May just be passing fancies
And in time may go
But the book is here to stay
Or not. My editor tells me this is the last time the company will let her send me a marked manuscript. After this, all corrections will be in an electronic file, and I will have to respond to them electronically.
I write on a machine, I rewrite on a machine, but until I have a paper copy in front of me, I don’t see the infelicities of style, nor the flaws in the narrative arc. I need paper to see where I am in a book, either as a reader, or as a writer. Is this action appropriate at this physical point in the story? I can’t tell in an electronic universe.
I think the blogosphere and 24 hour web news makes us sloppy as readers and as writers, and that going to a strictly electronic book will make books sloppier, less carefully written, less carefully edited.
My editor told me that I needed to learn to live in the present, not in the era of the illuminated manuscript.
What about you? Agree? Disagree? Am I a dinosaur , or someone with a valid point about the word on the page?
Sara Paretsky