Sound familiar?
I just wanted to take a moment and reflect back on this because I have since looked at my half-finished manuscript of my latest project; "Beneath the door" - and thought that this was the most opportune time to go back through all of the chapters I'd written for it and note down it's flaws.
When I'd finished, I was absolutely aghast at the amount of threads I'd pulled from the manuscript and flagged up. Plot holes, bad characterisation, boring mundane scenes and different writing techniques.
Eventually the list ended up as an A4 sheet of paper, but the very last feeling I thought I would feel looking down at this list - was determination.
I want to be able to tell my story and I want the sheer pleasure of seeing it sold in bookshops one day. Looking down at the list of discrepancies, only made me plot out possible solutions and outcomes that I could pull my dead manuscript out of the depths of mundaity and turn in it into a work of art that I could seriously be proud of.
Now because of the little revelation, I have decided to do a little more research, write up a proper bio from start to finish and plan out my story better and more accurately.
All in all, this experience has taught me that self-evaluation is not necessarily a bad thing when it comes to reading back through work - if anything, only yourself can accurately tell whether you are telling the story how you envisioned it being told. At the end of the day, you are the story teller.
- H.
