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I reblogged this post a few months ago, with the thought that yes, I probably WOULD make myself do this at some point. The gist is that you use retyping as a revision method for a piece of writing. Fresh document, the old draft either printed out or pulled up in another window. As you retype, make changes as needed.
I have now done this terrible thing! It was great! My hands are killing me! Probably you should not do this to a 12k story over the course of 36 hours!
It functions--and this is what made me think it might work for me when I first read it--a bit like reading a story aloud. That's been one of my go-to ways to work out what a piece needs. It's very useful for individual lines, of course. Reading a story for podfic makes me hyperaware of how lines can work or not, which is useful when revising.
But this retyping process just generally made me more aware of what is happening in the story. I picked up on patterns I hadn't realized were forming and places where the plot hadn't quite come together. Just because I'm tuned in to the story in a way that normal reading and revision don't always give me.
In summary: Very useful. Kinda painful.
I have now done this terrible thing! It was great! My hands are killing me! Probably you should not do this to a 12k story over the course of 36 hours!
It functions--and this is what made me think it might work for me when I first read it--a bit like reading a story aloud. That's been one of my go-to ways to work out what a piece needs. It's very useful for individual lines, of course. Reading a story for podfic makes me hyperaware of how lines can work or not, which is useful when revising.
But this retyping process just generally made me more aware of what is happening in the story. I picked up on patterns I hadn't realized were forming and places where the plot hadn't quite come together. Just because I'm tuned in to the story in a way that normal reading and revision don't always give me.
In summary: Very useful. Kinda painful.
