Yes, Mel, this is for you.
Sometimes, you write and write on something, and it just doesn’t feel quite right.
And you ask people to read it.
People you trust.
And if they’re really close to you and don’t want to hurt your feelings, they’ll tell you it’s ‘fine.’
I hate that word. “Fine.” What the hell does “Fine” mean?
To me it means “Your writing is dreck but I know you’re teetering on the edge of blowing a major stress gasket so if I tell you what you’ve spent 3 weeks writing sucks the big one you’ll throw an aneuyrsm, so I’m going to use ‘fine’.”
Don’t ever tell me something I wrote is ‘fine. (Yes, Charlie, I’m talking to you *g*)
Anyway, was working on this new book. Now I like these characters, even though they spent the better part of 3 weeks beating the living hell out of each other. Still, something didn’t gel with this book and I couldn’t put my finger on it. Maybe it was my new migraine medication. *g*
So I sent it out to a few people to read, including hubby, the red pen slasher man, who, admittedly, was a bit busy and pronounced it ‘fine. No comment there.
Then along comes Mel, who input a few of her glorious suggestions, inserted some flowing prose, and basically showed me that what I had written was pure and utter….
C-R-A-P
Thank you, Mel. Not many people will tell you what you write is crap. I will forever love the person who has the guts to tell me it’s crap. And yes, it’s crap. I love that word. No, she didn’t come right out and tell me it was crap cuz that’s not her style. But she showed me where it sucked. And believe me, it sucks.
And now my muse is in Fiji.
Bitch.