I use a lot of different editors depending on the job I'm doing. While I went through a number of writing tools, my main squeeze is, and has been for quite some time, Scrivener. Nothing is perfect, but this is as close as I've seen for writing long form fiction. I can't say I use it for anything else, but it nails writing novels. If you haven't been using Scrivener, you should try it.
However, Holly sends me her edits as Word docs or RTFs that have embedded comments that point out why I should feel bad about myself. I pretty much have to open these in Microsoft Word otherwise the notes tend to get mangled. And frankly, if Holly gives you a note, you'd damn well better read it. For a while I was even running the Windows version of Word in a virtual machine because it handed notes in documents better than the Mac version, though that's no longer an issue.
My old process was to go paragraph by paragraph and examine Holly's version to merge it with my original. As you can image this is time consuming. However, it occurs to me there's a better way to handle that, and it's diff tools.
OS X has a swell tool called FileMerge, and I'm certain you can find visual diff tools for Windows, and Linux. This turns out to be an incredible time saver. I dunno why I never thought of it before.
Comments
Thanks for Sharing Your Experience
Glad to hear that the polishing process is improved with the work to accomplish it being reduced.
Since I Agree ...
... with 99% of Holly's comments and corrections, I just open my original, open Holly's corrections, and transfer the corrections. It doesn't really take that much time. I just scroll through each document a paragraph at a time. Many of Holly's comments are asides, and give a lot insight to things. Having Holly go through my scrawlings has been one of the best things that has happened to me on this site as far as my attempts at writing go.
Portia
Pffft 99%?
Holly is always right. I just don't want to read every paragraph again. I'm lazy :D
Heck, Holly sent back a "correction" where she had one of my characters say the phrase "dollars to donuts" where there had once been some other bland dialog and it completely sells the character. Makes me want to kick my own ass for not thinking of it.
Don't let the word get out though cause the last thing I need is for Holly to be busy with other writers :D
But isn't Holly the
But isn't Holly the transcendent god of editors?
Collected in her being is all the editorial power of mankind and yea, even of the angels above and demons of the pit below doth she surpass in powers. For verily the Truth of the Word doth reside in her soul and spill forth onto ye poor mortals in over abundance containing there in all the time she doth need to set to pen all the corrections she doth deem fit for who so ever she doth choose? ('doth' was on sale this week so I had to use them up while they were still freash.)
Well at least that's what I hear. :P
Believe it or not.
I do 99% of my writing on an Android mobile phone with slide out keyboard. The Motorola Photon Q, the keyboard is responsive, and is laid out pretty much as a PC keyboard is. Its private I can do it anywhere and the spell checker is IMO better than word.
It also has word predictability that is for the most part spot on. For instance if I have typed a group of words in a sentence and the web eats it. It remembers what I typed and when I type the first word of that sentence the word prediction gives me that as a choice. I just tap the screen and it puts it back.
I have a free office program form the Google Play Store called Quick Office, it gives me most of the functionality the MS office does. I then email my stories to my wonderful editors, again from the phone. They send me back edits in a different color and I work them into the story from there.
I also have a laptop dock for the phone that parrots it, but gives me full screen and keyboard if I need it. I enjoy being able to write when my muse strikes. She is fickle, and I grab her when I can. And like I said private I can be anywhere and still write, my thumbs do get tired sometimes. Smiles, Jenn.
Upon my liar's chair
Full of broken thoughts
I cannot repair
Word also has diff built in
... so you can do a diff of two Word docs, but where that Comparison is depends on your version of Word.
Until I learned about WORD's Tracking and Commenting
I used the Comparison method of showing the changes, you mention, Kaylie, but now I provide both a 'TandC', (Tracked and Compared)file and a Clean edit with all the tracking and comparisons removed, as a clean copy. I do not expect authors to accept everything I may have changed, but this method seems to make it easiest to find the changes.
I do not want to be put on a pedestal, as there are other very fine editors here, and in a few cases, I even share editing responsibilities with them on the same stories, as nobody can catch everything, and there is no single perfect way to edit.
As I mentioned in a recent comment, there are disagreements on the 'rules' so even the best writers and editors agree on things like punctuation. I try to make a point to any authors work with, that it is their story, and I will not have my feelings hurt if they disagree with and make changes in my edits.
It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice.
Holly