It feels more than a little arrogant to post here for such a small and simple thing but I'm doing it anyway.
When I started writing in January I couldn't even tell anyone that I was writing a novel. My goal was to just finish the first draft. I finished it and realized that I could at least say I was working on something. Reading back over it and deciding it didn't need to end up in the burn pile was a big step. I cleaned up the first hundred pages to a point that was tolerable (not finished but tolerable) and figured out that I could possibly let someone else read it. So I did.
To date I've had five readers, all people whose opinions I trust, all avid readers, and the consensus seems best summed up by the message I received today: "I have only one thing to say - Holy crap! I just locked myself in the car to have time to read the next two chapters!"
It may be a standard first novel. It may never go anywhere after revisions end. I know enough about writing to know that I have plenty of work to do. But shoot, to have someone say that they are hooked in a way that happens once every five years or so for them? I feel like the queen of the world.
When I started writing in January I couldn't even tell anyone that I was writing a novel. My goal was to just finish the first draft. I finished it and realized that I could at least say I was working on something. Reading back over it and deciding it didn't need to end up in the burn pile was a big step. I cleaned up the first hundred pages to a point that was tolerable (not finished but tolerable) and figured out that I could possibly let someone else read it. So I did.
To date I've had five readers, all people whose opinions I trust, all avid readers, and the consensus seems best summed up by the message I received today: "I have only one thing to say - Holy crap! I just locked myself in the car to have time to read the next two chapters!"
It may be a standard first novel. It may never go anywhere after revisions end. I know enough about writing to know that I have plenty of work to do. But shoot, to have someone say that they are hooked in a way that happens once every five years or so for them? I feel like the queen of the world.