I edit my writing best, especially my nonfiction, after I've printed it out. Partly that's because I catch more mistakes on the printed page than on the screen, but partly, I think, because having my writing on paper lets me see it as a visual structure that can be rearranged and formed.
Of course, anyone who has used Pro Tools -- a necessary part of my previous career in the music industry -- knows that it and similar programs take imaging to an entirely different level. Pro Tools maps sounds into graphs that can be manipulated on-screen, so that adding a drum snare or turning down the volume of a voice is accomplished by copying and pasting a curve segment or pushing down a jagged line.
I'm working on a visual book about the history and disappearance of oil in Los Angeles, and I'm finding the same thing to be true of my work.
When I lay out a hundred pages on the floor, its so much easier to parse out the mistakes, identify better segue solutions and mediate the flow of the piece. Interesting how these things are harder to pick up on in the "virtual space" of the computer.
Posted by: Andrew | July 20, 2009 at 10:27 PM
That's great -- I would love to see your book.
Posted by: Aaron | July 21, 2009 at 09:45 AM