Am hard at work in the revision cave,
but wanted to share a tip that might help others.
I had concerns about continuity within a relationship
between two characters,
so I went through my entire manuscript and used the Highlighting function
to color code everything having to do with that relationship.
I used one color for interior thoughts
and another for direct interaction between the characters.
The colors made it very easy to track the progression in the relationship,
and I’m now confident the ms isn’t suffering from emotional ping-pong.
(I thought I’d already eliminated that stuff but apparently my emotionalism dies hard).
There’s a good chance you all know about this computer highlighting trick
(I’ve done this before with hard copy but never within my document),
but I’m a big believer in putting info out there.
May this tip reach the right person at the right time…
I’m missing this community, but am sending good thoughts for all your writing and life projects!
Tracy Abell 
That sounds like something I’d enjoy doing to my ms…of course, I have to actually write the whole thing first 😉
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Maybe you can use Highlighting Fun as a motivation to finish the whole thing. 🙂
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This sounds like a super helpful technique! I’m working on my first ever romance-type story and I’ve been having trouble with the pacing of the characters’ budding relationship. I bet highlighting would totally help with that!
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It makes me so very happy to think this method might help! 🙂
Happy pacing!
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I’m bookmarking this for future reference! 🙂
Darcy Pattison does a Shrunken Manuscript exercise that’s somewhat similar to this, but I especially like that you’ve emphasized the interplay among characters, as well as their interior emotions.
I can’t wait to get through this round of revisions!! It seems so much more fun–albeit as much of a challenge–to polish a revised draft.
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Re: I’m bookmarking this for future reference! 🙂
I’ve highlighted for other stuff, too. Pacing, for instance. This time through I also highlighted a certain aspect I’m bringing to the story, just to see if it works.
I know what you mean about wanting to get through a round of revisions so you can start working at the next level. You can do it, Melodye! I believe in you!
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Dummy here. Where’s the highlighting function in Word? Is this different from changing the color of the font?
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Hey, no name-calling. Highlighting is different from changing color of font, and in fact, that’s how I stumbled upon it. I was just going to change the font color and then saw the Highlight thingy.
Here’s a link that might help:
http://www.ehow.com/how_2070018_highlight-microsoft-word.html
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Oy! Why didn’t I know about this before? Very useful. Hope you have food and water in the cave. Shoot me a message when you get a chance.
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You didn’t know this before because you’re too busy filling your head with other needed info, such as which kid needs to be where, when, and the car keys are in such-and-such a spot, and we need to buy laundry detergent.
Am I right?
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Have fun in the cave – I look forward to seeing you when you come out!
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Thank you, Kelly. I miss you and William, too. Well, mostly you.
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