Hi all. Does anyone else start to thing their story-line is becoming boring because it has to be read over and over? I read it several times to edit and correct typo's if it's needed. But the more I read it the more boring the story seems to become, then I begin to think if it's boring to me how would it seem to someone else reading it? I understand other people haven't read it and it would be new to them, but I need to be able to edit and correct without feeling like this. Help.
Thank you Lorraine and Tom. I will take on board what you have both said. I know editing etc is a job that has to be done, more than once, so the m.s has to be read again and again. I'll try not to think of it as 'boring' and see how it reads in another format. Thanks again.
Elsie, when I edited my book, I read it three times - all 140k words of it; I then did the same for proof-reading. Each time I found things that needed attention, so it was very intense reading. It's how I'd edit anyone else's book; the difference was that this was mine and I'd lived with it for years.
Of course you'll feel it's stale - what other book would you read 3 times in succession? Take a break in between reads, and do something else. Make sure you take some form of exercise once in every hour you spend at your desk. Put your book onto Kindle and read it in a different format. There are all sorts of tricks to making it seem fresh each time, or to make you feel fresh enough to carry on.
How do you know it's not boring, though? Look for the points in the book when your reader will think they never saw that coming. Are there enough? Are there hanging ends to the chapters that make someone want to read on? Does the tone vary at all - is there laughter, sadness, happiness, fear? It's this sort of thing you will need to keep your reader hooked.
Sorry, Elsie - I mis-read your name. Now corrected :-)