Leaving a story to mature

[BobbyBrandt]

I have a rolling self-edit process, so that, by the time I've finished a story, I've pretty much scrubbed through it multiple times. I'll read it from the top once or twice, maybe do some tweaks here and there, not much. On occasion I'll let it sit a few days, but most times, I'll just submit it. By that time, I've usually started on something new, so the "previous story is done."

Yeah. I do that as well. I think I pick up a lot of stuff that way.

Em

Since I write mostly longer stories, this process becomes mandatory, for continuity if nothing else.

One other "trick" I use before publishing is to listen to the story being read back to me. This is especially helpful with dialogue to ensure that people are saying what I meant them to say in ways that I want them to say it. It also catches missed words, and depending upon which app you use, it can also help spot punctuation errors, such as a missing question mark.

 

[SimonDoom]

My usual pattern is to edit heavily as I go, then to re-read and edit it when it's done, and then to give it a final proofread, usually using Grammarly and/or Word editor as I go. I'm usually so impatient to get the thing published that I don't wait for a few days to give it fresh eyeballs.

 

[TheRedChamber]

I find that after I leave a story to sit for a while one of the following two things happen.

1) If I thought it was good when I left it, I still think its good when I read through it again - I might correct the occassional mistake or finesse a phrase, but it's rare that I read it again thinking 'God this is terrible'.

2) If I thought it was terrible when I left it, when I read through it again I'm usually able to see the good in it. I usually come away thinking 'This specific issue is a problem and I was right to worry about it, but a lot of the core material is still solid' and I'm usually able to fix it.

Of course when my beta-readers get hold of it, thats when I have to start facing reality a bit more...

 

[Duleigh]

I don't know if "aging" or "maturing" is the right way to look at it. It's letting yourself forget about the story. More than once I've found myself realizing that I left out a needed word or phrase that I thought was there because I had been over the story so many time. Giving yourself time to flush out your memory turns yourself into a fresh set of eyes.

 

[oneagainst]

It must be an Aussie thing... I pretty much do what EB does. Unless I'm up against a deadline, I'll leave the story for a day or so, then give it a final read before I hit the publish button. Most of the time I don't change a thing, but occasionally I fix a minor error.

Maybe it is. Sink a few tinnies and let it sit. Publishing multi-chapter stories kinda forces that, but I'm best coming back to something a couple of months down the line. I've forgotten half of it, and I get to read it like a reader would, except I've got the special power of correcting the author's plot missteps and grammar mistakes. Because no-one appreciates a story that's off like a raw prawn.

 

[Duleigh]

Love the raw prawn but Tinnie? What's a tinnie? (my first inclination is tinnie = can of beer)

There's a "Ask an Australian Anything" forum at Quora, I could go there if I have to

 

[Rob_Royale]

I have back burnered stories that I wasn't happy with how they were playing out. Those go into the WIP HOLD file until I figure out the problem. I could never understand how a story can just slide off the path, after all I'm controlling it, right? But they do.

Once a story is done, I go over it, over ad over. I might read through it 10 times depending on length. I also reread while I'm writing, it gets me back into the characters and I find areas that need more or less detail or elaboration. It also helps find spelling issues that spell check misses, like when I have 'burn' instead of 'barn'.

So to answer Emily's question. No. I don't leave a completed story to marinade. I season to taste as I write.

 

[oneagainst]

Love the raw prawn but Tinnie? What's a tinnie? (my first inclination is tinnie = can of beer)

There's a "Ask an Australian Anything" forum at Quora, I could go there if I have to

A tinnie is one of two things... a can of beer which may or may not be Victoria Bitter, or a small metal boat with an outboard used for fishing, often also carry tinnies onboard. One you sink and it's all good, the other you sink and you're shark bait.

I'm not sure that helped.

 

[Rustyoznail]

Got it in one, Duleigh

 

[Duleigh]

Got it in one, Duleigh

Back when Farscape was a thing I was on several forums heavily populated by Aussies and learning the slang was part of the survival skills, but Tinnie was one I had never heard. It took a few minutes of contemplating to decipher that one without an Aussie to American translation website, glad to see the old skills came back for me.

I wrote a comedy fanfic under the pseudonym Bonzer Root and my imaginary co-writer was Dunny Chook