• Writing

    Why Reading Aloud Is the Best Editing Tool

    I’m in the final stages of editing a manuscript. Today I read the book aloud. It took a long time. Doing it such a pain — it sounds strange to hear your voice after sitting for so long in silence, and it’s physically arduous — but my gosh, is it revealing. I find all sorts of mistakes and clumsiness. And I find the strong sentences too. But mostly the flawed. That’s why reading aloud is the best editing tool. I highly recommend it for any writer, fiction or nonfiction. Here are…

  • Writing

    The Struggle Between My Words and the World’s

    Radio, The Struggle Between My Words and the World's, https://karenhugg.com/2016/01/20/silence-during-writing/ #writing #words #silence #novel #fiction #kids

    These last few weeks I’ve been immersed in the final edits of my novel. It’s the slow time for my gardening day job. I sit for two-hour-long chunks (or more) and I read and type words. This has been productive. I’ve lived in the world of my novel: Paris, plants, the people I’ve created. I hear nothing else except the dog barking occasionally, the hum of the heater blowing warmth in the room. I can concentrate, I can think, “No, ‘harsh, steady rain’ is better here because I used ‘downpour’…

  • Writing

    Being Married to a Beta Reader Can Be the Best Blessing

    Being Married to a Beta Reader Can Be the Best Blessing, https://karenhugg.com/2015/06/26/beta-reader #writing #tips #betareader #fiction #feedback #editing #criticism #books

    Last month I finished my to-do list of edits on my novel. The next step? It’s what it always is: ask my husband to read it. He’s my most trusted beta reader and best editor. I’ve come to realize how precious getting his feedback is. So we do what we always do. I send the chapters in email. He reads them on screen. Then we sit together and go through them one by one. “These paragraphs on page one need to be longer. It’s difficult to picture what the protagonist…

  • Writing

    My Meltdown While Revising

    I’m in the thick of revision now. I’m living inside the world I’ve created in my manuscript. I sit for hours on my comfy, corner chair with the blanket on my lap and Madeleine or “Maddie,” my cat, on my legs while I edit, hitting the delete button and inserting new words and phrases here and there. I mull over logic. Worry about melodrama. Make sure everyone has a motive, or a wound that propels their behavior. I read big chunks of text and realize, with a fallen heart, that…