circling, gathering, getting ready…

I dipped my toe in today.  Pulled up the YA manuscript, started glancing over some of the feedback I’d gotten from the Book Jackets, Bibliophiles and Ravenous Readers book clubs.  I have a pretty clear idea of what I need to do.  I had fun today, immersing myself back in 1974.  I am so grateful to these teens and parents from Christianne’s Lyceum of Literature and Art for all their help and insight.  It’s really nice to be excited about going in.  I’m going to do a little more circling tonight, looking up some more stuff, most of which will never be used.  Then tomorrow I will print up the manuscript, start marking it up with my pen, find the gaps that I need to fill or insert sections into.  And then in a few weeks or months, I’ll start the process of trying to weave it all together and see what happens. 

I’ve gotten some feedback from the couple of people that I run my manuscripts by and they say I’m wrong to give up on The Big Muckle.  They are so ferocious about it.  Sending impassioned emails, phone calls, inspirational stories of writers rejections and triumphs.  It’s very sweet, I feel quite loved, but to be honest, it’s a little confusing as well.  I’m nervous to let anybody else read it in case I embarrass myself further, and yet, unless I get a couple more responses to it, how will I know for certain if it is a piece of cr__ or not? 

Posted by Meg Tilly on Monday, January 28, 2008 in Chewing the Fat