I read my book

I wrote a post twenty days ago titled I wrote a book. Perhaps the person who's reading this now saw that post. Perhaps they remember that I said, "I am at the stage where it's time to read my story in full. In fact, that's my plan for this evening." Well, I lied to you. I didn't mean to do it, but I did because I didn't actually read the book until this evening. Vocal was kind enough to lift my voice and place this post as a Top Story, which put extra eyes on my project. For that, I'm so grateful. If you're here from the post, I hope you find the following musing helpful in your writing/authorial journey as well because I'm going to react to my first read-through of the book I wrote.

I'll start off by saying, I read this book using a text-to-voice application while reading along. I found this method incredibly beneficial. It kept me focused, on task, and engaged in my work. I got through this manuscript in 3 hours and 30 minutes, and yes, it was read in full in one sitting. I read somewhere that was the best way to do it because you're able to get the full picture all at once.

Most common typos

I'm going to start it off light, and first I'm going to talk about the funniest typos I came across during my read-through. I was shocked at how many existed, mainly in the first half of the book, but I'll touch upon that more later. Without further ado:

1. I kept referring to a character named "Bud" as Bus.

2. I could have sword... *sworn

4. Had to act fact... *fast

5. Had I just run him over in the head of the moment? *heat

6. Tearing at myself instead of *tearing up myself. Those are definitely two very different things.

7. I swear to go. *God

8. Do you soak by any chance? *smoke (This one made me properly LOL. If you know, you know.

9. My heard was pounding. *heart

10. I rubbed the back of my eyebrow. *elbow

11. Walking into the death of night. *dead (happy accident perhaps?)

12. He had to speak directly into my eye for me to hear him. *ear

Words/Phrases I overused/shouldn't have used at all

1-3. These are dedicated to a category called, "Do I think I'm British or something?": flapjacks, cheeky, and bin (as a replacement for laundry basket).

4. Green eyes

5. Renewed sense of ____

6. Cracked knuckles

7. Hot cheeks

8. Money

9. Day off work

10. Paralyzed/Paralyzing

My reaction to the first act

If I had to rate this out of 5 stars, I would give it a 2 and a half. I would summarize this portion as "typos, typos, and more typos". This really discouraged me, and I was surprised by it. To understand the timeline further, I started this part of the book in 2021. There was no plan, and that much was obvious. When I started this project, I only had an idea for a conflict and a resolution to the conflict, so I was pretty much going in blind. To make matters worse, I started this story in the third person.

I realized, after writing half of the book, that writing in the third person wasn't working for the story. In 2022, I decided to take the leap to change the entire manuscript, over 25,000 words, to first person. I took this project with me to a graduate course, and I was able to gain feedback from my professor and my classmates on my work. The first six chapters have been edited upwards of 5 times. Maybe even more, I don't know, I didn't keep track. Either way, there were more issues than I care to admit. I think part of the problem was focusing so heavily on changing pronouns and adding prose to fit the narrator's voice and create a distinct personality. This caused these first chapters to read kind of all over the place.

One of the major issues is bringing up something and never following up with it. For example, the main character finds a stray cat. She mentions it's unhealthy and needs to see a vet. A vet is then never mentioned again. Adding in even a sentence about going to the vet and meeting the cat's needs will fix this slight plot hole. There are a few other examples, but I'm just glad I'm aware of them because now they can be fixed. One thing I will say is that this section did read on an upward trend. It led me to a satisfying reveal to start the second act. I'm looking forward to fixing my mistakes and making things more cohesive.

Some other major issues include:

1. Overexplaining things that are already shown through action.

2. The first chapter was an experiment, and that experiment failed. Instead of time-hopping, I need to split the first chapter into two parts: 1. Present-day introduction to conflict 2. The explanation for how my character ended up where they are at the start of the book.

3. Not finishing thought processes: I didn't plan these chapters at all. I just went in and started writing. There are little things, such as the main character explaining she needs to take the stray cat she found to the vet, and the vet never being brought up again. I just need to go back and fill in the gaps where they exist.

Reaction to the second act

These chapters were good. They really were. Don't get me wrong, there are things that need fixing, but they felt like a cohesive unit. Everything flowed together rather nicely, but the same issues that existed in act one as it concerns the switch from third person to first, certainly exist in the first half of act two as well. That's okay, because I'm aware of the problem now, and I'm excited to go back and fix the issues. If I had to rate this section out of 5 stars, I would give it a solid 4. I think the prose is good, and there are nice moments that wowed me when I re-read them. I was able to feel proud of myself, which was a good feeling considering how poorly I felt listening to and reading along with the first act.

The big problem in this section is the repeated mentions of money and taking days off. It seems like my character is always taking days off, therefore, what money? In one chapter she complains about not having enough money and needing to start work (she just moved to a new town and got a new job) and after two shifts, she states "there's money burning a hole in my pocket." Yeah right - that's not realistic. I also just think the mention of money and days off takes the reader out of the story. These things don't matter. My character can still pursue the actions that drive the plot without these mentions.

Overall, this act ended on a high note with chapter 12. It was honestly really well written, and I had no immediate critiques or problems with it. It was a little bit of comic relief before things get incredibly dramatic and heartbreaking during act three...

My reaction to the third act

I'm honestly shocked. The last four chapters of this section have yet to be edited at all, and in all honesty, they need very little editing. Maybe a little adding here and there. One thing to note is this section was planned out in full. The biggest hurdle with this manuscript was knowing the end in explicit, excruciating detail by the time I got to it, but not knowing how to write it and being afraid to start. Once I started, I couldn't stop, and the last four chapters were written in full on a random night this March.

I thought these chapters would need the most work considering they were the ONLY ones I had left to pine over and rework. Before I wrote them, I rewrote my manuscript from scratch (retyping it from an earlier draft, adding things, and editing as I went). After that task was finished, which I spread out over a couple of weeks to a month, I was off to the races. I'm not sure if because the story was so fresh in my mind and these parts were so well planned that they just worked on paper, or if I became a better writer in the last two years. Perhaps it was a mix of both. Regardless, I was very happy with the ending. It hit the emotional points I needed it to hit. The only thing I think might be wrong is it feels slightly rushed, but not by much. I can sprinkle in more detail to flesh it out better when I go back in for major edits, but overall, I'm very happy with it. For that reason, I give the third act a 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Final Thoughts

I shouldn't have put this off for so long, but I was really anxious about it. I was worried it wouldn't live up to my expectations, that I would feel the book is inadequate, and that I'd want to scrap it right then and there. In fact, the opposite happened. It's better than I thought it would be. Don't get me wrong, there are major problems to be fixed, but that's a great thing because they're fixable. I'm looking forward to continuing this series. And if you have a manuscript you're sitting on, pick it up and give it a read. You might be pleasantly surprised.

If you're interested in hearing more about my author journey, feel free to subscribe. I have a couple of ideas for up-and-coming topics in this series, including, First chapter - Before and After Revisions. I have to look into the logistics of publishing this publically because I do intend of querying for agents. If I can get a solid answer that publishing my first chapter will not harm my odds, I'll be more than happy to do it and show a glimpse into the editing process. I also plan on discussing the editing process in full as I do it. I think I'll be splitting up those posts into the three acts and dedicating discussions about editing into three separate posts based on the acts. Additionally, since I do plan on querying, I want to talk query letters. Definitely let me know if there's any interest in reading about those things. Thank you for following along with me on this journey. I hope these posts can continue to provide inspiration for other aspiring authors like myself. Like I said twenty days ago: If I can do this, anyone can. Truly. Thanks for reading.