Thursday, September 7, 2017

Hailey's Novel Diary – 9/7/17

After finishing the first draft, I went back and read the book from cover to cover. This is not the most exciting stage, and there is little worth talking about, but it is one of the most important stages. While writing, I will go back and read whatever I just wrote, but usually a few sentences or paragraphs at a time, not necessarily in context, and sometimes out of order. It's very important to read the entire thing as quickly as possible.

No book is ever written in one sitting. Over a period of months, your ideas and state of mind can change. Your attitude while writing chapter 20 might be completely different than it was during chapter 2. I can't read the entire book in one sitting, but I can try to read as much as I can in the fewest days. Someone once told me that short stories are actually harder to write than full length novels, but reading a short story cover to cover is much easier.

I like to think that I catch most typos while reading over whatever I have just written. But that can never be true. I find 90% of the typos while reading the entire first draft. Even then, there will always be something that slips through. Those little devils are sneaky.

The point of reading the first draft cover to cover is not to catch typos. It's to see if whatever you transferred from your head to the page makes any sense. Does the story work? Are the characters honest? Does A lead to B and C? Inevitably, something will be off. That's why they invented second drafts.

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