I am winding down on time here in Dubai and will be shifting to Cornwall for the summer - so there may be blog silence for a week or so while I re-jig life. I promise I will return to RNA conference posts.
In the meantime I'm struggling with the feel that I can no longer judge my own work. I know this means I'm too close to it. When I reach this point I feel it's crap whether this is true or not. I have a deadline in front of me - NWS and a few personal deadlines writing wise which are making me edgy. I take this writing business very seriously and at the moment I feel I'm not getting it right which bugs the ..... out of me. So I will ask - how do you evaluate your own work? How can you tell whether its good enough?
PENDEROWN update: the first page has changed and changed again (am I getting obsessive? no, don't answer that I am). If I can get the additional blog pages to work I may post the two options on there to kill two birds with one stone - figure out how the additional pages work and two sneakily get feedback...
Finally some longer overdue links...there has been some wonderful stuff in the blog-shpere recently
As always I can't say enough go to Sarah Duncan's Blog which she now has an email feed...
Nathan Brandsford's Page Critique Mondays are superb. Here's the latest.
Encouraging words from agent Jenny bent.
Ten Writing Tips
Good post on pacing
7 comments:
Sweetie, don't try to get it perfect for the NWS, just get it on the way to perfect. The reader will be looking at it with fresh eyes and will be able to give her opinion (which is just one person's, don't forget) on what works and how she feels it might be tweaked.
Chill, don't stress. The more worried you get, the less you will be able to see the wood for the trees.
Hope the move goes well...I'm not surprised you can't think straight while you're organising that! Wow. Sit down and have a brew :)
I can never ever judge my own work. It takes months sometimes even after it's in print for me to look at it with a more objective eye. I think it's absolutely normal for writers. We always strive to improve and that process never stops. One of the reasons I do a backwards edit when I finish a book is that it stops me from constantly fiddling with the first chapter and forces me to pay more attention to the last third of the book.
I'm feeling exactly the same way as you at the moment, so sympathise entirely, but thankfully Jan's comment has made me feel much better.
Good luck with the writing and your move.
LIke you, Liz, I'm trying to get my ms as perfect as possible to send to the NWS. Jan's comment has made me feel a little more relaxed about the process – I hope it has you too.
Nell's backward edit idea sounds great!
It sounds like you are trying to do too much, take a break and wait til you are back in Cornwall.
Why are writers so hard on themselves?
You will be fine. And now you're in Cornwall, you can wind down slightly and it will happen right, you'll see.
x
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