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Howdy, all. I can hardly believe it's Tuesday again already. For some reason, the week went by faster than I realised. I have precious little to report, just more editing. I am making progress, even if it has been very slow. But that's okay. Any progress is good progress.

Hope everyone's had a good week.

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Hi everyone!

Sorry I've been absent for a while, editing, editing and more editing and now I'm feeling completely lost as I've had more reviews in that totally go against what Jenny (retired lit. agent) has said!  I'm feeling more than a little frustrated and stumped.   With this being the first novel that I've wrote I'm really striving to get it up to standard as far as I can before putting it out there, but now I feel like I'm just dancing to everyone else's tune before I even get a publisher who's interested and then dance to theirs!  Boo-hoo, what to do?  Any advice, guys!

Hope you're all having a glorious week writing, and I hope I'm feeling happier next week, I'm sure I will be, I'm just feeling overwhelmed I think.

Claire x

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Claire - it's important that you take control and remind yourself that this is your book. The buck stops with you....not your agent, not your editor, not your draft readers or even the publisher. It's your novel and must reflect your story alone. Advice is all well and good but if you end up listening to everyone you please no one. Another reason why I refuse to edit, and edit and edit and edit before I go to a publisher. At some point you must stop, decide precisely on what your story looks like and then satisfied that this is the way it looks, you should give it a whirl with a publisher. If you're not using an agent, then straight to the publishing house or straight off to the agent of your choice to present to the publishing houses. And another good idea is to put it away for a while and forget about it for a few weeks. Work on something else. if you can stand to take distance of about six weeks, you'll be surprised at how you look it the next time you see it. There will be a genuine sense of clarity and you'll be able to see plenty of what you could not see previously. I know how hard this is the first time...even the second and third time. I've been there and I've had the same experience of feeling like I'm trying to please everyone. But if you read the other messages in other forums you'll see that as much as people enjoy my work, they don't necessarily agree with how I see the story unfolding. Everyone's got their own idea of how it could go or should go. I cannot please the entire readership. So I try and please myself and hope that the majority get pleasure from most of it. This book is your creation so make your own decisions. It's good to listen to advice but that's all it is....advice, guidance, ideas....and usually the perspective of one person. We all have our own perspectives. You have yours. Take on whatever resonates with you as being the right path and everything else is food for thought but not necessarily the right way to go for your story. Good luck. I've had a madly busy week. I'm currently working on an edit for The Whisperer. I plan to start Valisar 2 on July 1. Cheers, F

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Hi Claire. No doubt Fiona said it best and I'd just be echoing. My usual mantra when it comes to feedback: Guide, not gospel. That's my approach but I'm notoriously stubborn.

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Hi all

One day below my weekly word count, but not too bad. 

Claire, I think you've already had some great advice and I don't have anything new to add, other than keep your chin up - you'll get through it.

Will see you again next Tues.

Mdx

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Clairea, Fiona gave some sound advice there... If one person at least has said its great and you trust them like this lady in England with experiance. Than go for it, why not start the process of getting it published. It sounds like you have done all you can do to make it the story that you want it to be, besides from what Fiona has indicated, the editor will tell you whats needed to get it published despite what other people might say about it. Good Luck!

I did more world building this week. The story is dis jointed a bit, but still progess. I know when I'm up to reading over it again in full those parts will become clearer... see you all next week.

-------

"I don't have your eyes...but I have your way of looking at things..."

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Hey all, i'm new around here
I was starting to write a story with what i think is a semi-decent plot, but unfortunatly i have hit a bump. When i write i am as most people i imagine are: very self critical from the off. I scan everything once just to make sure its ok. But recently nothing seems to be remotley right. It has gotten to the point where i can't write anything. It sort of seems like writers block, but then again there are some people who say that it doesn't really exist. Any help would be hugely appreciated! Thanks again, and i look forward to participating again in your tuesday meets in the future.

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Hello again Suigetsu You are most welcome here among the writers' group. They're a very supportive bunch. I'm unfortunately one of those who subscribe to the "writer's block doesn't exist' theory but I use it as a defence mechanism to prevent myself from being allowed any excuse not to write. There are so many reasons why new writers hit a wall. Probably the most common is self doubt. And when you doubt yourself as a writer, you tend to become hugely critical of your own work, not allowing yourself to believe that it could possibly interest an editor and then thoughts of "how dare you think you could put your book up alongside all those amazing fantasy writers on the international bookshelves." I had this demon singing to me constantly through my first couple of books. But I got over it through developing a sort of quiet arrogance. You have to. If you sometimes meet a writer and think, blimey, he/she's a bit up themselves, just allow that beneath the facade is a cringing, critical, self-doubting writer lurking, who needs to pull on some armour to face audiences, who can be incredibly savage - particularly via the internet. The main thing for you is to let go of your anxiety and just allow yourself to write. don't read it back, don't edit. Push forward. No one is looking at it at this stage so you've no one to be scared of. Just write. Forget about what you've written each previous day and just write today's words. Set a word count or a time period aside and meet that goal each day. Resist the temptation to read over, edit, tinker. Resist! When you've got to 100,000 words, I'll let you take a look at it . You'll be quite amazed at what you've achieved....I promise. Good luck. And rainy days are the BEST writing days. Happy writing. F

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Thanks everyone for you encouragement, and to you Fiona for your words of wisdom.  I am feeling a lot better about it all, I think I was just losing my story trying to do the right thing for everyone, and like you said Fiona, the right thing for me may not necessarily be the right thing for someone else.  I am going to finish what I started, and send it off, then start something else.  That gives me around 12 weeks before I get any sort of reply, yay or nay from the publishers.  I'll look at it again after that.

Everyone else seems to be cruising along nicely, happy writing all.

Claire x