Over a month ago, I sent the first 250 words of my novel to Janice Hardy's writing blog to go on her weekly feature "Real Life Diagnostics". This is where readers can send in a portion of their work-in-progress and ask how to improve the piece. I was emailed that it was in the queue and would be critiqued in a few weeks.
I felt pretty confident about this portion. I liked it, it sounded good, read good and was all bright and shiny. This was the third or fourth time I had sent in a piece and I knew my writing had improved. I was ready to recieve the accolades. Ha!
My bright, shiny beginning was posted for critique the day after I sent off my whole, entire manuscript to be critiqued. Oh, the irony!
Because, of course, my writing was not without flaws. Now, I did take some of comments offered with a grain of salt. But much of what was said gave me cause to think and reassess. And what Janice wrote up was good, solid advice. Which meant that my writing was not as good and solid as I presumed. Ah, me!
So, I'm gonna let it all marinate for a little while (and see if there are anymore comments) and then do a rewrite later this week. See if I can get this baby a little more lean and precise. I don't want to hear the word "cliche" attached to my writing anymore. Blegh!
No comments:
Post a Comment