Electronic Cut and Paste

Is it possible to do the Woody Allen cut and paste using a computer? I always find it charming to see someone who has a tried and true method that is low tech, especially when it clearly works for them and they have no reason to change. I have a few of my own. I still use a dumb phone. But I am not Woody Allen typing on a fifty year old typewriter. I own and enjoy using a state of the art laptop.

One of the big advantages of living in the age of computers is that if you're willing to make the leap to paperless, you can save a lot of space, not to mention paper. Yes, it's still good to keep those old tax returns until the year infinity, and a few other vital pieces of paper, but with a good system of backing up, there is no reason not to be able to create a novel or a screenplay on a computer. The question is, can one adapt the spread-it-all-out-on-the-floor-to-look-at-it method using a computer?

What would that look like? Well, it might not look like cut and paste for one thing. It might look more like a bunch of folders with different neat written stuff in them linked to a powerpoint presentation of the plot and story structures of the novel. Seriously. One could do that. Not THIS one, since I'm a Powerpoint Luddite, but one could.

But I do think in order to effectively use cut and paste, it must go hand in hand with developing a strong plot and story structure. When you have a tight, well thought out structure on which to hang all that descriptive writing, dialogue, and those cute as a button original phrases you're so proud of, it will be much easier to keep track of where you put things in the novel or screenplay because everything will be there for a very specific reason.

Hmmm... paradigm shift. Maybe it isn't so much cut and paste, which of course there will be a lot of no matter how one chooses to do it, so much as it's multiple revisions (the most powerful advantage computers offer), tied to an evolving plot structure. With a little discipline, or maybe a more friendly way of saying it would be "developing good habits" of working on story and plot structure as well as having some way of keeping track of various bits of good writing that make up the elements of the story, I think the fluidity of the creative process and the constant dynamic evolution of the story can be retained.

Whew! That's a relief, it is worth a shot to use modern technology for novel writing. I wasn't really looking forward to having to cut all those strips of paper and put them back together. I'm still charmed by Woody Allen's two tiny staplers, though. Well one can admire without having to copy. And yes, I do think his private life is very strange. But after watching Whatever Works, I am pretty sure Woody Allen does too.

More later.