Getting a Book Ready for the Beta-Readers
The longer I work on something, the more likely it is
I’ll drift at some point into a creative doldrums, where I spend days or even
weeks, tweaking this, tweaking that,
agonizing over a single phrase, sometimes a single word, writing in circles,
rewriting the same scenes over and over and then finally just deleting them.
But if I don’t lose hope, if I keep at it long enough, I generally catch a favourable wind at some point that fills my sails and carries me very quickly – sometimes almost out of control – to the end of a story or chapter. Sometimes the storm of inspiration and enthusiasm dies down suddenly, other times, it carries me right into the next chapter or next project. But one thing it almost inevitably does, is give me an unduly optimistic feeling about what I’ve just written. You’d think Shakespeare himself never penned such a masterpiece!
I generally get over this quickly – usually as soon as I start to reread it. But every once in a while, the work turns out to be almost…
But if I don’t lose hope, if I keep at it long enough, I generally catch a favourable wind at some point that fills my sails and carries me very quickly – sometimes almost out of control – to the end of a story or chapter. Sometimes the storm of inspiration and enthusiasm dies down suddenly, other times, it carries me right into the next chapter or next project. But one thing it almost inevitably does, is give me an unduly optimistic feeling about what I’ve just written. You’d think Shakespeare himself never penned such a masterpiece!
I generally get over this quickly – usually as soon as I start to reread it. But every once in a while, the work turns out to be almost…
So beautiful and interesting, just the right surprise to find hidden in the garden, like a little pocket of magic ;)
ReplyDeleteThank you, Jill. This one actually one a best of show prize at a world fantasy convention. Still haven't sold it though. It's pretty big (almost 2 feet tall and 100 lbs/half a metre and almost 50 kgs). The stone actually has some tiny fossils embedded in it.
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