Writer Readers and Reader Readers

As expected, things are finally beginning to click on the new book. Having writing time and being hot to write the darned thing help. I'm not saying that I am still not very much in the first draft stage. I am laying pipe. BUT, I am beginning to see the story that this can be under there, and that makes me excited.

One of the things I've been thinking about recently is recapturing the feel of the original stories, that Shirley Jackson/ Edward Gorey kind of vibe. I'm not there, and that will take an overlay. But after thinking about it, I've decided to pull a Patrick Rothfuss. I'm expanding my pool of reader readers.

What I understand from Rothfuss at a convention is that there are two types of readers that can help you out. There are writer readers, where your writing peers give you advice and suggestions on how to improve the craft of the book. And there are reader readers, who are looking at the book experimentially. It is awfully hard for a writer reader to be a reader reader. Heck, even with books I like and can escape into, I'm looking at them with my writer brain. If you don't believe me, see yesterday's post.

With this in mind, then, I actively solicited some very good readers from a few years ago when I began posting thinly disguised Klarion fiction on a sight that welcomed fan fiction. And they've agreed. So, that brings my pool of reader readers to five. If Mark is still in, I suspect six. I want to test drive this story to see if it's a train that they can't get off.

My plan at the moment is to finish up the first part and leave it rough, and then write as far as I can based on the fallout of the first quarter. When I run out of momentum there, I will pen the ending. Then I will look at the tent poles I plan to have in the books, and write the rest of the scenes accordingly. I will be revising the manuscript after that, deeply and thoroughly. That is the revision I will begin sharing with my readers.

Once more I am engaged with process and the spirit of the book. Whether published or no, this I believe increasingly matters to the exclusion of all else. I don't know if I'll be lucky enough to get published or not, but I am determined that this will not be my fault if that is the case.

All right. The day job beckons.

Mirrored from Writer Tamago.