Shopping for a Second Draft

So, after two months' work, I'd succeed in writing and typing a 49,000-word first draft of my work in progress. Now, my first drafts are miserable things, so bad they can't be shown. But in the old days, before computers, I'd type draft after draft without tears because there was no other way. By the third draft, I'd begin to see potential and feel charged. By the fourth draft, generally, I'd have a reader's copy half-covered with white-out and corrector tape.

Times have changed, of course. But I still have the need for a hard copy of the second draft. I need to see it...divide it into stacks so that I can monitor the pacing...highlight it and mark it up,...see neat pages of typed gibberish transformed into scribbles on scribbles and color-coded markings.

So, today I went shopping. Since I'll often be working before and after work, an hour here and an hour there, I really had to strategize. Here were the weapons I set out to buy:

1) Side-opening storage clipboard, capable of holding 10-15 pages, my goal being to revise 3-5 pp daily.


There's a pen/pencil storage section and the plastic construction is sturdy enough to slip the thing into my back pack.

2) Sharpie, 3-line-width highlighters: one width for deleting lines, another for working in a tighter space, and the tip for writing coded notes. I can see at a glance which section needs research, which concerns a certain character, etc.


3) A 4-pack of reporters notebooks. Ideal for notes or transcribed research that I can clip onto particular pages, to be added when I type.





4) More of my favorite mechanical pencils:




I know, I know. Most folks would be far more excited with a bagful of electronic toys and gadgets. But I began to rock today on the second draft with my little bagful of tricks.

By June I'll learn what other toys will be required for draft 3!