Oh No! What Have I Done?

  It's too late! I've already submitted something and there are mistakes. Time to panic? Maybe. But not for long. If I agonize over every imperfect piece of writing, there would be no time to move on and write something else. But this time it was important.
  Last week I posted writing Samples A and B for comments. Sample A was the first few paragraphs of a story already sent off to a publisher. It had gone through my critique group already, but now that I wanted to submit to the Storymakers First Chapter Contest, I asked them for another look. A good friend of mine really gave it the once over with lots of markings. This morphed into Sample B, which I sent off before the deadline to the contest. I changed the first sentence around so that it would immediately become the main character's point of view. It feels rotten to know that my first sentence sent to the publisher was not the view point I wanted. (Too bad this wasn't caught earlier.) But this same friend didn't love my new first sentence and had some better suggestions (after the deadline). Oh well.
  Publishers expect some editing. Maybe other first chapters in the contest will have flaws as well.
  I can't live in the past. I could revise and revise and it still wouldn't be perfect. We all want our best work to shine. It's true that I can fix what someone shows me is wrong. The greater truth is that I am starting to recognize problems spots on my own. This is progress. This is success.
  While waiting to hear back, I'll try to remember that progression equals contentment. Do you see your own progress? Are you happy with it?

Writing Journal #4: Noticable Progress

  In picking a scripture story for the basis of my writing, I thought that all I needed to do was to connect retold sections given in the scriptures by adding interesting fill, linking it all together into story form. I wanted to stay true to the scriptural text. What I ended up with was flat. My critique group let me know that I needed more conflict (among other things). They may as well just turn to The Good Book itself for all the excitement I was giving them. I learned about character arcs and how my MC needed to grow, progress, and overcome a problem. I remember saying out loud, “This is harder than it looks.”

  Ignorance was no longer bliss and mediocrity was not an option. Writing a book took too much time and devotion not to up my level of skill. Anything less would be a waste of time. I paid attention to the group’s comments to each other and learned from their writing as well as mine. There were secrets to success ready to be gleaned from the pages of self-help books and evidence found in published novels. The trick was implementing what I learned.

  As the feedback became increasingly positive, I was a kid in a candy store. I loved taking my redlined pages home and shaping them into something better. I could do this. I always believed in myself but I was beginning to believe a publisher might feel the same.