How often do you read your manuscript?

[George Doctanian]

I've recently just started reading mine, that's because I'm going through the editing process.

[Cushnoc]

This might sound nerdy, but each morning at the start of my writing session, I reread what I wrote the previous day. Otherwise, I find I'm disconnected from the flow of my narrative when I begin writing new material. Anyone else do this?

[Claudie]

This might sound nerdy, but each morning at the start of my writing session, I reread what I wrote the previous day. Otherwise, I find I'm disconnected from the flow of my narrative when I begin writing new material. Anyone else do this?

I read at least the last page I wrote to put me back in the mood of things. That is usually enough because I write the first draft very quickly, so I haven't entirely lost the beat from the last session when I sit down to write.

[Mariam Maarouf]

Whenever I feel like it.

Sometimes, I re-read a certain chapter or part because it doesn't sound good enough to me. But, mainly, I re-read whenever I stop writing for more than two days straight so I can get everything together in my head and keep a consistent, real voice.

Other times, I feel like re-reading because I like a certain part or want to recall a certain feeling/memory. These days, I'm re-reading my latest finished manuscript to put the final, post-ARC touches and, at the same time, I'm writing a completely different story that I re-read every chapter or so.

So it's completely up to you - up to what you feel. Some people would want to wait until their first/second/insert-number-here draft is finished before they re-read, others don't. Do what you feel comfortable with.

[Down the well]

I think there's only me and Cecilia Ahern left who still write by hand.

I write my first drafts by hand. It's much more intimate to curl up in a soft chair with a notebook when those initial ideas start to pour out. Some people say their pens can't keep up with their minds, but I like to let an idea simmer a little before I put it on the page. And, yes, I spend a lot of time daydreaming and staring out a window when I write my first draft.

Once I get to the computer, I always reread my previous day's work before I start again. It gets me back in the flow, plus there are always glaring grammatical mistakes that I somehow managed to make -- don't know how that happens. But I don't read the entire manuscript, start to finish, until I'm in edit mode.

[dgaughran]

Ah yes but that's cheating!!

Even when I get as far as the editing stage, I still print out the pages and work it up by hand. It's slower, a lot slower, but, for me at least, the quality is a lot higher.

[Down the well]

Even when I get as far as the editing stage, I still print out the pages and work it up by hand. It's slower, a lot slower, but, for me at least, the quality is a lot higher.

Yeah, I know. I just spent a little over a week doing that for my final edit. 330 pages. *thud*

[WRG]

I'm a pantser. My novels start with a character instead of a plot. I'll have a general idea for a plot, but the details of the plot change as I write. I tend to write very slowly, not because I don't know where the plot is going, but rather than I'm very particular about how I get there. I'll think about the next chapter for days, if not weeks, before I start writing it. I'll run threads of conversation through my head which drop hints of foreshadowing for future chapters. I'll consider the little details I want to emerge. Often, I'll want something thrown into earlier chapters, and I'll go back and rewrite a section of an earlier chapter to add it.

It's all very methodical for me. I'm not interested in writing the next chapter, or even the next scene in a chapter, until I know what I want for atmosphere, character interactions, and what plot points I want to either move forward or foreshadow for future chapters. I'm unable to write out a whole plot and even crank out a first draft just to get the story done. It's just not my style.

What does that mean for rereading my manuscript? If I want to write, and am not ready to move forward with the next chapter of scene, I'll go back to previous chapters and edit them. Sometimes it's story editing, add this twist or remove this unnecessary device. Sometimes it's sentence editing, choosing better active verbs, striking adverbs, polishing dialogue. When I'm ready to move forward with the next part of the story, I'm confident of the direction my story is moving, and I'm excited to get it typed into the computer. I struggle with every word and sentence as I do. I won't move on to the next sentence until I'm happy with the one I've just written, even though I'm well aware that I'll be editing this chapter multiple times in the future.

Like many of the others have mentioned, when I'm ready to write the next section of my novel, I always read the last thing I wrote to get myself into my characters' heads and the atmosphere of the story.