April's been a pretty good month. I devoted two weeks to writing and made significant progress on Trefury: The Secrets of Callorin. But even the best made plans don't always pan out as you hope they will. I had hoped to have the book done by mid-April. Life has a way of intervening, as usual.
I have learned that even if you have a story written, and even if it's technically good, you can usually make it better. And sometimes making things better derails what you've already written. That bothered me a lot when I wrote the first Trefury book, but this time around I'm ripping out original or recently revised material without a second thought. I suppose that's a sign of writer's maturity? While the essence of the original story remains, it doesn't control the wonderful new directions the story has taken. If you don't let go and try, you'll never know how good it might have been. Just make sure you keep a copy of the old stuff in case the new bright idea doesn't pan out after all.
The last week and a half I set aside my novel to read someone else's. I'm always so grateful for these opportunities, especially if I enjoy the writing style of the person I'm critiquing for. While evaluating and trying to help them make their story stronger, I'm always taking notes in the back of my mind. Things like, "Oh yeah, I make that same mistake too!" or "Look how well this person handles (fill in the blank); I need to work on that." And I'll admit, because I try to be honest in my critiques, I go through several days, after turning it back in, of inner anxiety and misery. I'm always scared to death that the other person's going to hate me or think I'm crazy. The overall goal is to help them out and I always try to find good things to note as well as voicing my concerns. No one has sent me hate-mail yet. And I have to admit, I get a thrill out of seeing books I got to read before they were published, in published form. If only Goodreads would let me count them for my yearly books-read count.
Now I've got to swing back into writing mode for a couple of weeks before I get to beta read again for someone else. And I found out a couple of days ago that I get to do some copy editing and formatting for my mom as she gets ready to submit/publish her first books. I'll admit, it's awesome to look at my bookshelves and see novels written by family members. You see a different side of a relative when you get into their creative mind. At any rate, collectively, we're amassing an impressive family history collection of novels. I should mention all the artwork done by relatives too. To top that, my daughters have begged me to teach them more about creative writing and we've done some serious workshopping together this week. It's a growing legacy, and something I'm so happy to be in the middle of.
So that's it for now. Thanks for reading. I'd be delighted if you wanted to post your own writing update in the comments section. And as always, happy writing to all of you.
I have learned that even if you have a story written, and even if it's technically good, you can usually make it better. And sometimes making things better derails what you've already written. That bothered me a lot when I wrote the first Trefury book, but this time around I'm ripping out original or recently revised material without a second thought. I suppose that's a sign of writer's maturity? While the essence of the original story remains, it doesn't control the wonderful new directions the story has taken. If you don't let go and try, you'll never know how good it might have been. Just make sure you keep a copy of the old stuff in case the new bright idea doesn't pan out after all.
The last week and a half I set aside my novel to read someone else's. I'm always so grateful for these opportunities, especially if I enjoy the writing style of the person I'm critiquing for. While evaluating and trying to help them make their story stronger, I'm always taking notes in the back of my mind. Things like, "Oh yeah, I make that same mistake too!" or "Look how well this person handles (fill in the blank); I need to work on that." And I'll admit, because I try to be honest in my critiques, I go through several days, after turning it back in, of inner anxiety and misery. I'm always scared to death that the other person's going to hate me or think I'm crazy. The overall goal is to help them out and I always try to find good things to note as well as voicing my concerns. No one has sent me hate-mail yet. And I have to admit, I get a thrill out of seeing books I got to read before they were published, in published form. If only Goodreads would let me count them for my yearly books-read count.
Now I've got to swing back into writing mode for a couple of weeks before I get to beta read again for someone else. And I found out a couple of days ago that I get to do some copy editing and formatting for my mom as she gets ready to submit/publish her first books. I'll admit, it's awesome to look at my bookshelves and see novels written by family members. You see a different side of a relative when you get into their creative mind. At any rate, collectively, we're amassing an impressive family history collection of novels. I should mention all the artwork done by relatives too. To top that, my daughters have begged me to teach them more about creative writing and we've done some serious workshopping together this week. It's a growing legacy, and something I'm so happy to be in the middle of.
So that's it for now. Thanks for reading. I'd be delighted if you wanted to post your own writing update in the comments section. And as always, happy writing to all of you.
