Tonight a friend and I went to a coffee house and shared our novels in progress. This is the first time I've shared my book with anyone outside my immediate family, and it helped reaffirm that my greatly revised beginning is far better than how my novel had originally begun. In fact, in discussing our books further after we shared about 15 pages, I decided to expose my original opening, which I had on my computer. He plodded through the breakfast scene -- understanding a couple references that are otherwise simply images in what I have now (though images with a purpose, of course) -- and soon discovered that I had been long on detail and short on story or pace.
He and I will meet again to do this exercise, and we both expect to present improved versions of our stories (my friend has a tawdry, intimate relationship with adverbs), and it may even expand by two or three other writers. But I came away from this meeting with renewed faith in my story and myself. For other writers out there, I recommend sharing your work when you're ready. And be prepared for honest, sometimes sharp critiques. What doesn't kill you makes you a better writer.
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