Editing Out Loud

If you read my blog yesterday, you'll know that I was struggling midway through my novel, The feast. Something wasn't right, and I had a pretty good idea what it was.


Photo by: *^ ^* Sherry, courtesy of Flickr

Still, I printed out all of the pages I'd written so far, got a black Sharpie and began to edit. I read out loud for almost 2 1/2 hours. (Sure, my voice was a little foggy for awhile, but it was worth it).



Mikelao26, courtesy of Flickr
My favorite to edit.

To find mistakes it's important to read your manuscript out loud. I found typos, weirdly constructed sentences, and yep, that problem with tension. What was I doing, placing the ending scene before it was time? No wonder my book was climbing and then suddenly falling off the cliff.

The mistake occurred on page 45. I took the entire scene out and placed it at the end of the book. Though I realized that the last scene wasn't complete, some ideas came to me that would end the story in a way that felt good to me.

I finally knew something about the last line and I was pretty excited about that.

Still am.

Anyway, I have this hole, so to speak, that needs to be filled before the lovely ending that I got a head-start on. The trauma, the pains and everything that Virginia experiences must be lived and breathed before that moment in time when I can finally write the ending.

It just has to be that way. For the sake of a good story, and for the expectations of my readers.

In a nutshell, FOR YOU.

Happy reading and writing!

Kathryn