2 posts tagged “printing”
...560 pages? Well, the answer is definitely not two. But I digress.
On Sunday after a sedate Easter dinner with kids and family, Rain and I were going to print out a copy of my novel so that I could finally have Tabby do the first complete read through. I don't know what we were thinking. Obviously we weren't. It was late and we were both tired. So after a couple chapters were printed, this was the conversation:
Her: Wait, how many pages is this again?
Me: ...560.
Her: And each page is 50 cents. Alright, what's half of 560?
Me:....Oh shit. A lot.
Her:Yeah.
Me: Cancel! Cancel! Cancel!
Her: I'm cancelling! I'm cancelling!
Yeah so moral of the story? Do not print out a copy of your novel at Kinko's. That will be a several hundred dollar print. Yeah. No. So instead we came home and used up both our almost-full black ink cartridge and color cartridge. And we had to buy a new cartridge in the morning to finish printing the last seven chapters. You'd think a full ink cartridge would go further than that, wouldn't you? Apparently, it really only has about 350 pages worth of ink in it. I suppose under normal circumstances, that's more than enough. In ours, not quite.
Though we did not end up printing at Kinko's, we were still considering binding it at Kinko's. The lady assured us that they could bind anything up to two inches thick. We ask how many pages is in that. She ended up telling us the 560 pages would definitely be less than that.
Uh, no.
Quickly into the printing, we realized this was not so. In the end, it was about 3 1/2 inches thick. Quite impressive weight. In the family, threatening to hit someone upside the head with my novel is now a very gruesome threat. Though it appears impressive, I know quite well length means nothing to the quality of a piece. So, I was very nervous about the first full read-through my novel was about to get.
Usually, there are people reading along with my writing. Though I do not post my original work on the internet, I do have several great friends who are kind enough to be my test-readers. But family life has been so chaotic that writing was something I did on my own time and really didn't try to bother people with. At least until the end. By the time I finished it, I had read over this thing so many times, I was sure that I had lost perspective for the sheer amount of times I have reread this thing. To ensure that my style remained consistant and the voice was strong, every time I spent more than three or four days away from writing, I'd reread the entire thing, editing along the way. I know exactly what is happening, what has happened, and what is about to happen, from seeing one or two sentences off of any page.
I was very nervous for this first reading. There were several points that I thought might be questioned. I worried the length meant I didn't do well with pacing. I was trying to be as critical on myself as possible, hoping that it'd help when I was having to accept criticism. As my fellow writers know, criticism is a terrible blessing. We know we need it. We know it'll make us stronger. And we know we're going to hate it. Like I said in the previous post, I expect to be told where I suck, to become upset, for it to be insisted, and for me to slowly come to accept the advice.
But when Tabby finally read through it....I was surprised that she seemed to enjoy it. In the end, her feedback was extremely positive. Though she did warn that it might not exactly be an easy sell since there isn't really a conventional relationship in the whole thing. I knew this. I hate the fact that conventional means sellable but I also understand it. Still, I was shocked with how little criticism I received for it. Especially since I know Tabby has no problem telling me when she thinks something needs to be changed or needs to be removed. She will tell me when she thinks I've done something stupid. I even know the tone of voice she uses while doing so. The fact she hasn't...I'm not quite sure what to think of that. Obviously, she's only the first test-reader but I'm very pleased to have such good feedback after all the amount of work I put in this. For about a year and a half, I have been slaving over this. Writing, editing, reworking, plotting, constructing backgrounds and dates, studying....I put a hell of a lot of work into making this the best possible thing I can produce at this point. I know that a writer is always developing and that should I walk away from this for three months and come back, I'll still want to edit it to perfect the phrase with what I've learned during that period of time. Still, I'm happy with the end product.
Is it perfect?
No.
Is it sellable as a first novel?
There's some doubts.
Am I happy with the story and its intricacy?
Yes.
Am I proud of this accomplishment?
Twenty-Seven chapters. 560 pages. A year and a half of hard work and something that accomplished my original goal despite life's constant insanity? Hell yeah.
With hair wet from the shower, I'm sure "looking like a half-drowned cat" might work better. But c'est la vie. I'm dressed for family Easter events, whenever that may be today. I called Tabby and left a couple messages asking, but it appears I must have patience. So with time to kill, I thought I should update. I mean, leaving my vox alone for over a week? Scandalous.
Spring Break so far has been full of activity. Rain's sister came all the way from Alaska to play. We bowled, danced, competed, ate, laughed, drove down the Blossom trail, and generally had a great time. It had been so long since we'd seen her. It was wonderful to have her back again. Of course, she had to leave eventually but her plane was delayed yesterday so we got one extra evening with her which though probably upset her husband, made us very happy. She even sat through almost two episodes of Torchwood with me! And that is a bit of a feat since I'm just now getting into it and it's been....what 7 episodes now? It's not exactly a show you can usually sit in on at any time. I mean, when you have to begin the explanation with, "You see this guy? Yeah, he's dead. He got shot in the chest a couple eps ago. Dead. And see that guy? Yeah, he can't die. Oh, and he's totally doin' that guy. And that girl so wants to do the dead guy." Well, you know it's complicated.
Somehow, during all of this, I was able to finish the first preliminary edit of my novel from start to finish. I'm still iffy about the end page or so. Not the scene but how it is written. But I went through and broke it apart into 27 chapters. Smallest chapter is 17 pages I think. Largest being 27. Most average around 20. I have the chapters named (subject to change) and all the pages numbered. I know several of my test readers will prefer to read it printed out instead of on the computer. So....I'm just wondering after I print it out (all 560 or so pages) how exactly I'm going to choose to hold it all together. Binder probably. No, I'm not going to pay to have it properly bound and all that. This is not the final edit. I need these copies accessable for my test readers. Meaning, I expect to change things. I expect for them to tell me where I suck, me to get upset, them to explain, me to slowly accept and then finally to improve on it. You know, the usual. So...I'm guessing print it out, hole punch and large binder. Joy. At least I figured out how to get the program to number the pages for me so I don't have to do that by hand. Yes, that actually was a bit of a difficulty since every chapter is in a different document. But I figured it out and felt very accomplished.
I'm hoping to have my first test-reader (Tabby, as always) read it tonight. But that might be complicated. Normally, I'd probably go to Kinko's or something of the like, print it out, get it hole punched, and in a binder within an hour or so. But I'm not sure that's going to be possible today because of Easter. I'd really prefer not to do it tomorrow since I have to go back to school on Tuesday. Not only do I have some work to do but I know I'm going to stress while it's being read in its entirity for the first time. I can't really do that on a schoolnight. I need all my sleep to deal with being told how much I really suck in my editing class that day. Long story short, we had a test that we didn't know what it was about, weren't able to study for, and I think was given generally to make us feel like complete and utter idiots. Mission accomplished.
Ugh, it's just crazy. I don't want to think about it anymore. It'll get me all worked up.
So....when's dinner?
