I've finished the first draft of my first novel, and want to read it through and make some longhand notes before embarking on the rewrite.

I prefer to read a hard copy on the sofa, where I can relax. I want to see how it hangs together, thinking as a reader and not as a writer at this point. Then I will go back to the puter and do the rewrite with my writer's head on.

Sorry for the ignorant questions, but...

1) Is this how most of you proceed once you've got the first draft down?

2) Does it use a ridiculous amount of paper to print out a whole novel? Any tips? I was planning to print it single spaced!!!

3) I plan to add page numbers in case I drop the sheaf, but do you bind in any way? Staples, bulldog clip, etc? Or just hold the big sheaf and transfer read pages to the back or to another pile?

Any advice, tips, comments very gratefully received! This is the first time I've reached this stage with someone novel-length and it's exciting for me, but I don't want to reinvent the wheel so am curious about others' working methods at this point.

Many thanks in advance!

Deb x

Good news!

That's exactly how I do it. Double-spaced, because I want space between the lines for quick scribbles (but I do have very big, messy handwriting). And try as I will, I cannot make it work if I print double-sided. Sorry, planet.

I don't bind in any way - it always seems to cause more trouble than it's worth. If stop work and have to put the MS back together again I put the 'done' section and the 'not done yet' section back face-to-face, or at right-angles, so I can immediately go back to where I was, and keep the forward movement of my reading.

Well done Deb - you finished that final chapter

No points on the rewrite - as you know, I'm hardly the one to offer pointers on the best way to redraft!

Awww, thank you both! Emma, those tips are really useful!!

I'm really quite excited, but also feel like I'm entering the unknown, since although I've rewritten many shorter pieces this will be my first try with a novel!

XX

Fantastic news Debs, well done!

MY first hard copy print off and read-through is always single-spaced. Because later, after several more look-throughs on the computer, i will then print it out again double-spaced and this brings different problems to light.

And no i don't bind, just page number.

Good luck!

Thank you Petal!

Deb

thinking as a reader and not as a writer at this point.

I think this is exactly right. The reason I do double-space, is that I scribble on the script, but I don't try to sort things out there and then. It's about registering my reactions as a reader, not asking my writerly self to come up with answers: - what's dull, what's creaky, what doesn't make sense, what I'm aware doesn't fit with the previous chapter (which I wrote three months apar, but I read one after the other today...) Obviously I'd correct a typo or stick in a comma it seems to need, but anything which needs more of a pause than that just gets logged, not dissected and corrected. It's about problem finding, not problem solving.

I also make a note of any idea which seems to have some resonance - is it a theme which could be encouraged and brought out more, here and elsewhere? Does my reading now make me wonder, say, about a secondary character's motivations, or a minor scene - and is that something to enlarge on, or is that merely a diversion? (Or should I, indeed, do less, rather than more, to that character/scene, if it seems disproportionately interesting?)

A good compromise between the handling convenience of binding and the flexibility of loose sheets is to use a lever-arch file. You do have to hole-punch the sheets a few at a time when first putting them into it, but thereafter you can insert or remove sheets or sections at will. You can read and annotate the whole thing on the file or remove a chapter, deal with it then re-insert it.

Some printers, especially the newer ones, have a duplex (print both sides) facility which can halve the number of sheets if that's an issue. It's usually hidden behind a 'Properties' or 'Options' button when the 'Print-Dialog' box comes up on-screen.

Printing a whole book on an ink-jet printer can seriously deplete an ink cartridge. Confession: this is my approach (OK if you work in an office or similar establishment): copy the Word file onto a memory stick or SD card (or email it to yourself at work) and print it out on a larger laser printer there. It's a lot faster too.

Chris

Some printers, especially the newer ones, have a duplex (print both sides) facility which can halve the number of sheets if that's an issue.

My laser printer manual-duplexes, which was fine (tho' not for serious editorial reading) until I unluckily bought a box of paper which seemed to have or pick up inordinate amounts of static, so that the business of feeding the reversed wodge goes horribly wrong - missed sheets, half-fed sheets. I invariably ended up using twice as much paper and five times as much time as if I'd printed single-sided in the first place.

Will NOT be buying Viking's own-brand paper again, that's for sure.

I think the easiest way to read manuscripts is just by putting the read sheet to the back each time. If you try to make a "read" pile you go slowly nuts and it's easier to annotate a nice thick wodge with some body to it. Otherwise you get down to the final chapter and you can hardly write on the pages. Then eventually you just come back to the beginning and it's all nicely ordered and not scattered between your living room/bedroom/tube stop. I also much prefer reading (and editing) off single sided by I have trained myself to cope with duplex for the sake of the trees

<Added>

BUT I have trained myself. Grr

Well done! I'd recommend putting it away for a while before reading and revising, though - and perhaps treating yourself?

Well done Debs. I am so envious. I am on my way to the end, and have given myself the deadline of the end of 2011. I think i will re-draft in the same way you propose to. Good Luck!

Glyn

Do you have a Kindle? I do all my reading now on my Kindle - it allows you to make notes too. It's brilliant, and much more portable than a huge sheaf of notes.

How does this work on a Kindle? (I've never used one but might be tempted.) Can you load a Word file to it, add notes, and then export the file with notes back to your PC?

I'm still in the process of rethinking my plot and am nervous about commencing the actual rewrite, but it will have to happen soon!

SB (Essie Fox) showed me her note-making Kindle the other day, as I'm a confirmed hard-copy girl. I could see the value of it, for the sake of not carrying a stack of MS about, but the note-making palaver was considerable. I think you'd go nuts when you're at the five-or-six-or-ten notes per page stage. I often want to do things like circle a sentence or a paragraph and draw an arrow to where it should move to, and typing in a note all about doing that would take forever, too. (I have to use comment balloons and Track Changes for teaching, and that's bad enough...). Though it might be good for that last passes through shifting the odd comma and picking up any minor idiocies.

However, apparently the Sony e-reader has a touch screen, so you can make notes by hand on it, as if it was hard copy and pen. That's the one that the publishing houses dish out to their editors, and I'm not surprised, because it's so much quicker. I'm sorely tempted, I must say.

Emma