Reading OUTLOUD

Last week I created a new character to replace a problematic one.

This week I began to implement all the changes that come with inserting the new guy into my story. Sort of like introducing him to the neighborhood and see if he makes friends.

Well, maybe not friends, but he does have to fit into the scheme of things and behave himself and accomplish the mission. The mission: to clarify and connect and reveal the motives behind the actions of the other characters. And let’s not forget the plot. I have been guilty of leaving too much to vague innuendo. Some of that came from years of tip-toeing around the real Erik Jansson. Some comes from this being my first novel—I’ve rewritten it so many times that I wonder if it is still my first novel. I suppose that it always will be the first until it is officially finished.

It has taken time and a few different attempts at organization to actually get started with the writing. First up: I made a list of the names I would use with the Microsoft Word editing feature “Find.” Yes, I needed a list because changing one name meant I had to change another for continuity. I used my list to search for and change whole names and partial names and to leave one name unchanged.

Secondly, I made a list of the chapters I thought needed changing. I came up with 12 chapters out of 40. My plan at that point was to make the changes and then go through the manuscript from the beginning and smooth things out. I would read every word out loud because it does work to speak and listen and not give the brain a chance to automatically fill in the gaps and gloss over the mistakes.

So, I had a plan but I couldn’t get myself started. The clock was ticking. People were waiting for me. In an effort to get going, I tried starting from the end in the hope that working backward would make the beginning easier. No luck.

I ended up at the beginning and reading every word out loud … making changes along the way working from a list of my goals.

I’ve been amazed at the kind of things I’ve found so far: a name change that was missed, a present tense verb that had to be past tense, a third person pronoun that should have been first person, a misspelling that was also missed by a “search.” Reading the work out loud was definitely one of my better decisions.

Some days went better than others, and after a couple of really good days I confidently announced that I would make my deadline of Monday. I am on track to finish.

However, my weekly blog post had to wait a day.