Well, after getting the boom lowered on me yesterday, I kind of walked around in a haze for a while. Then I did what any great writer does.
I took a nap.
Amazing how much better things look after a nap.
Of course, I couldnt think too much about the Nathaniel manuscript (BTW, everyone told me to change the title) because I had a public reading that night. Yikes!
Thats right, I had previously signed up for a reading. Why? I have no idea.
So Bev and Eileen let me test on them a couple of times. Of course, the challenge was that once I sat down to edit my 1000 words for my reading, all I saw were all the faults in my writing that Rob had noticed. I was gunshy (word-shy?). Anyways, I spent the next four hours preparing this very small passage.
It was funny, because everyone who came up to me before the reading, asked if I was ready. I said I was nervous and everyone said dont worry. It doesnt matter if your work has those errors because everything you write is as entertaining as hell. Wow, those were good compliments. It was kind of funny, because people from my group started coming up and saying that they never saw what Rob did. Still, Im not discounting what Rob says. I think its extremely valid and is going to be the final key in publishing.
The one thing Ive gained from this is two things:
– my stuff is very entertaining (which is awesome!!!).
– my stuff isnt edited very well
If it were the other way around, my career would be over.
Anyways, back to my reading.
I followed two AMAZING readers who were veterans (and published writers). Then there was me. Its not formatted very well (I was too lazy to do it for the web) but its there.
The response was amazing. I have to say, I nailed it. I made a wise-ass remark when I first got up there, got everyone laughing, then went into my story.
Now, I know this crowd was receptive (theyre all writers, editors, whatever) but I still thought it was very cool.
Many people (whom I didnt even know) came up asking me questions about the passage (who is Josh, what about the Police, where did she get the car). So very interesting.
Today has been a good day
You are right. You nailed it! It was an honour to help you practice.