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Sending the Manuscript Out Into the World

ManuscriptThere is some­thing of a rit­u­al in my writer’s life when I fin­ish a first, read­able draft of a new nov­el. I read the book to my wife, Lin­da. This is not a sim­ple mat­ter. The read­ing is a mul­ti-day activ­i­ty, dur­ing which time I will read as many as fifty pages at a time, or as long as my voice can hold. It is also a source of some ten­sion for me inso­far as my wife is a very tough crit­ic. Linda—who is the smartest per­son I know—has been known to say things like, “This is unread­able.” Or, “Your edi­tor is not going to like this.” Or. “It doesn’t work for me.” And there have been times, when I have been read­ing, that she has fall­en asleep. Not a good omen. Not to say that she has not, many a time, said very pos­i­tive things. More­over, Lin­da inevitably has a thought­ful response, ques­tion­ing aspects of the plot, or char­ac­ter. Or she will make sug­ges­tions regard­ing ways the sto­ry could be made bet­ter. Or even, “Was that word used in that time?”

Mind, I have been work­ing on the book for any giv­en num­ber of months. Lin­da will know, in a gen­er­al way, the sub­ject mat­ter of the book, whether it is a work of con­tem­po­rary fic­tion, or his­tor­i­cal fic­tion. But I do not share the specifics of the sto­ry, and almost nev­er read her bits or pieces. She will also know which pub­lish­ing house will be receiv­ing the book, which editor.

So just recent­ly, when I fin­ished the first read­able draft of a new book I was under­stand­ably ner­vous about her reac­tion when I set out to read it to her. In fact, I could not have been more pleased. Lin­da not only liked the book, she kept ask­ing me to read more chapters.

There is anoth­er point to my read­ing. I do so with pen in hand, and I mark up the MS for changes which become appar­ent when I do such a reading.

In the days fol­low­ing my read­ing I go through the man­u­script and make adjustments.

Then I send the man­u­script to my editor.

It always leaves me with a sad feel­ing, as if send­ing a child off into the world. Yes, in time it will come back with my editor’s response. Before that hap­pens, how­ev­er, I’ll have already start­ed on a new book.

4 thoughts on “Sending the Manuscript Out Into the World”

  1. Thank you for shar­ing your first reader/listener ideas. I try to use my cri­tique groups. We share entire man­u­scripts where we judge the strongest and least strong chap­ters, make sug­ges­tions and are free to ask ques­tions. Like rais­ing a child, it takes a vil­lage to raise a book.

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  2. As you have so apt­ly point­ed out, the read­ing aloud of writ­ing helps stu­dent writ­ers as well. My stu­dents always edit more pur­pose­ful­ly after read­ing their sto­ry aloud to a part­ner. I appre­ci­ate this post to read to my stu­dents remind­ing them that pro­lif­ic writ­ers do the same!

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