Criticism!!!!!

For those of you who don't know, my dad got an English degree before he went to law school and he had a book published before I was born. (It's called The Garcia File if any of you are curious.) He's a pretty good writer. And he's a very good editor.

When I showed him the first novel-length story I finished (when I was twelve) he covered that first page in red ink and said when he was done, that page would turn into six pages.

Being a twelve year old, I was not prepared for that much criticism. It's not that the story wasn't deserving of criticism but budding/aspiring writers need encouragement in the beginning more than criticism. 

Gradually, that shifts to more criticism, less encouragement. (Side note: I mean HELPFUL criticism. Not just criticism to be mean.)

Now, you might be wondering why, if my dad is such a good editor, he has only now finished a book I finished two years ago.

Well, there are two reasons.

Number one, my dad proved completely incapable of finishing any story I gave him. I blame this almost entirely on his golf addiction when I was in high school.

Two, he remembered how twelve-year-old me reacted to criticism and so didn't think I wanted him to read my book.

But I want criticism. I want someone to help me figure out how to make it better because I want this book published. I want to walk into a book store and see it on the shelves next to the books written by my favorite authors. To get there, I need someone to tell me where my writing is just plain bad.

Which, of course, my dad is more than happy to do.

And I am so grateful. He gave me a few very specific things to work on (and he's absolutely right about what I need to work on) but in addition to that, he told me something I didn't expect.

He said that parts of it were really well written and well done.

*cue wide eyed gaping in shock*

My dad is not someone who gives out compliments lightly and YA fantasy where the two main characters are teenage girls is not my dad's favorite genre. But he liked it!

He. Liked. It.

Well, parts of it, but let's not get caught up in the details. And the parts he think need the most work are the same parts that make me want to binge watch all of the Disney movies to avoid them.

Meaning, yes they definitely need work.

So, I have a brand new opening scene for the first book (which may revert to being untitled because we both agree Black & Gold might not be the best title but we'll see because titles are the bane of my existence.) I showed it to my dad and, being my dad and not my mom, he told me that it was better but it still needs to be distilled.

And me, being me and not my father, told him that I was, of course, shocked to learn that my first attempt at a scene did NOT produce pure gold worthy of Hemingway (Dad's hero, not mine. That man was an arrogant prick.) I was also being sarcastic, if you couldn't get that.

But I'll take it. Opening lines are incredibly difficult and if I've made it even three steps in the right direction, I'm excited. You only get one opening line so if I'm going to obsess about a single sentence, it should be that one.

Well, that one, and the closing line of Sky & Steel (which is a title I do like and will not change because god-dammit, I know that's the title I want!)

Since I've now used two exclamation points, I'm going to wrap this up and go back to obsessing about how to redo Elana's introduction scene.

Woohoo!

Okay. Stopping now. I mean it. Not going on the Internet to look at clothes.