Friday, October 11, 2013

Kill Your Darlings

So for the first time in a while, I let some people read part of the MS for The Sandman's Apprentice, and I got some decent feedback. But I let a friend of mine, who happens to be a voracious reader when she's not in mommy mode, read it and got an absolutely amazing critique, partly because it's not a genre she usually reads.

Anywho, when I first sent it off to everyone, I refused to look at any of it. I knew it needed work, so showing it to people seemed like a silly idea since I already knew I had issues to fix. And it's probably a good thing I didn't dive back into revisions first, because, honestly, I would have butchered it for no reason. I listened to what everyone had to say, and almost none of the suggestions for changes matched. Everyone thought something completely different. So I opened it up today, and I decided to take it one chapter at a time (if I do it any other way I see how much work I have ahead of me and just want to shut down), and I have to say, I'm kind of blown away by what I've written. I forgot how good it was. I'm not saying it's flawless Literature or anything, but for two years while I've worked on my school stuff, I've been thinking about how crappy bits were and just how much work it needed, and somewhere along the road I convinced myself that the idea was the only solid thing about it. But, man, it's good!

So I'm editing my novel with the help of a writing group I'm not entirely sold on yet, and I'm working on my picture book. And I'm really excited because not only do I have some new ideas I'm toying with too, but I might actually meet my new publishing goal. Things are looking up.

1 comment:

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

When you have multiple critique partners, you get multiple reactions and suggestions. You just have to go with your own gut feeling.

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