To Share Or Not To Share...

Writing is hard. Especially now because for the first time, I'm writing something that other people read. I've been writing for years, and most of the time, I'll create something, lose it, find it, then throw it away, being hard on myself for the quality of the writing and the overall messiness.


However, this time, I'm committed. I've put it out on display for people to read, I've invited and accepted feedback. This has been a great exercise for the most part, and to some degree, I will keep doing it. But, it occurs to me that it can also be a hindrance.

Being a people-pleaser, I want everyone that reads it to enjoy it. But you can't please everyone, which is a bummer. Even literary pop culture icons, like Harry Potter or The Hunger Games, are fraught with controversy. And, though I don't write to follow trends and I'm not trying to make international best sellers lists, it makes me happy when other people like the story I'm telling, it's what keeps me motivated to write the next page when the thrill of my own review wears off, as it inevitably does.

It's tricky for me to distinguish which is more important, writing for me or writing for you- my own version of  'what came first?' On one hand, I have to say that the writing for myself is more integral, because if I am excited about the writing, then your entertainment should come as a direct result. While if I am writing to please, I may never succeed, in which case, my internal motivation will suffer. However, without seeing other people enjoying it, I'm not as inspired to keep going, to find the answer to the question, 'what happens next?' It's a real conundrum.

I don't know if sharing the story at this early stage is wise, and without a mentor writer to ask, I will have to learn by trial and error. It's possible, however, that until I get farther along in the story and have made the structure strong enough, I risk the whole thing tumbling down as I attempt to make it perfect for every reader, an impossible task.

So, I'm unsure, should I put the story out there at these infant stages, or wait until it's more mature?

Out With the Old...

After sharing the first 5 chapters with my writer's circle, I am back at the drawing board, finding ways to make the story's beginning stronger. Granted, it's not a total wash, hopefully the people that have read it will agree, there's potential there. However, the feedback from readers has helped me considerably to find some weak points within the story. So, if you have provided some comments, THANK YOU! If you haven't and if you have formed an opinion, SHARE IT! I'd love to see some comments, questions, speculations, reactions -- what ever.

Because I'm adding more about setting, West's dream, and some basic elements in the first scene, I'll be posting a rewrite soon. So, PLEASE share the link to this blog, get as many readers as possible to see it and weigh in. The negative reviews help me improve it, the positive reviews help inspire me, so either way, your statements are valuable.

The writing is going well, I'm on chapter 10 now, though I am going back to redo some of the first part while the ideas are fresh in my head. This has been so much fun already, I can't wait to see how things turn out for West.

More to come soon...

It's Monday

The start of a new week, and though I had a terrible night of sleep, I'm happy that I made so much progress writing yesterday...even if it was into the night.  Somehow, the baby knew that I needed to catch up with my rest to make up for staying up late writing, and decided to wake up at midnight requesting to watch "The Chipmunks." Oh that kid.

We are into chapter nine as of this morning, and things are going well. Though, I expect some challenges as I transition out of my comfort zone. As is to be expected, a girl living at sea is going to have some experiences aboard a boat...something that I have done rarely, though I pray that my audience never suspects it.

When you read a book, there's inevitably a little bit about the author between the lines of the text. These personal references are sometimes obscure, but they're always there. Reading a writer's work, even if fiction, is equivelent to opening their journal. Those thoughts are unique to the author, their heart is in each line, and reading them is a stained-glass window to their minds, not perfectly clear, but colorful and artistic. Because of this, writing a novel feels just as exposing as publishing a page of my diary, standing on a stage naked. It's out there for people to see, form opinions about, and either enjoy or reject. It's terribly uncomfortable, at least it is for me.

Yet, even for those that don't appreciate the story, think that my writing is subpar, or don't even bother to form an opinion, I know that others will love it. Each opinion is the thought of only one person, even if it feels like the negative ones carry more weight, I have to remind myself that critisism is good, and an opportunity to improve myself. At the end of the day, the joy in telling this story is my own. The more people it entertains, the more people that feel compelled to turn another page, the more it adds to my happiness- but it's not the sole source. I would love for this book to make it on the bookshelves of people I've never met. But, even if this remains a conversation between myself and a small group of my closest friends, it will have been worth it.

A rough draft of chapter one will be posted in the very near future...like maybe today. Feel free to comment the good, the bad, and the ugly.

And it begins...

As I sit here on my 33rd birthday, eating the delicious veggie omelet that my husband made for me, I have decided to start this blog. Not only because writing is fun, but because possibly, it will help me. Perhaps it will help me write though confounding moments, or maybe, in the best of worlds, give me the chance to get feedback from others as the story unfolds.

I've started telling a story I currently call "The Paragon". In it, a girl named West is part of a community that lives at sea in a post-apocolyptic world. When a wayward ship is found, she meets a stranger, the lone survivor amongst a dozen young girls found dead on board. Together, they embark upon a quest to return to land, where life somehow managed to survive. Though the people she finds there are welcoming and kind, a dark underbelly is exposed as she learns more about this strange new world.

A sample rough draft of the first couple of chapters is soon to come...

There is much to do.