First let me say: Wow, this is looking fantastic
Barb!
Barb talks about not knowing about technology, I
think I have her beat. I’m writing this to Barb who will then place it on her
blog as I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing. I don’t even have facebook! I
mean, seriously, who doesn’t have facebook? Me, apparently.
In earlier posts, we’ve talked about being
addicted to writing. My husband notices when I don’t write for a
while, apparently I get twitchy. He will sit me at the computer until I start
to write and feed me chocolate. What a man!
I want to talk about another part of writing.
Critique. After we have finished our manuscript, there comes a time when we
have to let someone read it. That moment when you hand your hard work
over, is the most terrifying. What will they think? How many grammar
mistakes have I made? Does it make sense? And the list of imagined horrors goes
on. It has taken me a long time to brave having another person read
it. And then I sit there, waiting, chewing my lip wondering if the story
is any good or I’m deluding myself. One thing I have learnt, is never,
never read critique if you have had a really bad day. NEVER. It is hard
to read comments that others have made on the story you have sweated over.
Yet, it is within those comments you discover how to make your plot and/or
characters explode off the page, rather than just sit there. Writing is a
journey, it can take you to the highest of highs, with a perfect scene,
and to the lowest of lows when it just doesn’t work.
It was the best decision I ever made when I
decided to attend a writer’s workshop and met Barb and Kay. We are
embarking on this journey together and it is definitely less scary with
friends.