Reading Aloud
Sep. 25th, 2007 09:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cathschaffstumpRelevant Writer realization: Who has time to work on anything else but checking papers (English teacher) and writing (author)? Perhaps my best writerly advice to someone right now is this: If you want to go into education, and be a writer, choose a discipline that has multiple choice tests. You think you're doing yourself a favor by choosing a discipline near and dear to your hear. Choose again, and this time, choose more wisely. :D
Flippancy aside, while I wait for the coin of fate to flip, I've begun an outloud reading of the work. I tell my students constantly to read their papers out loud, and you know what? It is the best advice I can give them. Not only do you note things that are proofreading mistakes, but you also hear how your work will actually sound to others. Rhythm is important!
A more honest assessment of the work as I am reading it is surfacing, as opposed to just finished euphoria, or the doldrums of proofing. There are parts of it that shine, that are really, really good! And there are parts of it that have great potential. The first three chapters are very good and descriptive.
However, parts of it feel rushed to me, almost like the writer needs permission to linger in the margins, rather than relentlessly pushing the plot. I feel that lingering would be up to an editor's discretion.
It seems a lot like the kind of thing that does get published in YA, based on the amount of reading I've been doing. My work is no better or worse than most of the books I'm seeing. The main characters are compelling and interesting. So, bottom line: It's publishable. It can be improved. I hope it's marketable.
Meanwhile, I'm going to continue writing along my plan. Even though I'm not paid yet, I'm a writer, and I'll do what writers do: take some time to do some more polishing, and then get on to the next things.
Well, tonight is the night class, so I'd best do a couple of corrections I remembered while drifting off to sleep, and get down to some work at my other job.
Catherine
Flippancy aside, while I wait for the coin of fate to flip, I've begun an outloud reading of the work. I tell my students constantly to read their papers out loud, and you know what? It is the best advice I can give them. Not only do you note things that are proofreading mistakes, but you also hear how your work will actually sound to others. Rhythm is important!
A more honest assessment of the work as I am reading it is surfacing, as opposed to just finished euphoria, or the doldrums of proofing. There are parts of it that shine, that are really, really good! And there are parts of it that have great potential. The first three chapters are very good and descriptive.
However, parts of it feel rushed to me, almost like the writer needs permission to linger in the margins, rather than relentlessly pushing the plot. I feel that lingering would be up to an editor's discretion.
It seems a lot like the kind of thing that does get published in YA, based on the amount of reading I've been doing. My work is no better or worse than most of the books I'm seeing. The main characters are compelling and interesting. So, bottom line: It's publishable. It can be improved. I hope it's marketable.
Meanwhile, I'm going to continue writing along my plan. Even though I'm not paid yet, I'm a writer, and I'll do what writers do: take some time to do some more polishing, and then get on to the next things.
Well, tonight is the night class, so I'd best do a couple of corrections I remembered while drifting off to sleep, and get down to some work at my other job.
Catherine