TOTALLY TERRIFYING

I'm getting ready to send my First Fifty Pages to a few readers for their input. Am I going in the right direction? Does the story flow? Are you interested? What bad habits do I need to change now before I make a mess of the entire project?

Some of these readers are people I've worked with in the past. They already know my strengths and weaknesses. But there are a couple, who are amazing writers well-affirmed with their legions of fans, that I'm sort of hoping are too busy.

I should have my First Fifty readable by mid-week. Or maybe mid-2012.

Sheesh.

It's all better with friends.

Duh-Dum, Duh-Dum, Duh-Dum

So I'm sitting here, feeling a little smug. In control. Upward and onward with my edits. Kind of liking that my more recently written scenes in my SFD weren't requiring the same kind of gagging overhaul the earlier ones did. The really hard work was done.

I saw nothing but calm seas ahead of me.

I should've known something was about to happen when I heard the theme from Jaws begin to rumble in the air around me.

Has that ever happened to you? A shark attack out of the blue?

What happened was I got a couple of critiques back from my writing partners.

Both of them were all over my character motivations and responses to danger. They were relentless. In the spirit of the season, I tried picturing them (two gorgeous blondes) as wicked hags with warts on their noses.

How could they? And especially . . . How could they be so right???

In other words, the writing wasn't so bad, but the storyline, at this particular point, stinks. Like that shark bait . . . what's it called? Chum?

Aaargh!

I hate it when I'm thinking I don't have to think so much and then someone forces the issue.

But I showed them. Well, I'm gonna show them. I figured it out.

Now to write it.

CR: Green by Ted Dekker

It's all better with friends.