: Re: Combatting Excessive Familiarity Of Writing Since writing my last question, I've been able to write a handful more items and have tried to nail down some more specific items I can ask about

@Bryan361

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For something book-length, just don't do your re-read immediately. Don't Write chapter 1, re-read and update chapter 1, write chapter 2, re-read and update chapter 2, etc. Instead, write chapter 1, write chapter 2, re-read and update chapter 1, write chapter 3, re-read and update chapter 2, etc. When you're done with the whole book, then go back and re-read the whole thing and do more updates. By the time I finished my books I must have read every word at least four or five times.

Also, get someone else to read it and tell you what they think. I've had a few times where I had a chain of logic that made perfect sense to me, than I showed it to someone else and she said, "Wait, how did you get from step 3 to step 4?" In a novel it might be more like, "Wait, why would Sally suddenly decide to call her brother?" As the writer you have all sorts of information about the characters or the subject in your head that may never make it to the paper. Sometimes this leaves gaps for the reader that you just can't see because you're too close to it. (Like, "But Sally and her brother are very close. She always calls him when she's in trouble. Oh yeah, I guess I never mentioned that in the story, did I? And I cut out the two previous references to her brother because they were slowing down the plot, so now this just comes out of nowhere ...")

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