It has been a busy couple of weeks for me. I’m in the final few weeks of my living psychology module and that will be one and half years worth of my degree completed. It has been hard managing my time, especially as my last couple of assignments have been due at similar times as the deadlines for my manuscript. But I do enjoy more course. It is fascinating studying the inner workings of people and parts of it do overflow into my writing, making my characters crazier but more real. In addition, for some unknown reason I decided to reorganise my desk which just made it more of a mess when I realised it was a much bigger job than I had anticipated. So here is a pic of my messy desk with the cat who thinks she is the writer and I am her pet.
This week I have been implementing more edits, while being watched by two cats and a baby. What they don’t tell you is that typing ‘the end’ is not the end. Yes it is a big step and you should celebrate it, but then the real work begins. That wonderful story you think you have written is actually complete rubbish and editing is when it becomes something more substantial. My manuscript has gone through lots of rounds of edits. Last week I got feedback from my beta readers. Receiving criticism wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be but that was because it wasn’t really criticism, it was helpful advice on ways they thought the story could be made stronger. Yes it would have been nice if they all came back and said Crystal Heart was fantastic and absolutely perfect bit ultimately that wouldn’t be helpful. While they said they enjoyed to book they did pick up on a few points of improvement. This is helpful as I want it to be published in the best form possible. So I have edited again and now it is time to submit t to my publisher. Which again is another scary step. Most of the steps in writing are scary. My manuscript has become almost like a child to me. I love all my characters and hold them dear. I do not want them ripped apart in the big scary world, but at the same time I want their story to be read. So I just have to take a leap of faith and throw them out there and harden myself for people not to love them but I may also just find that there are those that will love them just as much as I do. Those will be my people as you can’t please everyone.
So this is me taking a leap of faith about to submit my manuscript to be critiqued by my publisher.
W.R.L Morris-Author 