the importance of hard copy

I can't remember if I've blogged about this before, and I'm not going to slog through all my old entries to check, but once you finish writing a new story, it is so so so so so so sooooooo important to print a copy out and read through it again. No matter how perfect you might think it already is, reviewing a hard copy is still essential. Because it's just too easy to miss typos and repeated words and such on the screen. There's something about seeing the same story in a different format that's enlightening.

So that's where I'm at. I finished all the writing on my most recent manuscript awhile ago, but now I'm making sure everything's where it's supposed to be. Once I get each and every change entered (from the minute to at least one completely reworked chapter), I'll print it again and give it yet another read. Yes, I'll be totally sick of looking at it by then, but hopefully that'll mean it's ready to send out into the world for a verdict.