Editing Using my Imac

The other day I discovered an effective editing technique for myself. I had heard it said that you should read your work out loud to see what works and what doesn't. I had tried this before and it didn't seem to work for me. Then after playing around with Garage Band on the mac I realised I could use the audio recording facility to hear my story read back to me. Then I could do more versions and read it out loud and edit it as I could hear the things that weren't working and I wanted to change them.

When the story was merely the words on the page it didn't have the same effect on me as hearing the problems read out loud. It seems to make it more tangible when you read it out because you feel as if you are an outsider to the text. Hearing a story is a really good way of seeing whether the dialogue works or the text is flowing correctly. If the sentences are too long or not clear enough. For me this has provided another dimension in editing. For a longer piece maybe you could take one chapter at a time and read it out. It would have to be after the whole manuscript had been written.
I am starting my Grad Certificate in a couple of weeks and I am very excited to learn more, write more and to receive feedback from others and from a lecturer. Bring on July 21.

Lost some of my work...

Don't you hate it when you have written something you are really happy with and then you discover you have saved over it or lost it? Well that is what has happened to me. A part of my novel that I enjoyed writing has now disappeared. Dissipated out into the air. The words, letters that created the piece have gone. 

I want to be like Peter Carey and Ernest Hemmingway who didn't care. Peter Carey said he routinely threw out good writing to challenge himself to do even better work and Ernest Hemmingway in A Moveable Feast lost his whole first novel, left it in manuscript form in a taxi. He didn't care that much. They had a robust attitude to their writing and didn't believe in holding onto things. I will get to that soon. I will write the piece again and it will hopefully be better than it was before. That is very possible- everything needs work after the first draft anyway. 

Anyway I wanted to write this blog, knowing there will be other writers who have had this happen and can empathise with me. One must let go and hold our pieces lightly. If I wrote it once I can challenge myself to do it again.