Drive by writing update
The husband finally got around to beta-ing the first few chapters of my Nemesis rewrite this weekend.
Sometimes it pays to have an English teacher, who is also a writer himself, as a husband/first reader. I mean, sure, I'm an English major. I write. I read. But he makes his living teaching stories to a bunch of recalcitrant high schoolers. And it isn't his story, so he can look at it from an objective position.
His thoughts had good news/bad news:
Him: "This is a real book. A real story. I can see this being published. It's about a hundred times better than the old version. I would tweak [this here], but this is really good."
Me: YAY!!
Him: "You know you're writing xyz story, right?"
Me: "...um. I am." (Sure, I knew that!)
Him: "Yeah, that means you have to keep [this] and [this] in mind when you're doing the rest of it. Cause a savvy reader, or even a not-so-savvy one, is going to expect this arc to take place. You can do all sorts of deviations and play as much as you want as LONG AS xyz happens."
ME: "Right. I totally knew that." (And I did, subconsciously. It was like "well, duh, of course I am!")
Him, a little cautiously: "You do know you're rewriting the entire book, right?"
Me: "Well, sort of. I mean yes, I'm rewriting/revising the entire thing, but some things will be the same, like [important key events]."
Him: "Yes, but I bet even when you get to [important key events], you'll find you have to change how you present them because of xyz."
Me: *stares at him* "Would you just be quiet and let me live in my delusional little world for awhile longer, wherein I'm not rewriting all 96,000 words from scratch??"
Him: "Okay. But you're going to have to."
Me: Shush!
Sometimes it pays to have an English teacher, who is also a writer himself, as a husband/first reader. I mean, sure, I'm an English major. I write. I read. But he makes his living teaching stories to a bunch of recalcitrant high schoolers. And it isn't his story, so he can look at it from an objective position.
His thoughts had good news/bad news:
Him: "This is a real book. A real story. I can see this being published. It's about a hundred times better than the old version. I would tweak [this here], but this is really good."
Me: YAY!!
Him: "You know you're writing xyz story, right?"
Me: "...um. I am." (Sure, I knew that!)
Him: "Yeah, that means you have to keep [this] and [this] in mind when you're doing the rest of it. Cause a savvy reader, or even a not-so-savvy one, is going to expect this arc to take place. You can do all sorts of deviations and play as much as you want as LONG AS xyz happens."
ME: "Right. I totally knew that." (And I did, subconsciously. It was like "well, duh, of course I am!")
Him, a little cautiously: "You do know you're rewriting the entire book, right?"
Me: "Well, sort of. I mean yes, I'm rewriting/revising the entire thing, but some things will be the same, like [important key events]."
Him: "Yes, but I bet even when you get to [important key events], you'll find you have to change how you present them because of xyz."
Me: *stares at him* "Would you just be quiet and let me live in my delusional little world for awhile longer, wherein I'm not rewriting all 96,000 words from scratch??"
Him: "Okay. But you're going to have to."
Me: Shush!