Discussion FEBRUARY 26TH, 2016 CHECK-IN
- Thread starter Sunny Irene Roth
- Start date
Since I got this editor request mid-month, my goal has been to rewrite the MS and submit by March 1st and my mini-goal for this week was to write a new beginning and find someone to look at the first 30 pages by Tuesday.
Tuesday was rocky, my "teeter" day this week when I could have let my writing plan fall apart, all for good reasons, but with a little help from my husband I got what I needed to done and reached out to someone in my CTRWA group (Jamie Beck) who had offered to look at something for me a few months ago. Now Jamie is a dynamo who said yes right away (as in about 10 minutes later). Of course it took me another half-day to get it "sendable" and I said no pressure, she could take a week if she needed but she read it and sent comments on what I'd asked for to me a few hours later. I then had a few questions and she went back and forth with me a few more times that night.
And it made such a difference! I've recently come to accept that I have a bit of PTSD from critique partner feedback. This is a longish topic for another time but others in the group have mentioned they have the same issue and it has dramatically slowed my completion of manuscripts and willingness to submit them over time. My thoughts and feelings on the issue are complicated--in some ways they've made me a stronger writer and I've become much more reliant on my inner voice, which I think is essential--but I miss the back-and-forth percolation of ideas between two people about a story, and all of my recent contest entries have been dinged for the kind of "piddly" stuff that a second pair of eyes picks up when the first (and spellcheck) can't.
The overall contest judge feedback has been much more positive than I had been getting in critique though, which tells you something. If anonymous strangers like your work more than who you've chosen for your writing buddies, it is absolutely time to find new writing buddies
.
So this was great. Jamie's ideas were minimal but key, and I switched the opening scene as a result, which I feel in the end fits better. (this was not her suggestion, btw she just confirmed a problem and I found a solution that I thought worked). In the Deep Work book th point about how inspiration is most often triggered during interactions with others is true--my other aha moment this week was in writing in response to Kathleen's question how evening snacks were my compensation for working too late. That little nugget of insight might have sat unmined for a good long while (years?) without a reason to dig right there. I've had the urge to write into the night since Tuesday but haven't and it's made me a lot more productive overall because I'm getting more sleep. Snacked one of the last 4 nights and the urges are much, much less.
Now my mini-goal is to get a full paper-copy read done of the MS this weekend and fix all the plot line threads left hanging from my multiple story starts . Then polish for 2 days and submit.
Luckily the editor didn't ask for a synopsis that's a whole other bailiwick.
Tuesday was rocky, my "teeter" day this week when I could have let my writing plan fall apart, all for good reasons, but with a little help from my husband I got what I needed to done and reached out to someone in my CTRWA group (Jamie Beck) who had offered to look at something for me a few months ago. Now Jamie is a dynamo who said yes right away (as in about 10 minutes later). Of course it took me another half-day to get it "sendable" and I said no pressure, she could take a week if she needed but she read it and sent comments on what I'd asked for to me a few hours later. I then had a few questions and she went back and forth with me a few more times that night.
And it made such a difference! I've recently come to accept that I have a bit of PTSD from critique partner feedback. This is a longish topic for another time but others in the group have mentioned they have the same issue and it has dramatically slowed my completion of manuscripts and willingness to submit them over time. My thoughts and feelings on the issue are complicated--in some ways they've made me a stronger writer and I've become much more reliant on my inner voice, which I think is essential--but I miss the back-and-forth percolation of ideas between two people about a story, and all of my recent contest entries have been dinged for the kind of "piddly" stuff that a second pair of eyes picks up when the first (and spellcheck) can't.
The overall contest judge feedback has been much more positive than I had been getting in critique though, which tells you something. If anonymous strangers like your work more than who you've chosen for your writing buddies, it is absolutely time to find new writing buddies
.So this was great. Jamie's ideas were minimal but key, and I switched the opening scene as a result, which I feel in the end fits better. (this was not her suggestion, btw
she just confirmed a problem and I found a solution that I thought worked). In the Deep Work book th point about how inspiration is most often triggered during interactions with others is true--my other aha moment this week was in writing in response to Kathleen's question how evening snacks were my compensation for working too late. That little nugget of insight might have sat unmined for a good long while (years?) without a reason to dig right there. I've had the urge to write into the night since Tuesday but haven't and it's made me a lot more productive overall because I'm getting more sleep. Snacked one of the last 4 nights and the urges are much, much less.Now my mini-goal is to get a full paper-copy read done of the MS this weekend and fix all the plot line threads left hanging from my multiple story starts . Then polish for 2 days and submit.
Luckily the editor didn't ask for a synopsis
that's a whole other bailiwick.
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