Revision Phase

I'm getting ready to delve into the revision phase of the cozy mystery I wrote a month or so back. You know, the one I wrote in a bit under two weeks. Yeah, that one.

I'm still working on Book II - slowly, but surely. I have about 1/4 more to go before I'm done.

Still, my brain has begun to drift toward revisions of the first book (of hopefully many - ha). I did a read through of the first few chapters the other day. I already know that one chapter is going to disappear . . . for the most part.

The chapter in question is mainly backstory . . . which, in some cases is needed. It is needed in this case, but with less length . . . and all that can easily fit into the next chapter. Woo-hoo!

On a side note . . .

The read through . . .

My main problem with the read through is that I have a tendency to want to fix things. It's an irritating, borderline OCD, tendency. A read through should include reading only, no editing . . . at least in my opinion.

I finally solved my - somewhat - OCD tendency to edit: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Yes, .pdf format is how I do my read throughs. I might come across a scene to edit/delete/whatever. The Adobe format doesn't - well, not the free version anyway - allow me to edit the document. This is a good thing.

So, in the first few chapters of the read through I came across "here" instead of "her". I came across a paragraph I pretty much knew I wanted to delete.

Both things will still exist when I begin the editing phase.

As easy - obsessive, perhaps - as it is to edit on demand (Ha!), I think, for me, it's better to not have the edit option available. Sometimes, I just need to read and not edit. If I'm always stopping to change "here" to "her" . . . or whatever, than I'm not getting a sense of the flow of the novel.

Yes, my mind reacts to what is wrong within the novel, but . . . I can keep reading with only a brief pause, rather than a long pause to fix what I find that I think is wrong!

And, if worse comes to worse, there is the bookmark option which allows me to mark a specific page for later reference.

How about you? How do you handle your read through? Do you have a tendency to edit as you go? Do you hold a red pen in hand? Do you read through totally, from beginning to end, with out an edit at all? How do you turn off your inner editor?

S