Anticipation!
Last week was extraordinarily productive for me. I posted a podcast for Writing Thyme, finished worked on the 4th draft of my novel and sent it off to a friend to read, and posted an introduction to my short story feed Treeless Shorts. Now, I’m debating on what to do next week. Of course, I’ll post another episode of Writing Thyme. But that’s just what I do for Monday. I’ve got to work on short stories related to my aforementioned novel, and edit the ones I’ve already written.
So, that’s that. Now, about the title of this post, Anticipation! As I wrote, I sent off my latest draft of my latest novel to a reader. He’s a published writing I truly respect, both as a person and as a writer. But the last time I had the novel reviewed, it took me two weeks to recover. Now, I’m emotionally prepping myself for the same thing. I think I made some real improvements in the latest draft, and I’m hoping it’s close to publishable, but I don’t know. And that not knowing is really hard. I mean, it’s like I sent out my heart, in the form of a solid year’s worth of work!
Holly Lisle said writing is like dancing on stage, naked. I think she was right about that. I love dancing and being naked (I’m in the metaphor here!) but it stings when others say, “You’re fat,” or “You need to take some serious lessons.”
As I said, the writer who is now reviewing my novel is a good guy and I know he’s a nice person and a good writer, which means I’m going to get good critiques. But anything less than “You are the best writer who ever lived,” stings. Maybe it’s ego. Maybe it’s pride or a lack of it. I don’t know. But I’m driven by passion, and I write from my heart. So I feel it, whether it’s good or bad, I feel it. And that’s part of being a writer, I guess.