Well, this has sucked! I am getting nowhere fast. I’ve pulled out pen and paper, laptop, ipad, iphone on all 4 of these days, but have not come up with anything particularly satisfying.
You see the very first picture book I wrote is one that’s very close to my heart. It got really nice feedback from my critique group. It did OK with a comp I entered into, but the judges pointed out the ending was a cop-out. I decided to never write again. For a week. Then, damnit! I realised they were right, and figured out a better ending.
Great! I tidied it up. Got some more feedback from my critique group and submitted a few places, but got nowhere.
So, I submitted to 2 manuscript assessors.
The first said where’s the problem? You’re not showing us the main character enough? And lots of other stuff that basically said she thought it was nowhere near where it needed to be.
The second said OK for a first draft. A first draft! Aaaargh!!! I’ve spent months on every word in this story. Where’s the heart? How does he grow? What do you want readers to take away from this story?
Eeeeek!
So, this was what I had to tackle for nanowrimo. I’ve broken the story down, so I can rebuild it with heart, with more idea of the main character, with a better story arc. But it’s hard, and I’m not really getting anywhere. And it feels forced and not fun. I need to invest some sparkle into it, but feel like instead I’m investing formula and structure and it feels like a technical writer is writing it. Oh yes, I am!
What am I going to do about it?
Not sure. But I need to keep pushing. I know this story can shine somewhere, somehow. Just need to figure out how.
