How do you feel after you have read through your MS for the millionth time?

LaFemme · Nov 19, 2009

How do you feel after you have read through your MS for the millionth time?

I love my book and I have fallen in love with my characters, but when I have to pick it up again to reread it, I groan, and I’m beginning to feel so bored with it – is this normal?

I’m still in love with my characters, but it’s like they are living in groundhog’s day, and I feel like I want to write another book for them so they can travel through to another adventure.

Bufty · Nov 19, 2009

Then stop re-reading it and write another book. :Hug2:

Wayne K · Nov 19, 2009

Or read one.

bluehippo · Nov 19, 2009

It’s perfectly normal. You might want to put it aside for a few weeks and work on something else, then when you come back to it, it will be new again and you will be able to see the flaws much more easily. Or maybe pass it over to a beta reader to get some more feedback.

C.M.C. · Nov 19, 2009

I feel exhausted.

maestrowork · Nov 19, 2009

Write another book.

Perks · Nov 19, 2009

How do you feel after you have read through your MS for the millionth time?

Mostly like killing someone. That's usually tempered with pride, occasionally surprise, and then either hopelessness or hope.

I'm thinking this is not going to be very helpful to you, but hey, you asked.

Wayne K · Nov 19, 2009

Mostly like killing someone.

You should keep a word count in your sig.

I'm just saying.

Freelancer · Nov 19, 2009

I love it and I feel the pride in me when I see, there is no more to do with it as every details are in place and there are no logical mistakes in it at all.

maestrowork said:
Write another book.

Then comes what maestro says. Next! For me the next round will be a nice translation from the sequel screenplay to novel. Same universe, same MC, yet quite different world.

Perks · Nov 19, 2009

Wayne K said:
You should keep a word count in your sig.

I'm just saying.

Or how 'bout you just mind your p's and q's and not draw my ire on general principles. Probably safest.

Wayne K · Nov 19, 2009

Perks said:
Or how 'bout you just mind your p's and q's and not draw my ire on general principles. Probably safest.

Yipes!

Perks · Nov 19, 2009

Jamesaritchie · Nov 19, 2009

I read through once twice when I finish it, then I read the copy edited manuscript the editor sends me, and then I read the galley proofs. Even with a mere four reads, I'm sick of the book, hate the characters, and can't wait to start the next one.

RG570 · Nov 19, 2009

How do I feel after reading it so much? Like crap. It turns into a senseless mess, and an incredibly boring one at that. Sometimes there are a couple scenes that I still like after reading so much, but as a whole it just starts to lose any meaning or cohesion by the time I'm done.

CaroGirl · Nov 19, 2009

By then I usually feel like calling it done and submitting it. Time to move on to something new.

backslashbaby · Nov 19, 2009

Mine's not finished, but the parts I've read so much get incredibly boring. I'm actually going to try to stop reading earlier parts till the next draft. I'm getting desensitized to everything about the early stuff.

maestrowork · Nov 19, 2009

backslashbaby said:
Mine's not finished, but the parts I've read so much get incredibly boring. I'm actually going to try to stop reading earlier parts till the next draft. I'm getting desensitized to everything about the early stuff.

While I'm working on my first draft, I only reread what I've written the past few days, and not past that. I want to be able to have a fresh perspective and objectivity when I start on the second draft.... which is going to be really interesting since it's been four years...

ishtar'sgate · Nov 19, 2009

LaFemme said:
How do you feel after you have read through your MS for the millionth time?

I love my book and I have fallen in love with my characters, but when I have to pick it up again to reread it, I groan, and I’m beginning to feel so bored with it – is this normal?

Why are you continuing to reread it? For revision? If you're getting bored you won't be absorbing what you read, you'll simply be looking at the pages. Put the darned thing away for a few weeks or a few months and do something else. You'll feel better about it if you put it on the backburner for awhile. Amazingly, absence does make the heart grow fonder.

Chris P · Nov 19, 2009

There are parts of my latest book that I re-read out of pleasure. However (I noticed this more with my first book) I can tell when I was writing simply to connect the good parts. That's when I cringe!

I think that when I get to the point you are it means that I'm no longer writing that particular book for the love of it. The "I wanna sell books" part of me says that I need to suffer through them and get something saleable, but the "I just wanna write" part tells me to drop it and move on to the next project. Being a wannabe newbie I'm not sure what comes next!

NeuroFizz · Nov 19, 2009

LaFemme said:
How do you feel after you have read through your MS for the millionth time?

Like I've wasted time in doing 999,990 of those reads instead of submitting the work and getting cracking on the next project.

Devin Singer · Nov 19, 2009

I have to sit on work and not think about it for a while before I can reread it objectively. For the novel, it takes at least a month - shorter stuff takes less time.

I have had the pleasant experience of coming back to the story a while later and thinking "Hey, this has some potential!" Of course, it was matched by "Hey, this is so far from ready to show to people that I shouldn't let it out of my sight lest an innocent be injured by its radiant awfulness."

LaFemme · Nov 19, 2009

Thanks for all the different answers. My manuscript is ready for submission now, I was just wondering if everyone else also got bored after re-reading their work - like it wasn't their book that was boring.
My book is part of a sequel, so my characters are going to go on their next adventure - I think they are breathing a sigh of relief!

(Um only hoping now that this MS will be accepted, so that there is an actual need for a sequel)

Rhoda Nightingale · Nov 19, 2009

Hm. Well, I tend to feel exhausted and overwhelmed while thinking about hitting the proofreading/editing process yet again, but when I actually do it, I find more often than not that I get back into that headspace pretty easily, and enjoy playing with my characters and taking them through their paces.

Telstar · Nov 20, 2009

I had enough after reading it for the second time.

scully931 · Nov 22, 2009

LaFemme said:
How do you feel after you have read through your MS for the millionth time?

I love it. Then I submit it and get rejections. Then I look at it again and think I am quite possibly the worst writer in the world and how could I ever have thought anyone would want to read this dribble?

Rinse and repeat.

How do you feel after you have read through your MS for the millionth time?

LaFemme

Where have the last ten years gone?

Archetype

Fear the Death Ray

delicate #!&@*#! flower

delicate #!&@*#! flower

delicate #!&@*#! flower

Living the dream

~~~~*~~~~

Fear the Death Ray

living in the past

Likes metaphors mixed, not stirred

The grad students did it

LaFemme

Vampire Junkie

I create people

So you're suggesting what? Bigfoot?

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