marfisk | But a Pretty Bauble Edit Update

As a writer, I find myself gaining comfort in the oddest things. Today, I made myself cry. Not outright balling, but a tightened chest and watery eyes as the words on the page twisted my heart.

Now this is a novel I wrote. This is a novel that I know the ending to and already know that it'll come out all right.

So I have to wonder at the words affecting me, and hope that they'll affect all my readers in the same way.

I'm having some difficulty with But a Pretty Bauble. It's the kind of difficulty most writers claim to want with all their hearts, but facing the possibility in reality is nothing to write home about.

I have made some line-level changes, though there are whole pages that are "perfect," and have caught only one continuity error, a minor one. I'm swept up in the story, and this first draft is so far from raw that it's unbelievable.

Which is where I get to the problem. Have I achieved the impossible and produced an almost perfect draft (in comparison at least)? Or am I still, after letting it sit for three years, too close to the story to see the flaws?

When I weep, is it because I know how this should be, or because identifying with Hiba in this moment is impossible to avoid with what I managed to get on the page?

I'm not used to being this confident in a book, and at the same time having so little confidence :). But only time...and critters...will tell.

And stats (Note that I've passed the halfway point :D):

Edited Today: 6,301 words

16 Chapters complete - 59% of the novel

13 Chapters remain

30,773 Remaining word count

44,819 Current Total

77,493 Predicted Total

P.S. One of these years I'll do a complete Coma Wedding update. As it stands, I'm moving forward and nearer to the point where I haven't finished the outline :P.