A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.
-Oscar Wilde
Take a 60 page, single spaced word document and read it once a day for 120 days. Just read it. Then on day 121 sit down and read it but try and figure out everything that's wrong with it. Which paragraphs are too short, which are too long? Or do they seem right because you're so used to them?
Ask yourself, is what happens on page 57 adequately set up on on page 32? Or, since you know it's coming, does your mind naturally fill in the gaps?
Did you read the pivotal scene between the protagonist and the love interest yet, or is it still coming up and you're just thinking about it? Where exactly are you in the time line of the story? You know what's happened, you know what's going to happen, you sort of forget when the moment your reading happens in relation to the scenes on either side of it. You know you're on page 20, but where exactly is that? Is it before or after the first melt down? Does page 20 set up the second meltdown or not, are they related at all?
The good news I've finished what I believe to be a very solid second draft. It weighs in at slightly more than ~30k words. Far, far lower than my anticipated 50k but I don't care anymore. Now comes the scary part. Now people read it for the first time and they get to tell me everything that's wrong with it.
Posted by Ben Corman at 10:49 PM