I recently finished another revision of one of my books. I will say that MANY people have read it, something like fifteen. (Ok I don't know for sure but it's a lot)
I've read this book at least 30 times.
You know what I caught this time around.
1) All my minor character who I just needed a name for are named Mike
2) My character swallows... a lot. More than an average person swallows.
3) My main character can not read facial expressions... so yeah he might be autistic... or I'm a lazy writer.
4) Every draft I feel like it's stronger than the last and I feel like "this time, I got it."
I've said that, more times then I'm willing to count.
Why is it no one caught this? Why didn't anyone tell me?
Also when I read it I found it to be extremely dialogue heavy. I had a writer moment where I thought I should go back and fill in every line a dialogue with a length description. You know what not a single person has ever complained about it. EVER.
Fix the stuff you know you can fix and if no one else points it out, take a breath and let it go.
I laughed through this - I find the same kinds of things all the time! I can read it a bazillion times and THEN realize that every single person in the story is constatnly taking a deep breath! Drives me nuts. :)
ReplyDeleteJemi, I hear you! everyone swallows, rolls their eyes and jams their hands into their pockets.
ReplyDeleteI laughed at the swallowing comment. One of my characters bites her lip all the time and the other one loves to smile. Good for you finding the stuff you know you need to change--i have such a hard time doing this with my stuff.
ReplyDeleteI love the last line of your post. In fact, I think I'm going to type it up and hang it over my desk. :)
ReplyDeleteI'm diving into revisions soon and I'm sure there will be so much I won't catch. It must be a nice feeling though to see the book get better and better with each revision. :)
ReplyDeleteLove the swallowing comment. My character sighs abnormally often and the other one takes way to many deep breaths
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