I've never been great at details. I grew up being the kid who throws the pans in the cupboard and closes the door quickly, the one who will mow the lawn but leave the edges untrimmed. That detail work to finish a project feels tedious to me, especially after the exhilaration of finishing the bulk of the project itself.
I've had to learn to make a to-do list that includes the details so I can cross them off as individual tasks. After all, they're just as essential as completion of the bigger project. Discipline, Jeanne, discipline.
So here I am with the book written. Check. Sent out for feedback. Check. Query letter written and revised. Check. Feedback received and reviewed. Partial check. Changes made to the manuscript based on the feedback. Less than partial check. Outline/plot synopsis written to accompany query letter to editors' desks. Not even started.
I need to finish these details so I can move this project along and ready the whole package for an editor.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Saturday, February 5, 2011
My Beta readers
A number of friends, writing colleagues, and family members have inquired about my book's progress over time, so once I got the thumbs-up from my instructor, Nancy Butts, I asked for Beta readers from that interested pool. About a dozen brave souls volunteered and have taken the time to read the whole story. They found typos and extra spaces; they corrected punctuation. And to the man, they've enjoyed the story. Yay!
A few of their quotes (only the positive feedback here of course, wink):
~Your opening sentence grabbed me and got my interest.
~I was COMPLETELY wrapped up in it and was sorry to see it end. Sophie is such an engaging character and seems so real. I would like to meet her...
~I could easily see everything. I could smell the grass, the rain, the mud.
~The whole last part is so suspenseful I couldn't stop reading.
~I couldn't believe the visceral reaction I had when reading it all at once. It takes off like a runaway freight train.
~Are you planning a sequel?
And this from my daughter Katie: ~I got so wrapped up in the story, I forgot my mother wrote it.
Cool, huh?
I'll tweak my query letter and get that sent out. Meanwhile I'll fix all those mistakes on my ms so it's ready for the big league.
A few of their quotes (only the positive feedback here of course, wink):
~Your opening sentence grabbed me and got my interest.
~I was COMPLETELY wrapped up in it and was sorry to see it end. Sophie is such an engaging character and seems so real. I would like to meet her...
~I could easily see everything. I could smell the grass, the rain, the mud.
~The whole last part is so suspenseful I couldn't stop reading.
~I couldn't believe the visceral reaction I had when reading it all at once. It takes off like a runaway freight train.
~Are you planning a sequel?
And this from my daughter Katie: ~I got so wrapped up in the story, I forgot my mother wrote it.
Cool, huh?
I'll tweak my query letter and get that sent out. Meanwhile I'll fix all those mistakes on my ms so it's ready for the big league.
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