Observations on a re-read

With the exception of troll commenters, it’s difficult to be harder on authors than the authors themselves (and even then it’s often a dead heat). We’re just too close to our work to be objective, especially while we’re writing it. We know how hard it was to write that paragraph that the reader breezes through in seconds. We know how much we agonized over the right wording for a particular description. We know it took months to write something that the reader will finish in days. And for it to be that hard must surely mean that our novel stinks, we’re terrible writers, and that any copies of the manuscript should be burned, our computer files deleted, our keyboards hosed down with alcohol to eliminate all remaining traces, and we should have our heads mounted on a pike as a warning to future generations that some prose comes at too high a price.

While this may not actually be an exaggeration, the moment we just finished writing that passage is probably not the best time to make that assessment.

Give it some time.

I recently finished a novel that has taken me close to two years to finally complete. Granted, the first year was largely tossed out the window when I started over this year. But even so, it’s been a while since I typed those first few words. That’s sufficient emotional distance.

So I decided to read my manuscript. This was obstensibly to pick up any continuity problems, and fix any awkward language, etc. But I largely wanted to read through my manuscript in a short amount of time and see how it all hung together (or if I needed to be hung separately).

I’m not necessarily bragging when I say it was better than I remembered. I know I can’t be a truly impartial critic of my own work, but I do manage a reasonable level of neutrality. I can see it lacks something, and I have a few ideas what may be missing. I don’t think I’ve written a truly compelling novel yet. I think a majority of any readers would be able to finish it without much encouragement, but I don’t think many of them are going to think to themselves, “Wow, that was a good book, and I’m sad it’s over.” I’ve read some books like that. I don’t necessarily begrudge the time I gave to them, but I might not pick up anything by that author in the future.

But I can also see that I’ve made progress as a writer. This, I believe, is a better novel than my last one. There were scenes that got me emotionally involved. I believe the plot is tighter and more complex. My characters lack depth and distinctiveness, but I already suspected that. That’s something I intend to work on in the next novel.

The point is that with a little bit of distance things actually looked better than I remembered.

Every writer has their process. My first instinct was to put the manuscript away and not bring it out again until after I’ve written the next novel. I’m glad I didn’t do that. The experience will be helpful with that next novel. In my case it was a good thing to go back and take a look at the big picture, learn some lessons, note some weaknesses, and acknowledge some successes. I think had I just proceeded on to the next project I might have just continued making the same mistakes. Yes, I probably do need more distance before the next draft, but I do think a quick re-read was worth the time spent.

One of the main take-aways: I finish novels, not just start them. I’ve got a lot of begun-but-not-completed stories in my files. But since I decided to get serious about writing three years ago I’ve gone two-for-two on novels, with a similar succes rate on short stories. I evidently meant it when I decided to get serious. And that’s kinda cool all by itself.