Several chapters in to the re-read and it is hard not to bring out the red pen. There’s some glaring mistakes, typos, etc, that I’m thinking, “oh, I can just fix that right now.” But I can’t because then I’ll start line editing, and it’s not ready for that yet.
One of the main things I’m noticing is the tone of the writing is extremely cautious. The language of the narration is so passive, it’s almost sorry for being there. Very like, “um, excuse me, sorry to bother you, but if you wouldn’t mind, I’ve got a few things to tell you, should you have the time.” I don’t know whether that had anything to do with my general mental state at the time of the writing, or simply that my fear of setting anything down on the page manifested as being so apologetic. I’m not sure how far I got in the chapters before I was laid off from my job in San Francisco and took a month to pack up everything and move to Austin. I know now, though, that the word count will shrink considerably once I clear out all those weasel words.
