Hatrack River Writers Workshop: Serious question about reading stories "cold":

This is topic Serious question about reading stories "cold": in forum Open Discussions About Writing at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by keldon02 (Member # 2398) on :

This is a question that has occurred to me from time to time, but was just recently the topic of a discussion with a writer. We need to write stories which are readable for the first time but writers are handicapped by the fact we read and reread our stories as we write them so we know the action before it happens.

What is the best way to go about disengaging from a story to the point where you can read it "cold" again? My own technique is to let the story sit for an indeterminate period of time, but I am sure there are better ways.

This is maybe not so important in simpler stories but recently I had the privilage of reading a draft of what I consider to be an "epic" story. The deeper the story the harder it is to unveil the levels of complexity in the proper order for the first time reader.

Posted by hoptoad (Member # 2145) on :

I don't know if this will help Keldon, but I immerse myself in another, totally different, piece of work and when I am 'in the zone' with it I find I can look at other pieces and pick up obvious flaws. New eyes for a moment.

I like to have a few projects going at once, I will make steady progress on all, but if I only have one big one, I seem to make very little headway.

Good Luck

Posted by JmariC (Member # 2698) on :

One thing that's helped me so far is talking software. I'm using Natural Voice Reader -Standard. It's free to download from Tu-cows.

With the software I can sit back and knit, or play a game, or just stare off into the space between my monitor and the wall while the software reads my story too me.
Since I don't have anyone to perform this task the program fills that need. Suddenly I'm hearing the story without looking at it (though the text is visible and able to be edited from the program directly). I've caught errors I didn't notice before, errors that became obvious when I heard the stories. Sometimes it's a simple typo that my eyes brush over, other times it's a problem with rhythm.

The fact that the voice is not mine automatically puts a refreshing edge on it, and it's not a friend or person that I can interrupt, or make assumptions about their reading abilities because they stressed something wrong.

(side note: I'm going to write up that review this weekend)

Posted by Elan (Member # 2442) on :

Stephen King recommends to leave the story alone for six months. Put it in a drawer, go away from it. THEN you can give it the perspective you need to edit. From his book "On Writing."

Posted by Silver3 (Member # 2174) on :

I've read that advice as well. Problem is, to send the story out the first time, I need to convince myself it's good, and for that I can't be "cold" (when I'm "cold", I see every little flaw). Also, it takes me a year or so to get "cold", so I've taken the approach of letting the story sit for two weeks. If I can't think of anything wrong at that point, I send it out.

Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :

Right now---well, yesterday, at least---I was working on the second draft of a story I wrote the first draft of in April / May. Of late I've been trying to give myself some perspective on it...which usually means I rewrite most every sentence and paragraph, but rarely change how the plot has gone and the characters have reacted.

No matter how late I wait (five years in the case of one novel), I never really get the feeling that I'm looking at it "cold." I can never get a full "I'm an outsider looking at this" perspective. (I do get a strong "Did I really write this?" when I look at stuff I wrote back in the seventies...but that's kind of different.)

Posted by pantros (Member # 3237) on :

How to get cold about a story?

Write something else, different genre, different characters.

Then go back and rewrite the first story without reading it first. Then combine the best parts of both versions. The act of meshing the two will use your intellectual brain more than your creative brain. You will be forced to analyze the plot to make sure all the important points are hit and you will be in an analytical mind when going over the sentence structures and presentation. The analytic mind is much better at reading cold than your creative side which will read ahead and know where the story was supposed to go, even if it never really got there on paper. This is just a way to fool yourself into looking at your own work with a "colder" eye.

Posted by pantros (Member # 3237) on :

I don't really recommend the above method for anything longer than a short story.

Posted by Elan (Member # 2442) on :

Funny... I have an "I can't believe I wrote this crap" reaction from re-reading stuff *I* wrote in the '70's.

Posted by Thieftess (Member # 1683) on :

One interesting method, after detatching yourself from the story after a period of time, is to have someone ELSE read it aloud to you, completely cold.

I did this once for someone else. It was a very interesting and enlightening experience.

~Alethea

Posted by pixydust (Member # 2311) on :

Yes, having someone read it out loud to you can be very helpful. It basically gives you the new perspective that you need. You'll hear it from the reader's POV. Sometimes this can be very interesting - and sometimes it can shock you, hearing your characters talk and listening to the action. You see most, if not all, the holes this way. Just know, you may not like what you hear.

[This message has been edited by pixydust (edited November 17, 2005).]

Posted by D_James_Larkin (Member # 3007) on :

This is a good question keldon02.

I found JmariC's use of 'Natural Voice Reader' interesting. Primarily because it accomplishes something very similar to what I would recommend.

Try reading it aloud to yourself. Although that does not equal "cold", it is a completely new perspective for me.

Personaly, I wouldn't be able to stay away from my manuscript for a period long enough to get cold. So for myself, the concept of King'ism and "shelving-it" isn't realy an option.

Posted by keldon02 (Member # 2398) on :

Thanks for the replies.

As I mentioned the way I have done this is to let a story sit, but I may try reading aloud as well. It never occurred to me that working on something entirely different could increase one's distance from a given story, in large part because I have to do that anyway in matter of course.

As an aside, I did try the natural voice reader when it was introduced here a few weeks ago. I liked it but didn't see any major advantage with it over the Microsoft Reader so tried to remove it and found deinstallation erased my computers voice. So in the end I had to do a system restore and reinstall some other programs. Very interesting learning process. In retrospect I should have just kept it.

[This message has been edited by keldon02 (edited November 20, 2005).]