Once it’s printed, it’s no longer binary ones and zeros but something I can hold. Already it solidifies for me that it’s a book. A bare bones book, but a book nonetheless.
It puts me more in the mindset of a reader than the writer which is key in editing. We’ve talked a lot about the ridiculous way writers like to attempt to write and edit at the same time. This helps the intrusive writer part of my brain settle down a bit and I can see the story a lot more objectively.
It makes it easier to read it at least one time through without changing anything. Sure the urge is there to whip the document back open but your laptop may not be anywhere around while you’re reading the printed version. I don’t bring a pen. Just the story. Reading it one time through this way helps me to see the story as a whole and not simply chapter by chapter.
Lastly, I catch a lot more of the simple copy mistakes in the printed version. So it also serves as a great copy edit opportunity.

I’m at this stage in my current work in progress. I’m at about 67k words and I knew it was still missing some depth. We always say that the first draft is really telling yourself the story and I’ve gotten that down. So I printed what I have so far and I’m reading. Already, I can see some major plot points that could be filled in. Passages of prose that can be expanded. Taking my time more with certain scenes. I’m always trying to work on slowing my writing down a bit. (I tend to feel like readers will get bored.) I believe after this round, I’ll easily get up to about 80-90k which is my goal for this initial draft.

Once I’m done reading without editing, I’ll go back and markup this copy by hand. Mostly highlighting areas that need revision, adding comments, those copy edits, I mentioned. Then, I’ll take that back to the document and get to work.

One last great byproduct of printing for me is I also let my momma read my early drafts and she is not fitna read 200 pages on a computer. So I also printed an additional copy to take home for the holidays and leave with her. She’s a great developmental editor. Ha!

What I adore about craft and process is carving your own approach. I had no process before writing my first book, but I’ve learned what really works for me. It has definitely come by trial and error for sure. But I’m settling into how to get the best out of myself and I find this step extremely useful.

Oh and more practically speaking, I’ll share that it normally costs me between $40-$50 to print over 200 pages in black and white with spiral binding. I also try to do my eco-friendly due diligence by printing double-sided. Typically I use Fedex or Staples, but you can probably also find small business print shops as well.

I wouldn’t need to print again for something like this probably until working on revisions with an editor if it sells. Fingers crossed! Anyway, hope this helps!