Notes In The Margin #3 - The Thrill of Paper

I had intended to post a completely different NITM today, but the events of the last two hours changed my mind.

What marvelous occurrence overwhelmed me?  What startling epiphany descended?  What glorious joy overtook my soul?

The Fourth Draft in all its papery glory!
[Photo: Jack Gilbert]

I printed out the fourth draft of 360.  That may not seem like an earth-shattering event to most people, but for me it was somewhat enlightening, and I'm hoping that the writers among you will empathise.   Today saw the fruits of the last five month's labours transform from ethereal and digital scrawlings on a computer screen into words on a physical page, in order, together and whole.

It's not the first time I've printed out an entire manuscript.  This is the third time 360 had been manifested in paper form (the second draft was quickly superseded by the third and consequently was not printed) and every time holding a thick, stack of paper bearing tens of thousands of words all neatly arranged into a story that started as nothing more than scant ideas flashing through my imagination just blows my mind.

In 360's case, those same 120,000 words have existed in the same order on my laptop's hard drive (and in various back-up copies) for months now, but somehow holding them in my hand just has an affect on me that I can't explain.  I'm an unashamed convert to ebooks.  I find them so convenient and rugged in a way any number of my paperbacks never were, or could be.  Their tattered edges and creased spines bear testament to that.

And from the side... (Just so
you didn't think it was just
the title page)
[Photo:Jack Gilbert]

But every now and then I have to go back to a printed book, just because there's something reassuring and physical about it.  And yes, before you ask, I am one of those people who likes the smell of a good bookshop.  I grew-up with that smell - along with several other smells like the sooty and oily whiff of good steam train - and it's just one of those things that sends my synapses sparking.  I'm just wired like that.  However, I recognise that not everyone is.

The last time 360 went to my beta-readers was nearly three years ago, ebook readers were a novelty and the majority of them read the hard copy.  This time the majority are reading a digital copy and a few are reading the hard copy.  In another three years, the ebook reader may even be a thing of the past and some other form of book consumption may have taken over - projected into our eye line on augmented reality, or VR headsets anyone? Oh, now there's a idea...I should have put that in the novel.  It's about virtual reality!

Wherever the next step in reading consumption takes us, one things is for sure: I'm going to continue printing a manuscript of each novel I write and enjoy the sense of immense satisfaction it gives me.

I think that's the feeling a book should generate in writer and readers alike.