Editing

Second Entry~

Today I was fiddling around with my writings, and I wanted to fix any mistakes I'd made. This is something I've done a hundred times if not more. I've memorized almost every world of my first two chapters because of it. As well as the preface. I tend not to change anything too major. Mainly wording. Spelling was the main culprit at first, but that isn't an issue with these parts any more. A lot of what I've done is filling in. And I think I've finally gotten to a place where the first chapter has all the fill in stuff it needs. My second chapter could do with a few more paragraphs in the first section, but that too is pretty much done.

When I write, I tend not to re-read from the beginning until I feel like I've come to an end. Or I'm coming back to it after a long time passing. And when I do re-read, I'm normally silent until I feel like it's finished. That's when I re-read for a second time but out loud. I'm able to hear the flow of my words much more easily, and tend to fix most of the major problems. Tonight I actually had my word doc read my first 2 chapters to me, instead of me reading it out loud myself, and I found that it helped a lot. There was a good flow, and I was able to concentrate more on what was written. I could catch things that didn't sound right. I fixed a few things that popped out at me. Because I wasn't reading myself, but listening to it being read, I could more easily tell when something sounded off. Hearing someone else's voice read back what I have written, even if it was just a computer's voice, was amazing.

I'd never really gave much thought to listening to the computer read allowed to me before. Now I have effect pinned so I can use it whenever I write. I recommend trying it out. You can adjust the speed as well as the voice used. And since my character's a guy, and I'm a woman, I find it much better to hear a man's [computer man] voice reading to me, than my own girly one. Especially since I write in first person.

I'm working on filling in the 3rd chapter right now. I've been on a tangent for a while, working on a story-line for one of my main characters. I always felt like something was missing for that character, but I never knew what until I found myself writing out something at random. Before I even knew what I was writing. I fell in love with the idea too, so I've been trying to work it out. But that's anther story.

~END~