Reading your own stuff like a reader would

redser7

Do you find it hard to read your own writing in a detached way like a reader might? Do you find the more you re-read it the staler and more awful it gets? Maybe you're not doing yourself justice? Is it a normal experience?

Antilles

It's difficult, because as the writer, a) you have a tendency to read what you meant rather than what you actually wrote and b) you are eventually so familiar with it that what once seemed fresh and interesting now seems cliched and boring.

The best way I've found to get around it is to finish a draft, then put it away for a week or two before coming back to edit. It's not perfect, but it at least gives you some distance and your brain is less familiar with it the second time through.

redser7

Thanks. Yes I think I'm rereading again and again too much just after I've written something down. I'll give it more time and space and just push on.
Cheers

EileenG

Read it aloud, preferably to another person. That makes it easy to hear when things are not right.

redser7

EileenG wrote: »

Read it aloud, preferably to another person. That makes it easy to hear when things are not right.

Good god I couldn't even entertain the thought of doing that!!

5rtytry56

record yourself reading into your smartphone. Then listen back. You can then delete it straight after. When you're home alone. I'm sure you're a social enough dude though redser I mean well

TheGlitchKing

It's probably not possible. You'll either be looking for every thing wrong with it, or wearing rose tinted goggles. Whereas when you read someone elses work most people just want to relax. Reading your own writing is always work, it's like raising kids. You give leeway to other people's kids, but you improve on your own.

Das Kitty

I think the above poster has a point.

If I'm reading a book for pleasure I do let a lot slide. But if I was beta reading for someone I would draw out all the pacing, clarity, grammatical issues I find.

That's the sort of reader of your own work you want to be. You want to be critical and look at it with a cold eye.

As said before, distance and practice are the only things that will get you there.

I think you should also be prepared to fully rewrite things. Often, I'll be disatisfied with a section of what I've written and wrestle and wrestle with it, trying to fix it. Eventually I take a clean page and write it again knowing what I want to achieve without the previously written text caging me, and it will come out how I want it with little effort.

I know the thought of reading to someone else can be nerve wracking, but honestly it is the single best way of improving. Writing in a vacuum is a nice way to begin, but it will only get so far. Baby-steps and you will gain confidence.

redser7

Thanks for that, great advise. I guess exposing it to someone else is the only way really. Rereading too much seems to wear it thin for me until it starts to get awful. I'm probably being over-critical. Or maybe it IS awful As time goes on I'm beginning to expect this to happen. I just can't seem to finish anything to put up before some new exciting idea takes over and I leave the last thing behind unfinished grrr.

EileenG

Editing will make you hate it. There's no way around that. You just have to go through it with a fine tooth comb, checking every word, moving commas around, changing the order of lines of dialogue, cutting adverbs, checking facts, and generally sweating bullets without making any visible difference to the page.