I’m in what I hope is my next to final re-read of my novel before I start submitting it. I’m attempting to just read, without editing, to get a feel for how the reader will receive it.
I loved to read, as a girl and a young adult. I still do, but I often wish I could read the same way I did back then. Once you’ve been a writer, editor, or proofreader (and I’ve been all of those), it becomes nearly impossible to just read, without editing or analyzing or noticing parts of speech. I can barely make it through almost anyone else’s writing anymore without wanting to stop and edit, or at least correct a typo here and there, or think about some aspect of it besides the story being told, the information or advice being relayed. Plot structure, characterization. Wondering why the author did that, or admiring a description rather than staying in the story.
It’s even worse with my own writing. No matter how many times I’ve been through it, no matter how good anyone else thinks it is, I find it impossible to just read what I’ve written. I’ve heard that near the end of his life Ernest Hemmingway could barely compose a single sentence, he’d become such a perfectionist about his writing. But, I wonder, how was he at reading? That’s the thing that kills me.
It’s a mad dance with myself, trying to read this book. But I hope that as I read through this draft, if I can distance myself enough from it, I’ll see it more the way other readers will. I also hope to come to a final decision about a title for this book. Finally I hope to see the big picture of the story, and notice any gaping flaws or errors in logic, rather than the little nit-picky things I’ll focus on the final time through.
1.
I hope you can get past the “reading your own words”. I read strictly for pleasure, and enjoy it very much. I do have problems with typos and run on sentences.
Good luck with the reading.
Cas
I was a knitting instructor for years and am very critical of other knitter’s work, although I would never say so. And my own has to be perfect.
Comment by cassie-b — September 29, 2006 @ 1:18 pm
2.
Oh Barbara, don’t you have a reader you can trust? Or have you gone through that stage already?
Comment by susan — September 29, 2006 @ 3:29 pm
3.
The last mystery I read I figured out very quickly who was, shockingly, hiding his involvement in the murder. That’s because the book bounced around from viewpoint to viewpoint, but never into this one, fairly prominent character’s viewpoint.
As for writing, the more I learn the harder it gets. I agonize over choices I didn’t know I had ten years ago. Althogh intellectually I know better, I am less satisfied with my stuff now. When I was twenty I composed with careless, blundering enthusiasm and was thrilled with the finished product. Today I can see all the defects and remember all the rejected alternatives and wonder whether I couldn’t have done better.
Comment by Eric Mayer — September 29, 2006 @ 8:23 pm
4.
I’m the same way about my knitting, Cas. If I find a mistake, even several rows down, and even if I think no one else will notice, I can’t stand it. I’ve learned how to go down a single row to fix mistakes in simpler patterns, so I don’t always have to rip out, thank goodness. But lace? OMG, I have to be careful there, because lace is a mess for me to try to fix.
Susan, yes, but I have to read it, too, and it’s me as my own reader that I have a problem with. I used to do fine when I had deadlines, though, and that was technical writing—perfectly boring to read back through—so maybe it’s just a matter of self-discipline. I’d be more motivated if I had anything but my own arbitrary deadlines.
Eric, it drives me crazy when I know who the villain is too soon, though I can put up with it if the writing is stellar and the suspense is still high.
Comment by Barbara — October 2, 2006 @ 5:13 pm
5.
How exciting to be in the reading stage. Good luck….
Comment by violetismycolor — October 2, 2006 @ 6:45 pm