That, in many ways, is the most important part of this “second” edit. Because it’s being read aloud to me, I can actually make very fast progress through the story. Besides catching places where I have unintentionally dropped words (for example, saying “goes the base” instead of “goes TO the base”), this is a great edit to catch places where things are inconsistent.
I’m approaching the last chapter and epilogue, and so far, everything has held together well except for one small section at the end of one of the chapters. Although a nice scene, it was unnecessary, and I wanted to have the character’s dialogue said a certain way (as if they were unable to form certain words), but that whole section was written as if they could pronounce everything perfectly. (oops!) It would have been incredibly cumbersome to rewrite it to the standard I used later, so it was cut out and put aside in another file. In case I find I need it (unlikely at this point), I can add it back in and work with it.
To some extent, I get to the end of a long project and wonder if they story was on-par or better than what I’ve already written. Like everything, I guess, you have to step back from the details and take it in as a whole. Parts that I was worried would drag actually aren’t drags – they contribute nicely. I also wondered about places where I kind of split the story between two time-lines (ancient and modern). All-in-all, I think it works.
Although I have written the introduction of “Beyond”, I’m still not feeling the urge to write any more until I’m through this initial edit. I think I’m also going to create a printed copy for me to read (and mark up) before I pass the work along to others. Also, I need to get around to cover art. I have some ideas for the cover of “Fallen”, and again, it’s fairly simple, but we’ll see. I’ll probably create a few options before I start drawing up a spec.
Well, have fun and take care! See you in the future…
JTL