Testing the water.

Being an author is like sitting in an ivory tower. You scribble away, never quite sure whether what you are producing is viable, or even if it makes sense. Which is why when someone at the writers' group that I attend in Hereford suggested we have a workshop to critique each others WIP, I jumped at the chance. I've done it before, but not for a while. It is a supportive atmosphere, the object is constructive criticism, with a bit of encouragement thrown in, so a good place to launch your duckling on an unsuspecting world to find out if you have a potential swan - or just a duckling with delusions of grandeur. 

There were 8 of us, everyone puts in 10 pages, anonymously, we hire a room and take the day to work through them, with lunch in the middle. Apart from the day itself, the first scary thing was seeing the other submissions. All very different, all scary good. It was at this point I began to get Imposter Syndrome in a big way!

As it was an early start and I wanted to be on the ball as my 10 pages were first on the list. I had a very nice night in the Green Dragon Hotel in the town centre. It made a real difference, as my journey time is two hours on the train, with a very early walk to the station. Fine for a social event and catch up with friends - not so good if you will be spending the day working. with an earlier start than usual to get everything in. 

And it was worth it. 

As I have said before, I am returning to the style I had when I first got published, a rather more gritty romantic suspense. I was particularly wondering about my first line and whether I had managed to get the hero right - I wanted mystery and an edge of danger. Turns out things were OK. I got some really good feedback about the whole thing, the things people wanted to see about my heroine and pointers on the setting. We had an entertaining discussion on whether seagulls fly in the dark. (They do, I have them nesting on my neighbours' roofs, but I probably need to have another look at that.) It has given me confidence to keep going, and we are doing it all again in October, so I can have another go with another bit. It was really good to look at everyone else's work too, read some really great stories and help other authors in the way they had helped me. And a lot of fun finding out if your guesses of who had written what were right. 

All in all a tiring and intensive but worthwhile day.

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