Red text has saved me so, so many hours.
Let’s say I’ve got a paragraph of text I’m editing.
Here’s my opening sentence. Then comes a second sentence. Then an additional third sentence, with an extra clause to make it seem like a fourth sentence but no, still the same third sentence. Then for some reason I talk about frogs in space. And finally, a concluding sentence.
Huh: what was that bit about frogs? In space? That doesn’t fit in with everything else.
Yet maybe it’s the best sentence of the bunch. Clearly I need to remove that sentence about frogs in space, and maybe find another place to put it. But where? Maybe it doesn’t have a natural home. Maybe it’s natural home is a paragraph or a whole section I haven’t written yet.
For a while I dealt with this by having two files opened when I was writing. One was for the actual writing and one was called “NOTES.” Frogs in Space would go into my NOTES file. NOTES was like a junk drawer.
Except it’s now acting too much like a junk drawer. Have you ever actively decided when bored to explore your junk drawer? No! You go when you need matches or watch batteries or the menu from the Thai place. And then you can’t find it because you filled the junk drawer with…well, junk. One individual chopstick, a fidget spinner, keychains without any keys on them, expired coupons, a bag of sand you’ve forgotten why you ever kept it but it’s far too late in life to throw it away now.
So I needed something better than my NOTES file. I found it by turning the frogs-in-space text red instead of black. It stands that sentence out, and separates it from the rest of the paragraph. And it reminds me that I’m going to need a better home for Frogs in Space than its current paragraph.
The best part is, I can change text color in a half-second. it’s practically instantaneous. And I can change it back as well. So if I’m unsure about a sentence’s connection with the rest of the paragraph, I can turn it red, and immediately see how the paragraph works without it. Sometimes a critical bit of nuance is lost: in that case it goes back to black.
Note; I am not actually writing about Frogs in Space. But it’s a real thing: we sent frogs into space!
PRINCESS LEIA OF THE WEEK
I was at the Punk Rock Flea Market yesterday, so punk week.
SPIDER-MAN OF THE WEEK
MICKEY MOUSE OF THE WEEK
SUPER MARIO OF THE WEEK
