Great Writing!

I hadn't bothered to re-read what I'd done during my last three writing sessions, which is unusual for me. I tend to agonize over every paragraph; tweak the sentence structure or substitute new words. It's no wonder I never get much done.

Whether it was apathy or dread, instead of going back over my previous work, I just picked up where I left off and kept going.

Yesterday I finally took a look and I was amazed. It's good! I had to read it three times to convince myself I wasn't seeing things. Perhaps because it was all new to me, I was able to read it as a "reader", and in fact I couldn't wait to find out what happened next. I really don't know how I achieved that. That's not like me. My writing is serviceable; it gets the point across, but I wouldn't call it exciting or surprising. Yet this time it was.

And guess what ~ all that dialogue works. 

I made a few minor changes ~ rearranged a sentence or two, clarified who was speaking in a couple of places ~ but overall, I really loved it. What struck me about it was that it had heart. That might be because the main character finally got that attitude adjustment she sorely needed. Instead of continuing to feel sorry for herself, she put one shaky foot in front of the other and faced down her fears.

Maybe as writers we worry too much about the mechanics. Or getting sequences right. I'm notorious for doing the "what comes next?" exercise, instead of displaying a character's emotions. Okay, she just got done doing this. Now what should she do? I need to be asking, What is she feeling?

The thing that's bothered me about this story, a kind of nagging brain itch, is the MC's personality or lack of it. Yes, lots of things happen to her, but rarely has she shown much reaction to those things, other than annoyance, which only happens inside her head and is never verbalized. Even the couple of times she's gotten angry, it was a controlled anger, like when she handed over the bus tickets to the two people in her entourage she needed to be rid of. Sure, she admitted (to herself) that when her manager started crying, she wanted to cry, too, but she didn't. It would have been more interesting if she actually did. (I think I'll go back and change that scene.) I'd like my main character a lot more if I humanized her.

I suppose the reason I liked my most recent output so much is that my MC finally felt like a real person. Better late than never, I suppose. Things can always be tweaked. 

Nevertheless, I'm quite proud of myself, and that's rare. I'm going to savor that feeling.