So I had to send the first half of Demon Island to my editor at Bantam Dell, because after I sold the book she asked to take a peek at it when I was halfway done.
*shudder*
I sent it to her, with the caveat that it was first-drafty, i.e. total and utter crap (yeah yeah…my favorite word related to this book). She acknowledged its crappiness in advance and read through it while I hid under my desk. (Where are Shan’s cool emoticons when you need them?)
After a few weeks she called me and we talked about the book. Fortunately the word ‘crap’ never entered the conversation. (Clearly she’s just too nice and professional to use that word when describing my book *g*). Anyway, she gave me some awesome feedback and direction on the book, told me she was sending some notes, so I waited. The next day the mss arrived along with a cover letter and some notes on the mss.
I’ve never done this before…had notes made on a book I haven’t even finished yet. Have I mentioned I haven’t finished writing this book yet? Eeeeek. Screeeching halt, because her feedback meant I had to stop what I was doing, make some major revisions to the front end of the book that affected the back end of the book. I spent last week rewriting, weaving, doing a little more in-depth worldbuilding and basically making my book better. And yes. Oh yes, her comments definitely made the book better.
And guess what? Along the way, I fell madly in love with my story, my characters, the whole damn book. For the first time since I wrote the outline I realized that I am totally, completely crazy in love with my book.
About damn time, too. *g*