Thanks to my new method for revising and my amazing new proofreader, I have passed another milestone when it come to Book Two in my Chronicles of Nequam series.
I am now ready to read the whole blasted thing out loud.
I kind of hate this part, but unfortunately, I think it's way too valuable a step for me to skip. (After all, I need to see how the characters' lines will sound when they make a major motion picture out of it, right? Hey, it could happen...) For those of you who have never written, then rewritten, and rewritten, and rewritten, think of it this way:
Imagine a book. A good book. Even a book that you really really love. Now, imagine that you are stranded in a cell with that book - and nothing else. So you read it. Then you read it again. And again, and again. Somewhere in here you take to carving pictographs on the wall with your fingernails, because the sight of the book makes you feel just a little bit crazy. Then you read it again - out loud.
Essentially, this is the basic process for revising a book.
I will say that the task isn't nearly as daunting as I first thought it would be. When I decided to read Laryn Rising out loud I looked at some books on cd and figured it would take about thirteen hours. I think it took more like fifteen, but still that's really only the equivalent of sitting at a desk for two regular work days. It took me more than two sittings, of course, because of irritating things like work, and laundry, and children who want to eat Every. Single. Day. (Wouldn't it be awesome if humans were more like pythons and only required a meal every five to fourteen days? I fantasize about such things...) (And please note that I do love my children. And I do feed them. Most of the time. If there were just more hours in a day!)
Book Two is about 20,000 words longer than Laryn Rising, which means it will take me longer to get through, but I'm trying to feel geared up for the challenge. It would probably be easier to face if I hadn't JUST finished going through it, but it's either work on Book Two or start trying to format Laryn Rising for printing. Since we know how I feel about anything involving the word 'formatting' (see previous post) we can safely assume that at this point I'm still hoping the Formatting Fairy will visit my house one night and do it for me.
I admit it's unlikely, but as miracles have been known to happen I will continue to put that off for now. After all, it's only fair to give the Formatting Fairy as much time as possible to get to my project, right?
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