Forum: Author Hangout

How can that be your final edit? "Cutting it to the bone" sounds like a lot of changes. Changes introduce errors. My final edit is when I read through the story and make no changes.

Typically, I take multiple passes through a story. The initial pass is focused entirely on the story, with NO revisions of any kind allowable, unless the chapter simply isn't working, then I'll find the trouble spot and rewrite that entire passage, effectively 'starting over'. That's to keep my mind focused on my left brained creativity mode, without weighing it down on over analytical 'let's rip this baby apart' editing mode.

My second phase (once I know where the story is going and where it's been), is my 'detail pass', where I add things like descriptions, flesh out he characters more, clean-up the phrasing and tighten the narrative.

My third and 'final' pass is where I put the whole thing under the microscope, examine all my adverbs, duplicated words, homonyms, etc., it where I really scale it back, not to clipping any story elements (which naturally happens in phase 2 whenever a mini-plot doesn't fit within my overall book description).

However, aside from comments from my Content Editor, those are all before I ever submit the story for my editors for review, and since my 'final pass' requires so much time, I'm typically reviewing the last several chapters after my editors have finished everything else possible.

Thus, I don't conflate first rendition 'revisions' with the eventual editing correction process. Unfortunately, as of my last couple of books, the 'reading aloud' process is now the last step of my normal 3rd 'final pass' of the story. However, by that point, my editors are too crosseyed when looking at the pages to notice many typos anymore.

I never heard of doing that. I read numbers backwards, like when entering a credit card number to validate the numbers are correct, but not words.

I'm surprised. I can't remember how I first received that advice but I read all my stories backwards as part of my proofreading process and I have done for years.

Reading a story aloud is also good, but getting someone else to read it aloud to you is even better.

AJ

Reading a story aloud is also good, but getting someone else to read it aloud to you is even better.

The only problem with both these versions (reading aloud to others and having others reading aloud to you, is that you can't make corrections on the fly, as you can with a computer reading it to you. Even then, you can only have it read relatively short passages (8 to 14 paragraphs?), but more often, you pause and restart with each correction. And if you change the flow, or cut out unnecessary fillers and drop entire sentence fragments, you basically stop and start again.

Still, if reading aloud (with an emphatic delivery) helps, I'll need to work out a way of recording the impromptu changes. You're liable to recall which sentences were awkwardly phrased, but may not recall specially what was wrong.

In the end, I'm guessing I'll have to experiment with various chapters, trying different techniques to see which work best. Possibly, we may be stuck with three separate time-consuming processes: reading backwards for typos, auto reading for pacing, and reading aloud for delivery and impact.

You still have to be careful with homophones, though. Your text to speech editor isn't going to catch you using the correct sounding word that's still the wrong word.

Strangely though, it does help, as often, when hearing it aloud, you'll focus more on the usage than on the exact words. I guess it boils down to a 'quick glance' at the text to double check and catching the previously unnoticed error.

But then, I also suspect that part of my captivation with practicing the 'dramatic' reading before a captive audience plays into my desire to actually witness the effect of my words on someone, as it's so often that authors ever get to see that interaction directly.

And yeah, I don't do it till after the structural / pacing / fix-the-story / fix-the-scene edits.

Thanks, that helps. But if you're editing for pacing/flow, it wouldn't make sense to use the edited version, given how substantially the language changes (as least in my case).

While auto speaking, I'll cross out whole sections (mostly sentence fragments but also whole sentences and paragraphs) which suddenly seem unnecessary when read aloud.

But then again, it's gotta be the final revision, since you technically aren't editing anything, simply cutting whatever doesn't work and reordering passages to improve the story flow.

Well, there's story pacing, scene pacing, and sentence/paragraph pacing. I edit larger scales first and drill down into the weeds, to hopelessly mangle metaphoric language. There's no point dotting the i's and crossing the t's till you're sure they're in the right place, or even belong there at all.

sound them out

Just curious if you do this. I know I do.

When I'm reading things out loud, and it gets into dialogue, I inject the personality of the person who is saying the words at the time.

So, instead of a simple, monotone - what the fuck were you thinking - I'm liable to say aloud, What ... the ... fuck ... were you THINKING?

It also helps me break from cadence writing which will typically put the reader to sleep.

I had to break out my scant poetic rhythm metrics for this one (and not recalling the terms, I couldn't figure out what to search for). But that's why for longer poems, they typically use quasi-stanzaic stanzas. They have the consistent Ba-boom Ba-boom, but then mix it with the longer stanza so the cadence doesn't 'trap' the listener.

But, although I admire that much dedication to one's art, I've NEVER attempted to count syllables in stanzas, or perform consistent rhythms. I understand why its so powerful, but it seems to put the rhythm before the plot, as it were. I'm more interested in having a smooth delivery, rather than a set stanza tempo.

So, instead of a simple, monotone - what the fuck were you thinking - I'm liable to say aloud, What ... the ... fuck ... were you THINKING?

So, when you do, do you then go back and put in the dramatic ellipses (rather than the obnoxious capitalizations with full stops?

But again, that's what the older generations of authors attempted. Even if you don't change the language, it may help to get you more fully into the character's mind for the revision phase.

Work/professional reports or fiction, it's always a good idea to sound them out imo.

You're not kidding. I just stumbled upon the 'guideline' for when to pronounce "the" as either 'thee' or 'thou'. Although I was always aware of the difference, like most language rules, it never even occurred to me that there was a pattern to their use!