It amazes me when those jumbled thoughts make connections and spark ideas that rearrainge themselves and evolve to become cohesive, streamlined, and goal-directed.
Writing the jumble helps me make sense of it. I think that's the charm of writing.
But what I really love is cut and paste. Cut and paste, and undo, are my go-to editing tools. I used to also rely heavily on spell check, but for some stupid reason, spell check adopts my mis-spells and typos, and offers them back to me in place of correctly spelled words.
Not good.
Incorrect misspells are infinitely worse than the original jumble.
Incorrect misspells are infinitely worse than the original jumble.
I love cut, paste, and undo. I'm of the generation that can't imagine using things like a typewriter (even though I have one that I use on occasion) because how do you fix a mistake? Eeek!
ReplyDeleteWith Love,
Mandy
Mandy--me too! When I graduated from grad school I had to go before a board for oral exams--a professor from several courses. After they told me I passed and I could relax they said, "We want to ask a question."
DeleteThe hard Qs were over so I said, "Go for it!"
"We noticed this last year your papers have improved tremedously--the context was always good, but your writing--the flow and the form, is so much better--what did you do?"
I grinned wickedly and said, "Cut and Paste!" Then I continued, "I don't have a computer. This past year, I counseled in the Academic Center for Excellence. When I didn't have students, I had access to the computers. I learned the rudiments and my favorite actions are cut and paste and undo."
They howled in laughter. As did I. But it's also a great object lesson--when you have access to learning and tools, you can achieve your goals so much easier.
Much love back at Ya! Keep writing!
Mary Lou
Oh, and as for the mistakes--we had whiteout and correction ribbons back in the day! (I'm only 58, but I love telling horror stories about memiograph machines and reytping whole pages due to mistakes.) 😁
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