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.
No comments:
Post a Comment