There is something incredibly powerful about a pair of fresh eyes on a manuscript. I often write messy first drafts, usually favouring the camaraderie of NaNoWriMo. The result is underwritten, lacking in subplots and loaded with inconsistencies – my characters will almost certainly change job/eye colour/personality between those first wonderfully fresh paragraphs and the final ones where I’m clawing at word counts to try and finish NaNoWriMo strong (or at all…)!
The magic comes when I save and close the document without a second glance at the hideous mess I’ve left behind, only to open it again in the new year and look upon it with a pair of fresh eyes – eyes unhindered by word count pressures. In fact, I don’t go backwards in my manuscript to edit as I go. When I do read back previous chapters, it’s only ever to get back in the zone and remember where I left off. It’s only when I give the manuscript time to breathe that I can go back and do any kind of rewrite that’s worth the time and effort. I’ll be writing a separate blog post on my rewriting process later this year.
Another way of getting your manuscript in front of a pair of fresh eyes is, of course, to hire an editor. Whether it’s for a full developmental edit, a manuscript assessment, or even if you’re at the copyediting or proofreading stage, having someone new look over your manuscript can be invaluable. They are far more likely to identify areas that might need work, because, as the author, you will be so involved in your manuscript that you won’t be able to see the wood for the trees. This is also often why authors might turn to alpha or beta readers, and when hiring professional editors for various stages of editing, that they will prefer different people for different passes of the project – with several pairs of eyes on a project, inconsistencies, errors and typos are more likely to be spotted – and corrected – before publication.
As creatives, when we’re in that flow state, it can be challenging to put your manuscript away, but giving yourself and your novel time to breathe can offer you the opportunity, in time, to see it afresh and work on it with a new perspective and fresh eyes.
