Having left my manuscript to gestate for a few weeks I’m now doing a ‘final’ check. When I last looked at it I was reasonably satisfied with the contents but this afternoon saw me rewriting various sentences and wondering how I’d come to miss such a clunking piece of writing. Ultimately I think the only way to be absolutely sure is to read the thing out loud. Errors, repetition or just a bad sentence are much easier to spot that way.
I’ve don’t so many revisions to mine, that this final review isn’t so bad, but I always find an opportunity to make improvements, even if it’s minor. It seems to me, that this is the only way to refine one’s manuscript to perfection. Sometimes, when writing, if words fail me, I just write it in a sloppy way to get the ideas down, knowing later when I come back to it, I will have a fresh perspective and be able to make the necessary improvements. It’s worked so far, and having a couple people to read and give feedback helps, too.
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