Hard Copies Rule

[kriadydragon]

I love hard copies of stuff, I really do. Remember that story I mentioned a while back, the one I thought up nearly a decade ago, set aside, though I would never write and recently decided I did want to write it? It wouldn't have been possible if I hadn't been in the habit of taking notes in notebooks and printing up notes on the computer. With all the computer hopping around we've been doing, a lot of documents ended up lost in the shuffle, and if they're still out there I have no idea how to get them back. Which wouldn't have been a big deal if I hadn't upped and decided to resurrect what I thought to be a dead story idea. Then it was a big deal.

Until I found my notes, jotted in a notebook and printed into a packet.

Seriously, I love having hard copies. Disks and flashdrives are all fine and good as long as your computer is accepting and not one to jump to error reports or crashing because everything's outdated. but hard copies are there. This story was a whopper and is probably the most world-building I've ever done. Lots of plot, lots of world back-story, lots of creatures and characters and funky mythical made-up words. This was not a story I could start over from scratch because it's the kind of story that - though I do write them - I don't really think up anymore. And if I hadn't had my notes somewhere other than a computer then this story idea would probably have ended up back in the "not gonna happen" pile.

So I really need to develop a new habit of printing up my notes should this ever happen again (notebook notes probably aren't going to happen as it kills my wrists). Because having my notes right smack there where I could fine them when I thought them lost was beyond amazing.

Comments

[tj-teejay.livejournal.com]

I see your point, but I personally find hard copy writing tedious for multiple reasons. Correcting things is messy. I always end up with whole passages lined through because I'm rewriting them. And footnotes because you find you want to insert something where there's no more room to write. Also, I hate having to type it up later. Twice the work. I prefer writing on the computer. Of course you don't always have one handy, that's when I turn to hardcopy. Doesn't happen all that often, though.

When I was complaining about almost losing one of my story's most recent edits, elrhiarhodan recommended Dropbox to me. It's one of those online storage services that, if you're online and you have it installed, it automatically uploads and downloads the documents in your Dropbox folder. You can also access it via browser and down- and upload manually if you're working with a computer that doesn't have it installed. It's really neat, and I now keep all my important WIPs on there. I have two computers at home (desktop and laptop) and I sometimes write at work, so now it's way easier for me to make sure I'm always working from the most recent version of my story.

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

I prefer writing on the computer.

That's... basically what I meant - type it up and print it up to have just in case things with the computer go horribly wrong. Especially story notes. If I hadn't printed up my story notes they would have been lost forever. I don't do notebook writing any more since, yeah, it's tedious and kills my wrist. But I still like having hard copies around because, frankly, some days I don't trust technology. Plus I like having my notes right next to me to refer to without having to switch back and forth between screens.

Stories (original stories, not fanfic) I'll make hard copies of for people who want to help me edit but don't have the time nor inclination to do it on the computer. But I also like having story hard copies because, again, you never know. I kind of wish I had printed up the above mentioned story as I would really like to refer to it, even though I'm rewriting the whole thing, because I can't remember some of the details I wanted to keep around. Oh well.

[black-raven135.livejournal.com]

(((((CONCUR))))))
I just found four pages of story line
I had written somewhere and will now use for my ff, if I ever get it finished......
There is something entirely satisfying
My friend who is as prolific as you are in writing ALWAYS does hard copy for one of her stories and they are LONG
She writes M7 exclusively and is posted on quite a few
forums.

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

I vaguely recall advice from... somewhere, I can't remember, in which having hard copies of things was recommended. As I mentioned above, I tend not to trust technology. It's one of the reasons I refuse to get a Kindle or buy books online. Technology breaks, it runs out of power, it gets viruses or crashes before you have a chance to do any recent back-ups. If I hadn't had hard copies of my notes I would have had to start over with this story and that wouldn't have been possible because there's so much to it.

Of course I'm not saying that having hard copies is the only way to go or anything, just one of many ways to keep important documents in a position where they can always be retrieved.