Monday, September 8, 2014

The Writer Will Take Your Questions Now #294 -- Re-Reading Your Own Work

How often do you go back and re-read your own work after it has been published?

Sometimes.

How's that for a vague answer?

But it's true. There are some stories that I'm just done with once I finish them because I was way too close to them during the telling, and they've begun to get in my head like that "Don't Worry, Be Happy" song did. You know... the kind of song you never, ever want to hear again.

Then there are others that I will go back to again and find that I enjoy very much. I learned this from doing public readings. It always surprised me that I often enjoyed the story more through the act of sharing it aloud with others. I think that may be one of the most amazing things a writer can do with his or her work.

However, I usually have to give myself a year of so between finishing the tale and then re-reading it. One does need a little distance, I've found.

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