It only took a year...

About a year ago, I received my manuscript, "The Legend of the Gangster's Gold" back from my agent. Yes, one year ago! I dutifully went over all the notes her assistant had included and carefully made those changes. Then,  I reread the manuscript numerous times looking for typos, missing words, etc. However, my biggest stumbling block was having to delete my beloved prologue. I knew I had to do it, I just wasn't sure how.

Then, came the bad news. We were leaving Alaska, our home of 6 years, and returning to the urban blight that is Dallas, TX. I was not a happy camper. I knew I had to work on my book, but I just couldn't concentrate on it. All I could think of was the heat, the traffic, the crowds, and how much I dislike Texas. The only bright side was having lived in Dallas twice before (so I knew perfectly well what I was getting into), was two of my children, a sister, a couple of cousins as well as numerous friends were here. They made it bearable.

Anyway, I knew I had to get back to my manuscript. Then, my agent sent out a message to all her clients about more things she wanted people to look at before they returned their manuscripts. So began another round of rereading and editing. Then she suggested everyone try and join a critique group. Sooo...I did that. I had them help me with my prologue dilemma (they assured me that losing it wouldn't ruin the story!) as well as lots of other little issues. I had one person read the entire manuscript, made those changes then had a second read it over and made those changes. Then, I decided that was it it. Enough was enough. I could nitpick that thing forever. Besides, it had reached the point where the story was barely making sense to anymore!

So, on March 16, I put together my synopsis, my character summary and my manuscript, zippped them all together and sent them off. I know it will be awhile before my agent gets to it but that's okay. Just as long as the ball is out of my court for a little while!

Now, I can go back and work on my other Works in Progress!

Value of a critique group

My agent told everyone in her agency to find and join a critique group. This can be easier said than done,  but it made sense to me, so I set out to find one. In the course of writing my book, I quickly discovered that although it can really be gratifying to have friends and family read your manuscript and gush about how wonderful your masterpiece is, it isn't really very constructive. They don't want to hurt your feelings, and having someone close to you tell you your writing isn't all it's cracked up to be can be painful in a very personal way.
   
Thus the value of finding a complete stranger and ideally a fellow writer, to read over your work and tell you what's wrong with it, as well as what works. Sure, it's still painful, but not nearly as personal. It's easier to be a little more objective about comments when you don't really know the person giving them. At the same time, they don't worry so much about hurting your feelings as they do helping you improve your writing.

I can't tell you how invaluable that is. I found an online critique group  taking new members, and over the past few months I have learned an incredible amount about the value of editing and critiquing. Evaluating others' work helps me to look at my own writing more critically. I see what works or doesn't in other stories and that helps me  search for similar issues in my own. Plus, it doesn't matter how many times you read over your own work, you will miss things. It might be typos, missing words, sentence fragments, whatever, but you will miss something. Your brain knows what is supposed to be there so it simply fills it in. Looking for these problems is another invaluable service provided by your critique partner.

I don't claim to be an expert in any of this. In fact, most of the time I feel completely lost when it comes to trying to follow the labyrinthine path towards publication. But it's nice to know I have a group of fellow writers trying to help me along!