Thursday Thoughts

I just began what I think will be my final editing pass for Journal of the Dead, my read-aloud pass. At first, I felt really weird and self-conscious doing this, even though no one else was in the house (except my dog, whose responses are confined to pawing to get up onto my lap or licking my face or both). Then I got into the groove, and I found that I really did become conscious of the flow of sentences - and how dialogue fit into the voices of the individual characters. Parik has a distinct (stuffy) voice, and I found myself tweaking to match it.

Oddly enough, though, I caught at least two consistency issues while reading out loud. I'm not sure how this makes sense because the references aren't anywhere near each other ... but I noticed I called Parik a second son in his introduction and then later, he describes himself as the eldest. Fixed that. And noticed Ihseye refers to the journal in HER introduction, but never mentions it in her execution story. Wrote myself a big note in purple ink to fix that when I get to it, as it's a bit more extensive than just changing a word.

Maybe it's that I'm experiencing the story in a different way. Or maybe it's just that I've been over the whole thing and incubated it enough that now I'm truly seeing it as a whole.

Still tapping on Scylla and Charybdis. I'm a bit concerned that the last two chapters ended on a similar cliff-hanger, both involving Orithia, Anaea's ex. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to finagle the next part of the story, but I have some good ideas ... they just need to percolate. Anaea's personal crisis should hopefully cascade down to a resolution of the whole book. Finally. I'm looking at hopefully typing the last sentence before summer.

Then it may take me the rest of my life to edit this beast.