I missed two personal deadlines to get a somewhat polished version of my young adult thriller, “The Macklin Powers,” off to early readers. I promised to send it on a Friday. Friday passed with nothing sent. Then a week went by. Then I promised it would arrive on Monday, a day that also came and went. Then Tuesday and Wednesday. Those three days this week, I reread and cleaned up the manuscript. Except for a few social obligations, it’s pretty much all I did. Then Thursday afternoon, I emailed it to two dear readers. Then I slumped on the sofa for a while, took a bath, went out to dinner with friends.
And felt a little like you do when the party is over. Relieved and sad.
This book had a long birth. I started taking notes for it in 2007. I started writing snippets in 2010. Maybe actual chapters began appearing in 2013. I wrote hundreds of news stories during those years, so novel-writing always took a back seat.
A couple of interesting points: As long as a book isn’t finished, its possibilities are all still open. Also, as long as I’m working on it, I don’t have to say goodbye to it.
Along the way I found myself asking: Who is this book for? Am I writing it in such a way that its target audience will want to read it? It’s impossible to know before a book finds readers whether anyone will respond. I learned with this book what should be obvious. I am the first reader. I am writing a story to satisfy me. As I read through this manuscript this week, (making fixes to timeline errors, removing pesky adverbs, swapping in active verbs to replace passive ones), I discovered that I have satisfied the first reader.
When I hear back from my next readers (both skilled storytellers themselves), I expect to make another round of adjustments. And then I will put on my marketing hat.
Meanwhile, I’ve started dating this new sexy young story whose plot I don’t yet know but whose characters are becoming more real every day.
Susan Palmer's Exquisite Now 