Writers write.
They re-write often.
What I learned this summer: writers cut and paste, copy and paste, then re-write some more.
As I outlined each chapter of The Unknown Beautiful Missing Piece, I noticed, for instance, that something in chapter 5 should be in chapter 7, or something in chapter 20 in 18. The biggest change I needed to make was shortening chapter 10. I'd made that eighteen pages long.
Therefore, my morning writing time has been cutting and pasting time. My hard work and diligence have paid off. The chapters are flowing better, I've taken the "sweets" out and even killed some of my darlings.
I'd also almost run out of space on my flash drive. Before I bought one last week, I copied and pasted it in Google Drive. Then when I got it, I hit ctrl-a, ctrl-c & ctrl-v again to make a new file on my new flash drive.
This caused the font type and size to change. I read through the book again and changed the text to the appropriate font style (I use different ones; you'll see why when you read it). As I read one paragraph at a time, I noticed even more things that were out of order or too wordy.
In the nearly twelve years, I've been writing, I don't think I've ever done this. Therefore, if I'm stuck on the sequence of events in a story, I guess the best thing for me to do is cut, copy, and paste--and maybe switch flash drives.
