Scaring Yourself for Good

Today I’m doing a scary thing. My heart is pounding just thinking about it. It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time, and never had the courage, until now. I’m giving a copy of my unpublished novel to someone to read.

It came out of National Novel Writing Month in 2004, using the book, No Plot? No Problem! written by its founder, Chris Baty. A friend of mine was going to do it, and I decided to join her at the last minute. No plot, no characters, nothing planned in advance. I was thrilled that I was able to do it, and ended up with a story that I thought was okay. But there was a whole lot of crap mixed in with the thin trickle of good plot and occasionally decent writing.

I shared an excerpt with a writing class once. And I let RP see a little of it. But no one else has seen it in its entirety. It’s sitting in an envelope on the corner of my desk and later today I’ll give it to my new writing coach. She’s a university professor, very talented and kind. I’m confident that she’ll not only help me cull out the crap, revise, add, do whatever it takes to make it something I feel really good about, but that I’ll enjoy the process, even with my heart pounding in my throat.

Wish me luck!