Authors know how difficult it is after writing a book for months or years, and doing plenty of revising as they go, and then facing the long stretch run that requires more revisions – far more than they’d imagined were still necessary.

I’ve learned that doing each successive revision in a different medium helps catch new errors and areas needing improvement. After first composing on a desktop, I do the first set of revisions also on desktop. Then I print out – or have printed out at a store with a heavy-duty copier – the entire manuscript in 8 1/2 x 11 paper, and I always find things that I hadn’t seen on the computer screen. I then send the updated Word file to my book designer who lays it out in book form and sends an electronic file to my Kindle reader. (This can be done with other reading tablets, too). And then I go through that entire file however many times prove necessary.

Different media provide different visual and mental perspectives when revising and editing.

Notes: They Make Movies is a fast-moving collection that blends fiction with history to illuminate the lives and careers of noted actors, actresses, and directors. The book will be published this summer.