We always need that second pair of eyes…
Your eyes are the worst editor you will ever hire. They forgive everything, because they already know what you meant to say, so they quietly fill in the missing word, smooth the clunky sentence, and hand the page back to you looking perfectly fine.
Your ears are not so generous. Read the same page out loud and the whole thing changes, because now you’re hearing it the way a stranger will, and the mistakes and the clunky bits suddenly become clear. You run out of breath halfway through a sentence and you’ve found the sentence that needs cutting. You stumble over a word and you’ve found the word that doesn’t belong. You get bored with your own voice and, well, there’s your answer about that chapter.
Mark Twain used to read his work aloud to his family and watch them like a hawk. The moment they started fidgeting, it was: “Cut!” He didn’t need their notes. He needed their bodies to tell him the truth their manners wouldn’t.
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This is why reading aloud sits at the very start of my five steps, before the spelling, before the grammar, before anyone else lays eyes on it. And it’s also where most writers finally understand why I keep nagging them about contractions, because nobody on this earth says “do not” and “cannot” and “I will” out loud, and the second you hear yourself doing it, you’ll fix it without me having to say a word.
So: read it aloud. Then fix the spelling and punctuation. Then check it flows and is easy to digest. Then find another set of eyes, a friend, a relative, a paid editor, because you need another eagle to see what you’ve stopped being able to see.
I’m the eagle and the lighthouse for my private clients. I see the big picture but can zero in on that little mouse in the forest, and I shine the light to keep you off the rocks. But before I get anywhere near your manuscript, you can do half my job for me with nothing but your own voice and a closed door.
Your flow will eventually assert itself. You just have to hear it first. DM me if you want to chat and find out more.
