I used to say to my students, I don't know how many times, 'read it out loud to catch the errors.' They never did, probably because they thought they might get 'teacher cooties' for doing something practical and useful, but the point is that I have been doing it. And it works.
My submission for FireWall has been complete for at least a month, with very little left to do other than fine-tune and finesse. There are no plot points that need to be written in, and I hope I have communicated my characters as best I can. There is nothing left, I think, but to make it pretty.
And so I have begun reading FireWall out loud.
For some reason, errors of logic and syntax leap off the page when I read it out loud, even sections I have gone over ten times. I'll find ways to say something much better than before, and even realise the narrative character would not see things in this way or even say things in a particular idiom.
What is frustrating, is that this is no where near the last time I'll go back over this. After I have put the book down for three months, I'll go back over it again and see what can be improved.
This is why so many authors say they cringe when they read their earliest work, because no book is ever ready.
Twenty-four. Twenty-four glorious days left.
