Oh my, but my keyboard has been smokin’ the last few days. Pressure, pressure to produce.
Several months ago, I signed up for a weekend intensive Master Class with Barbara Kyle. Paid for it right away lest I get cold feet and decide to do something else like weed the flower beds. Bobby Rotenberg recommends it and he’s a successful author. Learn from the best, right?
I had to send her the first 10 pages of my novel which she said she “read with interest”. That’s one of those turns of phrases you use when you don’t really know what to say, good or bad. I get that. The thing is, those pages have been relegated to the ‘Delete Now for Later’ file. I’m feverishly trying to put together a new opening – 30 pages that make sense. Good thing that deadlines inspire me.
Now I’ve started receiving sets of 30 pages from my fellow class participants – there’ll be 10 of us in all so I’ll have a lot of reading to do if I’m to make a meaningful contribution to the discussions. In a message I got from Barbara just now, she said that the class is an “intriguingly eclectic group”. Hmmm.
Her instructions are:
Before the Master Class starts on September 20th print all the partials that are emailed to you and read them. (It’s a lot of printing, I know; sadly, some trees must die for us to improve our craft.) Give each one a careful, close reading. Then, bring them to the class.
The focus of the Master Class is workshopping your partials in an open discussion. But feel free to write your comments on the hardcopy of the other partials if you wish and give them to your fellow writers during the class. In previous Master Classes some have found such written comments helpful. Please note, though, that written notes are not required.
Concurrently, I’m working with a mentor, Sam Hiyate, to ready my novel for publication. As a result, I’ve chopped off the first 1/4 and have had to insert a lot more drama and danger. All of which means that I am rewriting like mad for Barbara even as I try to update the Outline for him to review ASAP. But I’m motivated…really motivated.
It’s one thing for one person – Sam, whom I know and trust – to read and slice-and-dice my work. It’s totally another ballgame to have 10 people I don’t know (8 women and 2 men) read and critique my work. I have no problem with critiques except if I think they are way off base, they’re not being helpful or don’t ‘get it’. These folks don’t know me; they may hate the genre or that my characters drop the ‘F” bomb (because that’s what most people do from time to time). My protagonist is a 42 year old woman and she and her 50 year old boss develop a hot grownup sexual relationship. That’s real life as well. [sigh].
So I’m putting myself out there – as if blogging and posting every single day this year so far hasn’t been ‘out there’. No “F” bombs, no hair pulling, no attacks of the vapours (as if…). Just sweating it out over a keyboard to get my ideas onto the page.
Hey, I can take it. I’m ready. Is this is a test? This is not a test. This is real. And, like a dose of castor oil, it will feel very good when it’s done.
