The First

The pressure is on. A first post on the new blog. Should I be sincere? Funny? Informative?

"The First" is always special and unforgettable, right? Not always. Sometimes The First is painful, embarrassing or messy.

Maybe I should just get the damn thing over with and quit obsessing. Sounds good.

MMG, as it's known to The Group, is my first mainstream women's fiction novel. I completed the first revision last week and came to a stunning conclusion: it sucks. How tough is it to sweat for longer than I care to record here just to get to the suck? Pretty tough.

Here's where having a great support group of fellow writers is key. They rallied round and talked me off the ledge.

"Step away from the manuscript."

I heard that several times over the course of two days. And I took their advice. Most of them had the first 141 pages. Jenny stepped up and asked for the whole thing--bless her. She's looking it over and will let me know if there's any life left in it or if it should be put of its, and my, misery.

In the meantime, I've caught up on a few tasks that have been let slide during the revision process. Next is to pick out which idea should be the next novel and start.

And resist the urge to bug Jenny. "So, how do you like it so far?"