Hi friends & writers,
I’ve been moving this week, and I suspect that editing a work of art is not terribly different from revising a life from one house into another: you must decide which version of your life/story to import into this new container. In both writing and moving, people have different strategies for facing the chaos: some people edit as they go, making one corner of one room just so before tackling the rest. Others pile boxes everywhere and dive recklessly in. Still others outline systems before taking action, mapping out room by room by room.
I am of the editing as I go variety: before I put my bed together, I had lined up all my teapots and coffeemakers, just so. I suppose there is lunacy in every system, even the ones that work.
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PROCESS: READING ALOUD
You’ve heard it before, likely from English teachers everlasting, and it is true that reading a piece of writing aloud is the best revision trick in the book. Why? Because it forces you to slo-o-o-o-w down and hear the sound of every word – and undoubtedly the words that ring false aloud will also ring false on the page. Your voice will tell you what is good and what is boring; once you have read a piece aloud several times, you will know the difference.
Try this: Every time you think a piece of writing is finished, read it aloud – once, twice, three times.
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