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Aug. 16th, 2009 09:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tinpraSo I sent my friend, who suffers from extreme photosensitivity, the first chapter of my novel. She has been uber suportive of me and my writing since college (and if she has her druthers I will be going to grad school for my MFA in writing :P ) and has just been so good to me over the years. I tell her often that I believe God put her in my life on purpose, and I thank Him for it all the time.
Anywho, my friend's extreme photosensitivity means that she can't be exposed to light of any sort for very long or she'll get burned. With that in mind I didn't think she'd be getting to my chapter any time soon, let alone critique it.
The glorious woman did both! And now it's real. I mean you've heard/seen me grumping and grumbling about editing and needing to edit my novel for months now. I've made progress (actually I'm nearly done with this chapter. Henh.) but not nearly as much as I'd like. Mostly of this I've been doing on my own. That Guy has been a source of feedback, but he's a busy creative type as well and so he, quite understandably, only has so much time for me. So I've sorta been doing this in a vacuum. Or, really, going on the strength of what That Guy had for me, which was only so much considering his own constraints. But now, now I have a more detailed critique. Not just things my friend likes/dislikes and general impressions, but sentences that are wonky, odd grammar choices (on my part), characterization, how to keep my story from looking too much like Interview with the Vampire. And she did it w/in days of me sending the chapter to her. Days! Makes me want to go to everyone who has ever asked me to beta or read over something for them and apologize, b/c God knows I am a total slacker--a slacker who doesn't have photosensitivity issues (although I'm a wee paranoid about moles on my face, lately).
So I'm rereading my friend's overview comments, skimming her detailed comments and suddenly--whammo! This is real! I am really editing my novel. Not that I wasn't before, but she's asking me to push and and to give readers a payoff and to make them come back for chapter 2. Not just form and function, but grabbing ppl's attention. Not just "it's good/it's interesting" but "what else is there? what more can you do? make this better. go back and give me/the reader more."
I am floored by the enormity of it. Utterly floored. And so excited. It wasn't real like this before. And when I can shop it to an agent, I'm sure it'll take on a whole other reality, and again when it finds a publisher. For right now, she has just opened up another level of writing for me. And she didn't have to. She didn't have to. Oh my best beloved...
Anywho, my friend's extreme photosensitivity means that she can't be exposed to light of any sort for very long or she'll get burned. With that in mind I didn't think she'd be getting to my chapter any time soon, let alone critique it.
The glorious woman did both! And now it's real. I mean you've heard/seen me grumping and grumbling about editing and needing to edit my novel for months now. I've made progress (actually I'm nearly done with this chapter. Henh.) but not nearly as much as I'd like. Mostly of this I've been doing on my own. That Guy has been a source of feedback, but he's a busy creative type as well and so he, quite understandably, only has so much time for me. So I've sorta been doing this in a vacuum. Or, really, going on the strength of what That Guy had for me, which was only so much considering his own constraints. But now, now I have a more detailed critique. Not just things my friend likes/dislikes and general impressions, but sentences that are wonky, odd grammar choices (on my part), characterization, how to keep my story from looking too much like Interview with the Vampire. And she did it w/in days of me sending the chapter to her. Days! Makes me want to go to everyone who has ever asked me to beta or read over something for them and apologize, b/c God knows I am a total slacker--a slacker who doesn't have photosensitivity issues (although I'm a wee paranoid about moles on my face, lately).
So I'm rereading my friend's overview comments, skimming her detailed comments and suddenly--whammo! This is real! I am really editing my novel. Not that I wasn't before, but she's asking me to push and and to give readers a payoff and to make them come back for chapter 2. Not just form and function, but grabbing ppl's attention. Not just "it's good/it's interesting" but "what else is there? what more can you do? make this better. go back and give me/the reader more."
I am floored by the enormity of it. Utterly floored. And so excited. It wasn't real like this before. And when I can shop it to an agent, I'm sure it'll take on a whole other reality, and again when it finds a publisher. For right now, she has just opened up another level of writing for me. And she didn't have to. She didn't have to. Oh my best beloved...
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Date: 2009-08-17 02:20 am (UTC)no subject
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