The Journal, Wednesday, April 4

Hey Folks,

All right. Well, I finished the novella this morning. I’ll go over it one more time (reading aloud to myself) before I publish it, but the final word count will be very near what’s posted below.

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A few days ago, a subscriber asked in a comment about my after-writing process. Do I send my work to my first reader before I read it aloud? Do I print it before I read it aloud or read directly from the screen?

Just as importantly, the commenter wrote “I’m working on getting better writing a clean [first] draft….”

I was going to make this a single topic, but so much is implied in the questions that I decided to present it in two or three topics. That way I can cover it thoroughly without you having to pick through a b’jillion-word blog post.

I’ll cover the first topic with two parts: A few general notes on reading aloud and then a sub-topic on how I apply the technique in my own writing process.

Topic: Reading Your Work Aloud

I’ve mentioned probably dozens of times over the years that reading your work aloud is a great way to proofread it. That remains the best proofreading advice I can give anyone.

Reading aloud is a slower process, and it gives you two modes of input simultaneously: hearing and sight. For that reason alone, you catch more mistakes and typos and rhythm breaks than you might if you were reading silently.

That third one — rhythm breaks — is probably the most important.

When you’re reading aloud and discover the gap left by a missing word (most often with mine it’s “the”), that’s more because of the break in rhythmm of the language than the sight of the missing word.

Reading Aloud in My Own Writing Process

For those of you who are able to dictate your stories to a recorder, I envy you. I can’t do that. It would be counter-intuitive for me because I read aloud as part of the editing process.

If I dictated, reading aloud would become the writing process and the editing would be done with the keyboard. I’ve tried both, and (for me) I find it more valuable and time-efficient to do it the other way.

As you know, when I sit down in the Hovel to begin the day’s writing, I start by “cycling back” through what I wrote the day before.

For more on cycling, visit http://harveystanbrough.com, scroll to the bottom, and click the Cycling tag.

Often, I read aloud as I cycle through, especially if a section feels even the slightest bit awkward or confusing.

Again, reading it aloud helps me discover where the glitches are in the rhythm. So when I’m finished, it rolls more easily off my (and I hope, the reader’s mental) tongue.

On those occasions, of course, I read without an audience. But that’s all right.

At that point, reading aloud is purely utilitarian. Most often, I don’t let anyone into my work before it’s finished.

Call it superstition. Occasionally when I’ve shared an opening or other section of an unfinished work, something puts me off the story and it falters and dies.

And that, as we say in the business, “Ain’t good.”

(Tomorrow, “Reading Aloud in My Own After-Writing Process”)

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Tomorrow morning I’m heading out on a camping trip, probably 2-4 days.

I don’t want you to have to wait for this series of posts to continue, so I’m going to pre-post them here so the Journal will go out while I’m gone.

As always, feel free to comment. I’ll address the comments when I get back.

See you tomorrow.

Of Interest

See Dean’s “Day Three, Story Three” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/day-three-story-three/.

I recommend checking the Kill Zone blog each day at https://killzoneblog.com. I’ll continue to do that when I get back, but if you’re checking too, you’re just that much ahead.

Fiction Words: 2701
Nonfiction Words: 650 (Journal)
So total words for the day: 3351

Writing of Stern Talbot, PI—The Early Years: The Case of the Missing Body

Day 1…… 2790 words. Total words to date…… 2790
Day 2…… 2959 words. Total words to date…… 5749
Day 3…… 3273 words. Total words to date…… 9022
Day 4…… 5023 words. Total words to date…… 14045
Day 5…… 2701 words. Total words to date…… 16746 (done)

Total fiction words for the month……… 13956
Total fiction words for the year………… 127497
Total nonfiction words for the month… 2410
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 36170
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 205447

Calendar Year 2018 Novels to Date………………………… 3
Calenday Year 2018 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
Calendar Year 2018 Short Stories to Date……… 0
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)………………………………………… 30
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)……………………………………… 5
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……………………………… 182