Editing the Ghost Stories

Yesterday I finished the other two Ordsall Hall Ghost Stories. It still seems right to do them from the points of view of the ghosts. Gosh – I hope I don’t upset anybody. The final two were about a disturbed ghost looking for his dog and how the spirits of the Hall supported someone there who was standing near to death.

I read them out loud to my husband. He wasn’t too scared. But what I noticed, of course, was all the editing that I still need to do. I’ve repeated ideas across the stories and really, although they’re five separate stories, they will probably be read at a sitting. I’ve even got the idea that if they’re not used after all for the event for which they were commissioned, I’d put them together to make one story which ends in a real haunting.

It does just show, again, how important it is to read aloud as the final edit. There are just some things you don’t notice when you read silently. I spotted a couple of copy editing matters as well. I think reading aloud makes you read more slowly, so you notice typos and grammatical mistakes, but also any awkward syntax.

So, now I go back to them to twiddle.