Writing Progress

Another 500 handwritten lines has been translated into typed manuscript.

I went from

9 / 100,000 (0.0%)

to this.

12 / 100,000 (0.0%)

What works for me is to handwrite a rough, rough draft. Every 500 or so lines, I type it.

As I type, I change anything that is obvious. Once entered, I highlight all of my verbs. This has a huge impact on my editing. Repetition is apparent as are "to be" verbs (those nasty is, are, was and weres that creep into good writing.) I consider this the rough draft.

I print my rough in 10 page increments for editing. I usually add a substantial amount of words, as I tend to write dialogue with no tags.

After editing this 10 page section, I enter edits. This draft would be considered a first draft and fit for viewing, once I'm ready for someone to view.

The progress bars above represent that transition from longhand to typed manuscript, but not verb highlighting. That's tomorrow's goal.

This sounds incredibly anal retentive, I know. But it satisfies my creative left brain, the repressive right brain and helps with consistency between the beginning, middle and end.

What works best for your writing?