Reading your WIP backwards.
- Thread starter Wayne K
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Man, you guys get all the cool stuff when you read yours backwards. All I got was "Peanut butter jelly time! Peanut butter jelly time!"
This reminds me of the technique used to find rivers in text: hold the page upside down and squint a little. Suddenly out pop all the white rivers!
The best technique for self-editing is simply time (if you can afford it). Print the work out, put it in a drawer and forget it for six months. Then get it out and start going through it with the red pen.
The best technique for self-editing is simply time (if you can afford it). Print the work out, put it in a drawer and forget it for six months. Then get it out and start going through it with the red pen.
I read aloud. Amazing how crappy dialogue and clunky sentence structure leaps out at you when you do this!
Reading backwards drives me nuts - especially when attempting it word by word.
I can spot errors reading forwards and/or aloud. I sometimes increase magnification so there isn't too much on screen. But it seems to me reading backwards is a desperate last resort for those who for some reason can't read forwards and spot errors at the same time.
To those who use it and find it works, I salute you, but it would drive me insane.
I can spot errors reading forwards and/or aloud. I sometimes increase magnification so there isn't too much on screen. But it seems to me reading backwards is a desperate last resort for those who for some reason can't read forwards and spot errors at the same time.
To those who use it and find it works, I salute you, but it would drive me insane.
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