Sequel and Edition 2 - Update

I got to 16,000 words in the Sequel and stopped. I had promised to give my wife's Uncle an audio version of "Run from the Devil", so I began narrating it. I decided that if I was going to do this then I might as well create an audible book, which had the unintended effect of significantly increasing the height of the technology bar.

I had to buy a microphone (Nice one, Amazon!). I had to have water available while dictating and control my voice levels and so on. Every voicefile had to be uploaded to Amazon Audible and checked to see if it was acceptable, which was a real pain in the ass. How it works is that you dictate and record a segment of the book, then check the sound levels etc., etc., to ensure that it conforms to Audible's minimum standards and move on to the next segment or chapter or whatever. Only there was no moving on. Everything ground to a halt.

This hurts to admit but my book is dreadful! Couldn't believe my ears! I got to Chapter 2 and was depressed for weeks. Wrote nothing and narrated nothing. Just coming to terms with how awful my writing is!

It's a hard truth for a person who wants to write to have to face. The agents and publishers that rejected my book weren't being horrible, they were just being efficient. It's just not good enough. And I was shocked at how many amateurish grammatical errors still infested my prose.

Seriously, I was sooo depressed. Really annoyed with myself and disappointed.

So here is my tip for aspiring authors. Do you want to discover whether or not what you have written is any good? Dictate it, record it and then endure the excruciating process of listening to your text.

Unwieldy, poorly structured dialogue? Check!

Multitudinous grammatical screw ups? Check!

Awkward, overly detailed lumps of superfluous prose? Check!

Missing opportunities to flesh out and/or introduce characters properly? Check!

I have decided to use the narration process to re-edit and re-write "Run from the Devil".

I am not going to try and submit it as an Audible Book because the technical bar is too high and I keep having to re-record segments. I'm just going to dictate it, then burn it onto a CD for my wife's Uncle and use that quicker process to re-edit and re-write the book. When I finish I am going to publish it as a second Edition. I pray that it will be an improvement, but, let's face it, it can't get any worse. Can it?

Sheesh!