In A Good Mood

For the first time in a while, I’m happy with where I am with my writing. I can contribute two things that happened yesterday to this mood.

The first thing is I met with Denise Robarge Tanaka, who has seen the beginning of my novel at a the Convolution 2013 Writer’s Workshop.  She graciously agreed to read over the completed manuscript and tell me where she saw problems.  This isn’t an in depth edit for plot or grammar, but a discussion about what scenes needed a little more emotional oomph and how to achieve it.  We had a talk over lunch about the issues she saw.  Fortunately, they are all issues I suspected were there, but I was unable to see since I am so close to the project.  There are no glaring plot holes that I have missed that will require a complete rewrite. She gave me some great ideas about how to fix them. It will take some work, but I should be able to fix them.

The second thing I did was finish the first draft of an original story I’m converting from fanfic.  This took extensive work since about every other paragraph contained a direct reference to the show in question.  I currently have it off with several readers to point out where I am still too close to the television show.  I’m sure there is a lot more to be done on this story.  But for the moment, I have the satisfaction of the fact that the draft is done.

So what’s next for me to do?  Editing.  Lots and lots of editing. I also want to start working on the outline for my 2014 NaNoWriMo project.  I’m not sure if I’m going to take a second crack at the story I wrote for 2013, or if I attempt a different story I do not have outlined yet. I also have to get a last minute costume idea for DragonCon ready, and do some preparation for Convolution. I’m going to be very busy through the end of the year.

We’ll just see if this happy mood holds once I start getting feedback.