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304 Part V: Polishing Your Product: Revising and Editing
When you write, you don’t always write chronologically. You write the scenes
you like best and then start trying to stitch them together. Sometimes the
result is that you can’t remember where anything is and the story jumps
around confusingly. If this happens, it’s a good idea to start at the beginning
and work out a complete timeline, slotting in scenes in the right order.
Speaking up: Reading your work aloud
(but perhaps not in public)
One of the best pieces of advice I give any writer is to read your work aloud to
yourself. Read it slowly – don’t rush through – because the purpose is to hear
what the prose sounds like.
Reading aloud distances you from your work and helps you to view it as an
outside reader. You immediately spot any words that clash or jar, you hear the
rhythm of the sentences and when they flow well and when you stumble, and
you spot any mistakes much more easily. Words that sound good when read
aloud are much easier for people to read than those that sound awkward.
Reading aloud also reveals where your writing holds your interest and where
things go flat. It’s the best possible tool to show you what’s working in your
prose and what isn’t.
Record yourself reading your work aloud and then listen to it later. Even
better, ask a friend to read it aloud; this can be especially important if you
aren’t a confident reader.
Obviously, you can’t get a friend to read a whole novel – but reading short
extracts will help you get a feel for how your prose is flowing, and help you
with scenes you don’t think are working.
Making Major Changes to
Your Initial Draft
Tearing up your first draft and starting again is the most drastic form of
rewriting. I don’t usually recommend it, but on occasions the draft can be so
all over the place that putting it to one side can help, and then you can start
to write your story all over again.