Book 2 Rewrites & ARCs Going Out
I'm finishing up a new draft of Book 2 and am learning so much about myself as a writer and what my strengths and weaknesses are. Yeah, with an emphasis on the WEAKNESSES part!
Especially when I reread my first draft of book 2 and cringe. There were parts where I tried to encapsulate these really esoteric ideas without grounding it in the physical world. Like that bad poetry we all wrote as angsty teenagers, like Your love is like the wind blowing across the solar energy of my soul!* It felt very meaningful as you were writing it, but your reader is just left saying, "HUH?"
So there has been a lot of learning and a lot of rewriting. Meanwhile, advanced reader copies of GLITCH have gone out and are in people's hands. I thought I would be cool as a cucumber during this stage. I mean, I've watched other author friends go through this, I've heard about all the hubub with reviews, I've read book blogger sites for years. I thought: okay, well, all authors know that reviews will be a mixed bag--some people will like it, others will hate it.
But I didn't anticipate the complete and total stomach-dropping-out moment of realizing, OH MY GOD PEOPLE ARE FINALLY READING MY BOOK. I almost threw up. For serious.
And then I opened up my draft of book 2 and tried to work on it some more.
And then I slammed the laptop lid closed and decided I needed to take a Save Heather's Mental Health Evening and read a good book.
*to be clear, this is an example of the kind of poetry I wrote as a teenager, not actually part of my first draft!
Especially when I reread my first draft of book 2 and cringe. There were parts where I tried to encapsulate these really esoteric ideas without grounding it in the physical world. Like that bad poetry we all wrote as angsty teenagers, like Your love is like the wind blowing across the solar energy of my soul!* It felt very meaningful as you were writing it, but your reader is just left saying, "HUH?"
So there has been a lot of learning and a lot of rewriting. Meanwhile, advanced reader copies of GLITCH have gone out and are in people's hands. I thought I would be cool as a cucumber during this stage. I mean, I've watched other author friends go through this, I've heard about all the hubub with reviews, I've read book blogger sites for years. I thought: okay, well, all authors know that reviews will be a mixed bag--some people will like it, others will hate it. But I didn't anticipate the complete and total stomach-dropping-out moment of realizing, OH MY GOD PEOPLE ARE FINALLY READING MY BOOK. I almost threw up. For serious.
And then I opened up my draft of book 2 and tried to work on it some more.
And then I slammed the laptop lid closed and decided I needed to take a Save Heather's Mental Health Evening and read a good book.
*to be clear, this is an example of the kind of poetry I wrote as a teenager, not actually part of my first draft!
No comments have been added yet.
