My husband has finished alpha reading The Storyteller. From what he’s said to me (I haven’t read the comments yet) he thinks it’s a good story with all the bones and a lot of the organs it needs.
And I still find myself nervous to get it back and read it, not because I’m worried about anything he has to say about it, but because now I am about to plunge even deeper into unknown territory. I am actually going to take a story and make it readable by people who are not writers.
…
Sorry, I had to take a moment to refocus there. As a writer, of course the end goal is to have people read what I write. But it always felt like it was so …far off. And I suppose it is still far off, as I have revisions and beta reads and, you know, finding an agent, BUT I am closer than I’ve ever been before. And the next step will take me even closer than that.
And I’m scared. And I’m admitting I’m scared. I’m worried that the story isn’t as good as I remember it. I’m worried that there will be a huge plot hole I can’t fix. I’m worried that once I put all this effort into it, people won’t like it. And I’m worried that even if I manage this and it’s a success, that I’ll never be able to write anything as good again.
Oh the doubts of the writer. We’re such silly creatures. Nothing left but to soldier on in the face of all my doubts because the only other option is to give up writing, and I’m not going to do that.
Plan:
First off, I am going to read the alpha read comments from my husband. I will organize these things into three categories:
Major Issues: plot holes/foreshadowing, new scenes to write from scratch
Medium Issues: plot holes within a scene
Minor issues: Flow issues. Description.
Once I have the list of major issues, I will work on going back to fix them. I’m pretty sure most of them just have to do with foreshadowing. I’m hoping none of them are actual serious plot holes.
After that is done, I will do a read-through while smoothing out the plot, and making a new list. Hopefully it will be smaller.
Rinse and repeat until I’ve fixed all the major issues. (And the medium and minor issues should be fixed up along the way.)
I’m hoping by April I can start in on fight scenes, which I am basically leaving alone for now. I’m sure I’ll reevaluate beginning of April as well.
