In less than two weeks I need to get the first ten pages of my first novel into the hands of several people. As a first time writer looking at what i have written, none of it is now good enough. A couple of months ago I really enjoyed reading it, now, its crap. So I am re-writing, and re-writing and being frustrated. My biggest struggle is what I call the “This” or “That” dilemma .   Right now I have two openings for the book, I like both, so I have blindly sent them off to two friends to see what they like. That in itself is scary enough. (I am using the word first way too  much, I should change that first)

And to top it off, I am having terrible problems with verb tense and point of view. AGH! I need help!

The above was written 10 days ago, and I am happy to say that I got the pages out to several people and have received some responses already! Friends are wonderful.

First of all I got some great feedback from a college English teacher who went through and helped me clean up punctuation and some verb tenses. On top of that she likes sci-fi and believes there is hope…

I suspect that I will spending the better part of the summer reading about verb tenses. What was most interesting to me was how much I didn’t know. I am amazed that I graduated…GAH! [Please note that AGH! and GAH! are different and not typos of each other]

Three other brave souls have the 10 pages: A Co-Worker, A Friend who is an author and a professional writing coach. Only time will tell if I am crushed or not. My mother always said that I was a fragile child.

On the MORE GOOD NEWS FRONT , I have almost another 5000 words done and I haven’t had to kill any characters recently, unlike some authors who believe that blood and gore are all the rage. [Take That GRR].

This update is done and off to the ether of the internet.

Be Well, dcd