Another day, another reader review for the manuscript. Verdict: 90 percent ready. Sweet. Recorded three micro cassettes worth of suggestions and corrections. To the five who remain: you’ve been warned; I tape meetings. Pre-submit reader three earns an additional thank you, as they caught an embarrassing glitch others — myself included — missed.
Much of the feedback has been character related, which suggests the narrator is a credible mouthpiece, and that the plot works. Even more interesting, so far each reader focused much of their efforts on a different character, without prompting from me.
Very, very peculiar feeling when someone says, “Character X wouldn’t say _____. They would say ____.†It’s the right sort of odd. The real good kind, I mean.
Something bizarre happens when you read pre-release material. A story being read is a telling of events how they happened in some strange and foreign dimension. The created universe becomes a reality, however, since this beta-tested existence is still in a state of flux, the previous experiences are bound to change. Actions are changed and sequences are modified. Characters decide not to say things they were thinking or they say things that were hidden from the early testers.
Reading the final production copy, for a beta-tester, is going to be like reliving the saga again, only this time, on hallucinogenic drugs that distort feelings and reality.
What if, during the developer preview, Malcolm WASN’T in the Middle?
Based on the feedback, the consensus thus far holds that the manuscript is 90 percent there, so the finished form should be recognizable to you, Spike. One issue that surfaced was the “right passage wrong spot” problem. There’s at least a half dozen passages that need relocation. Also, there’s a few bits of exposition that will be revised/converted into a more active scene.
To put it another way, the story will be the same, including the running order of the critical plot elements, but the presentation and packaging will change.
As for Malcolm not being in the middle…that’s positively frightening.