You’re deep in the well of editing your novel, slogging through the mud of run-on sentences and plot holes. The only problem is, you’ve been slogging through the mud for a year, or maybe years, maybe even EONS. You’ve read the book inside and out. You know there are problems, but you just can’t see what they are anymore. You need a new perspective.
This happens to me time and time again while editing. Recently, I’ve been trying to get extra creative with ways to read my MS with new eyes (without actually getting a pair of new eyes, which can be kinda expensive). Here are some ways I have tried/and things I’ve heard about.
1
Read on a different format. Print out your MS, upload to google drive and read it, read it in an email, anything that’s different from reading it straight up from your computer.
2
Wait. This will always and forever be the best option. Shut that MS in a drawer for a while and wait. After time away (don’t be afraid to take months) you will undoubtedly come back with fresh eyes.
3
Change font color, size, or style. I personally have not tried this one but I hear it works.
4
Read your MS backwards. Now I don’t mean literally backwards like “end the fox brown quick….” but read from the last chapter to the first chapter. I find this very helpful for myself, as I feel like when I get to the end I’m always rushing through, so doing the end first makes me pay more attention to it (endings are important guys!!!)
END.
*in 40’s broadcaster voice* Well, that’s all folks!
Bernadette Benda 
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