This has to be the trickiest part for a writer. That final check before you send your darling off to the latest competition or literary agent or *gasp* to be published.
Despite the fact that I've done it about half a dozen times already, I always read it aloud - every single word, not just the dialogue, to see where I stumble, what snags.
As I write this, there are still 9, 482 words out of 52,315 (about 18%) still to go. Why do I keep stopping to do stuff like write about it? Because it's so-oo hard. That nasty little creature, self-doubt, is doing everything she can to make it even harder, convince me that I have no right thinking anyone would ever want to read my amateur scribblings.
That's where a crit group comes in real handy - people who give their honest reactions to your words. And if a relative stranger says something like:
'I read your excerpt today. Loved it! I felt like I was reading something that was part Hunger Games, part Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief and part Eragon. Really charming!'
Well, the teeniest tiniest part of you has to sit a little straighter and think - maybe I can do this after all.
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