As I mentioned in earlier posts, I've done a LOT of rewrite on THE ATA
BITA PIE CAFE, but something was still bothering me. I couldn't quite put my finger on why the book wasn't reading as smoothly as I'd like. Reading aloud always gives you this wake-up call. Finally, I realized that too often, I'd used the word "had" or "had to", rather than keeping the writing in the present tense. When I did a Search, there were nearly 500 "had's" in the novel. Yikes! I read through again, restructuring sentences and deleting, until the writing became much smoother. Like my dad said, "You're making sure the reader doesn't have to work so hard." He got it; it just took me a little longer.
