In an attempt to get a handle on my WIP Ann and Luke (working title), I printed the whole thing out this morning. All 60,000 words. It wasn’t something I wanted to do, because, you know, I’m killing trees, and I feel bad about it. And I know it’s something I’m going to have to do many, many times in the course of editing and revising. If only there were some other way!
I struggled with how to print the pages out. Wide or narrow margins? Single spaced or double? Narrow margins and single spaced means less paper (less dead trees), but I’ll need space to write notes. The way it’s currently formatted (compiled out of Scrivener) I have plenty of space between paragraphs, so I set the line spacing to 1.5 and kept the margins normal, hoping for a happy medium.
Then I wondered if I should print front side only, or front and back. Again, front side only leaves room for notes, but really, do I need that much space for notes? I probably do, but I’m hoping not, at least not at this juncture (it’s not a full edit at this point). So I went with front and back, figuring I could slip in a blank page if/when I really need it.
I ended up using 112 pieces of paper, down from the original 330 when it was first compiled into Word. And I feel a little less guilty about those dead trees.
But then again, I live in Finland. Maybe I shouldn’t worry so much about the trees.
Don’t worry, I did the same thing about five times. Dang tree killers…
I hear you. I have started a post entiltled “Paper Infestation” about this!
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So glad to hear I’m not the only one who feels bad about it! Thanks for the comments!