Trust Your Instincts
I’ve been travelling for work again. I took this picture from my car on the way North to Huntsville, ON. The picture doesn’t do it justice, but the sunset was gorgeous. I drove the 5 1/2 hours there on Thursday night and then back on Friday…home just in time to throw some clothes in a bag to head out camping. Lots of rain today but we’re having fun.
I had lots of time to think while I was driving. I got some feedback on the first chapter of my novel that I haven’t posted to this blog. The Instructor thought the writing was excellent, but said that he didn’t feel as interested in two of the characters (Janet and Dana) as he was with Moira. He just sort of wanted more of Moira. I totally obsessed over this. Do I revise and remove Dana and Janet (but I love them)…or do I re-write them to make them more interesting? Do I need them? Are they critical to the story, plot and theme? Am I over thinking the theme? WHY doesn’t he like the other two characters? Would all readers only like her? Obsess, obsess, obsess. That’s what I did for three days.
And then I went onto the writing workshop to view the critiques of my work. One of the other writer’s wrote a very good critique and ended it with “I just LOVE Janet, she’s so quirky and she gets all the best lines”. I laughed out loud…more than a little bit relieved.
No more obsessing. What I really need to do is just write a great story. All the rest will fall into place if I just spend my energy on creating a great story.
By the way, I’m just about finished Motorcycles and Sweetgrass by Drew Hayden and will have a book review up shortly. I’ve hardly been able to put this book down…
