I'm in limbo, time to dust off an old idea and see what happens

[Andrew Marsh]

Today marks the first day that my latest book goes into hibernation for a couple of months before I set to reviewing and editing it. This is an important and sometimes missed part of the writing process. I think it is essential that you put your book to bed for a while and "get it out of your head" so that you can come back to it fresh and objectively for the editing process.
Too often I hear of people on social media saying that they have typed "the end" on their book and put it on Amazon the same day. No editing, no peer review, nothing. No wonder some self published books get a lot of criticism if that is how a writer treats their work and readers.
I have plenty of ideas for other books, so it is time to review my notes on one of them and see where it goes.

 

[David Weller]

You are so right, Andrew, on both counts.

I put both of my novels to bed at the end of March this year, and didn't look at them again until October. Given the hundreds of hours I've already spent editing them, a person might be forgiven for thinking that there wouldn't be much left to do. How wrong they would be. I've made so many alterations this time round that it is almost embarrassing. Did I really miss out that speech mark on page 98 and write the word and when I really should have put so? I suspect I'll find plenty more things which need changing before I'm finally done.

 

[Paul Whybrow]

We should come up with a name for the strange hypnosis that happens when we read our manuscript multiple times and fail to notice missing words, incorrect use of apostrophes, excessive use of commas and verbosity.

One trick, that I've found helps to winkle out such mistakes, is to view my writing in a different font. Somehow, errors jump out at me that I hadn't noticed while viewing chapters in Times New Roman for the five-hundredth time.

 

[Tim James]

Putting the first draft aside for a while gives you some "distance." When you come back to it, it is easier to read it like a fresh reader rather than as the author. As @David Weller says, you then often pick up on mistakes that you had overlooked before because you knew the story too well.
And as for typing The End and then immediately publishing the first draft ... well! What can you say? They are either incredibly gifted writers, or I suspect they won't sell many.

 

[Leonora]

I've got distance by getting Balboka or Word to read it back to me. It's a great way to pick up errors (tho not so much punctuation) and provides amusement for the family, especially if I pick the Radiohead style robot American voice. If the story comes over at all under those circumstances, I feel like it might be ok!

 

[Susan]

I've got distance by getting Balboka or Word to read it back to me. It's a great way to pick up errors (tho not so much punctuation) and provides amusement for the family, especially if I pick the Radiohead style robot American voice. If the story comes over at all under those circumstances, I feel like it might be ok!

I swear by this too for picking up errors and achieving distance. Mac OS has some really good system voices, though Serena infuriates me because she's also on my satnav. Infovox also does some great voices, and Cereproc voices are amazing but they don't always play nice with Scrivener, which I use for writing.

A combination of text to speech, plus putting work aside for a while, is really effective for me.

 

[David Weller]

@Leonora @Susan What a great idea. I'd never considered using a system like that.