Tuesday, January 5, 2010

A novel update: the first of many

At least part of the purpose of blogging for me is to be accountable to myself. I'm trying to find time to polish the two books I wrote last year. Putting it out here for any one to read is supposed to motivate me. And so far, I think it's working.

I have taken a bit of time off from the whole book thing while I waited for some feedback on the first draft of my current work in progress. Mostly, the reviews have been really positive, with lots of good suggestions for improvement. In fact, I only had one review that said, "You just aren't any good at this. Try something else." Okay. That wasn't exactly what it said. It's what it felt like. I really got derailed for a little while. I kept going back to that one response and dwelling on it until I lost all motivation completely.

Fortunately, I have the most supportive husband on the face of the planet. Not only does he encourage me to write, but he helps me put things into a good perspective. He hasn't read the whole manuscript yet (he wants to read the finished thing), but he had some great suggestions based on the concerns I have been working through.

So, I started editing yesterday. It felt great to get my hands on the story again. I still have a lot of work to do. More than I realized when I was still caught up in the first rush of finishing. (Of course, I am the first person to have written the perfect first draft, right?) I have the basics of the story in place. I just need to figure out what I can do to take out some of the predictability. (It's an ambitious project for a fairy tale retelling. Every one knows how the story is supposed to end.)

The nicest thing is that I'm in love with writing, all over again. Watch for more to come. I've got a long way to go if I'm going to meet my goals to query both books this year!

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