Trembling...
I think one of the hardest things any writer can do is read a critique of his or her work. Whether you've entered a contest, sent it to an agent or an editor, or given it to a friend to read, it's still nerve-wracking. It's giving your baby away to someone who pray will understand, but you just never know.
I'm very careful about sharing any of my work before it's finished, and even at that point, I'm very picky about who I'll hand it over to. Friends who just want to read my manuscript? Sorry. I love you all, but you'll have to wait for it to come out in book form.
So knowing this, you can imagine how nevous I was when I came home from work to an email from Nadine, sending me back my manuscript with all her notes. Eek! I couldn't go near my computer for almost two hours. Thoughts, "What if she hated it?" raced through my mind, and numbed my fingers. Of course, the longer I waited, the more nervous I grew.
What finally got me to my computer was the mental slap upside the head and the reminder that Nadine is a very nice woman, and she'd already told me she loved the first half. So it couldn't be that bad, right?
So with Ms. K. on the phone, I opened up the document and began to read her notes. And wouldn't you know it, she made sense! She actually hit on a lot of things I already knew were an issue, and planned to take care of in revisions. Having them written out like that, makes it a lot easier for me. I can simply print the first few pages, and have them out with me when I go to do my revisions. Some things she noted as areas of concern, I'm not all that concerned about. Maybe in a few days I will be, but for now? Not all that worried. For now, I'll keep plugging away at it (speaking of which, did you note the page count?) and take care of a lot of her suggestions when I go back through it.
Labels: writing
posted by Erin @ 8:40 PM
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