command “p”

i hate typing. not like in general, typing this is fine. emails are too. but typing in a manuscript is the worst. 

“hire someone” i’ve been told a gazillionous times. “no” i say. as much as i want to say “yes” , i cannot hire someone to type my words in. that poor soul would be so confused. 

i take pictures of this every time

i write my manuscripts long-hand, not unlike some of my favorite authors (kristin hannah, elin hilderbrand). they write on legal pads and the like. i write in spirals or in sketchbooks, depending on how i feel. i listened to kristin hannah talk about how her assistant would type hers in…and i salivated. gross, but true. that’s how much i hate the typing part. 

but. when i write longhand, i try not to stop myself from trying anything. when you’re wielding a pen and not a keyboard with the delete button, you tend to go off script a little, try things and learn to live with them, at least till the next edit. it’s good for the story, which is all this whole thing is about, right? but the less than yay part of that magic is when you go too far off course. 

longhand in the dining room

longhand in the living room

if an avid typer took my manuscript, she would find it’s all over the place, that i’ve forgotten my character’s friend’s name halfway through and either left a blank or made up a new name. she would find that some characters don’t really know who they are yet, and they are all over the place. she would find lulls everywhere and type them anyway, wishing she’d never taken the gig to type for me. it wouldn’t bee good because i would just sit there and worry about it the whole time she did her job. it’s hard enough with a copy editor, and you know by then what’s in those 300+ pages! i edit as a type, which makes it even longer and more tedious and my hands start crapping out on me like they’re out of shape and just want some pringles while they sit on the couch and watch dancing with the stars.

right when i'd  just started typing it in! 

all this is to say that I JUST FINISHED TYPING IN THE MANUSCRIPT TO BROKEN PIECES. yes i did, yes i did. 

it took me weeks to do it because i basically found anything and everything to do first. that was until i realized i had to get it done before we left for a trip to santa monica. printing 300 pages outside of your own home just feels weird.

i looked up halfway through and gasped at the amount of words

and there’s something exhilarating about pressing “command p” in your office, at your printer. at least for me there is. so i got to do that yesterday, and i’m pretty friggin’ pumped. 

typing in florida

why am i going to santa monica? find out soon!