Someone I really respect as an expert on my target readership read the opening chapters of my novel, The Feral Bond, now cleansed of any fan fiction elements. Her less than stellar critique, particularly of the opening chapter, put me into a panic. I can't say I was ever depressed as I always used to get. Thank goodness for my lithium shield. I was more like paralyzed. For a week I was baffled with self-doubt and wavered over what changes I could possibly make, and what they could mean later on in the story. More than anything, I worried about ever get this project done. I never thought I could be a writing beast like Stephen King, but I also never thought I'd be taking seven years to write a novel. That's about thirty times slower than Stephen King. I'd say I have serious process issues.
Then, early in the week, I took Tiddlywiki again and began to use it to outline. Tiddlywiki is like creating your personal Wikipedia. Ann Leckie recommended it when she visited my writers' group. (I keep the nameless because we're not taking new members, since our group grew too big. But we hate turning people away, too.) TW has a bit of a learning curve, but for the most part, it's a great tool. Ann Leckie, by the way, is a genius as well as a great author.
And yesterday, I began to rework chapter one. I'm a little slowed because I have to give my critique on a friend's book later this week. I'm now back into it.
A bump in the road, and it's definitely not the first one I had on this project.
No comments:
Post a Comment