Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Happimess

One of many reasons I love paper...there's just no way I could reproduce this process on-screen!

First draft page

Some pages have even more comments. And some of them have brackets and arrows every which way. It works for me. And I like that I can always go back and see the original--sometimes I change something that shouldn't be changed. And yes, that's not a full sized piece of paper, for anyone wondering. It's half-sized scrap paper.

In other news...the Classic 12 is officially on the block. Already have one interested party. However, I'm kinda on the path of another one o' those mint green typewriters.

OK, since I'm baring my soul lately, I'll end off with a few semi-religious poems.


Loss
Loss

Lifted
Lifted

10 comments:

Mike Speegle said...

I love manual composition, but I can't stand hand-editing, so it's the nightmare of OCR and MS Word. Ugh.

Really liked "Loss," for the reason that it made me very uncomfortable.

Dactyl said...

"...one o' those mint green typewriters."

Fess up, LFP. You're in a Rocket/Baby mode, right?

mpclemens said...

Your revisions make my 2008 NaNo look positively tidy. I've got so much scrawl on my limited edits so far, I think I may have more revisions than original words.

This is a good thing, right?

On the plus side, lots of excuses to break out the colorful inks. I'm currently bathing my draft in Levenger's Blue Bahama.

Elizabeth H. said...

Speegle...kinda not sure how to take that compliment. Heh... ;-) As to the hand editing thing, even when I write on the computer, I tend to print my work out so I can scribble and cross out and draw my arrows for later cutting/pasting/deleting/enhancing.

Dactyl, think bigger. Much bigger. Big enough that if I go through with it I will definitely need to make tough decisions about the SG-1 just so I can navigate through the house. Though (again, if I go through with it), I'll need a Baby, too. Just so's I have a matched set.

MPClemens, the blue on the scan doesn't come across that well, but it's Waterman South Seas Blue--kinda similar to the Levenger color, I think. I adore South Seas Blue, except for the fact that it washes away instantly if so much as a bit of condensation drips onto it from a glass. So I reserve it for things like this. Writing irreplaceable first drafts in SSB is a Bad Idea.

The Classic 12 went off to a new home tonight, by the way. Bought by a guy about my age or a little younger who writes and (he admitted a little sheepishly) kind of but not really collects typewriters, mostly for use. Gee, can anyone identify with that?

Mike Speegle said...

Oh, it's a high compliment. Not a lot of poetry appeals to me, and even less elicits emotion.

I might just follow your example and start hand-editing. Sometimes even the act of opening a 100+ page document and fussing with it can be a daunting process.

Elizabeth H. said...

Scribbling and crossing out and notating on typewritten pages is fun! It's like giving your inner child free reign to draw in books or do graffiti--but all in a productive, positive sort of way.

mpclemens said...

The color looks very similar to Levenger's in your scan -- a vibrant, bright blue. My kids got me a demonstrator pen and the matching bottle of ink for Christmas last year. Somehow marking up a draft in a neon-blue pen makes editing not seem like such Serious Business.

Elizabeth H. said...

Indeed!

My other favorite ink for revisions is the much-maligned Noodler's Baystate Blue. Ain't nothing else like it. It is scary bright. I'd scan it, but it doesn't come across in quite the same way in a scan. In person, it's unreal. I love the stuff, whatever its reputation. It does stain like the dickens, though, and I've had blue splotched hands for days at a time when I had a pen leak, but they were awfully pretty splotches....

Strikethru said...

Is loss about your mother? I found it moving as well.

Elizabeth H. said...

It was my honest first reaction to learning she wasn't going to recover. Her cancer was finally diagnosed about a month and a half before she died, and I think I was the last one to understand it was terminal. I was naive enough to think, "Well, OK, so it's cancer...she'll have to do chemo and it will be horrible, but then she'll be OK."

And then a few days after her diagnosis, my paternal grandmother who, bless her heart, is not the most sensitive of people, called me at home and told me that I should really contact Hospice if Dad hadn't, as they would help us take care of all the details at the end. When I finally realized what she was saying, I just lost it. Later that day I drove to church and sat there in the adoration chapel just sobbing. "Loss" is taken from that conversation.