First, your own view point
This is the viewpoint you had when you wrote
the manuscript. Ask yourself: do the words say exactly what you meant to say?
Sometimes the words that end up on the page are not the same as the words you
had in our head. Read the text carefully. Are you quite sure this is what you
meant to write? When you wrote, Jane
leapt at the opportunity of a new
job, did you mean that she physically leapt into the air? Or did you mean
that she took the opportunity joyfully? When you wrote, Tom saw the mess his dog had made and realized he’d put his foot in it,
is that really what you meant?
Secondly, your main character’s viewpoint
This is particularly important when you write
in a first person singular viewpoint. The words should reflect what your main character was thinking. Those words came from you but
you are not your main character, however much you might like to be. Your character
will think and act differently to you, and that must be reflected in the
manuscript. Try once again to see inside your character’s mindset to see if
your written words really do reflect his or her thoughts… not yours.
Thirdly, the reader’s viewpoint
This
is the really important one. Can your reader enjoy the book because you have
chopped out or corrected anything remotely confusing? You know what you meant
when you tapped out those words, but now you must ask yourself if your readers
will actually get it.
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