“The author can rightly be proud of herself for creating a novel with such a complex and ambitious plot. It takes enormous discipline and courage to write a romantic saga of 144 000 words. It is clear that she knows the genre well and understand the basic elements needed to engage readers from beginning to end. There are however various aspects of the text that can be improved. The rest of this report will be used to point them out and make suggestions on how to address these problems, so the author can strengthen her novel and refine her craft.”
It took me a few days to fully digest the 10-page report I received.
It was good …
… and not so good.
The good being I have the basic understanding of the genre and the tenacity to see the project through to the end. The bad being I lack the technical know-how of a skilled author.
At first, I was on cloud nine.
Yes! I’ve done it.
The editor could see my potential, my passion for telling the stories bursting to come out. And then, me being me, I got mired in the negative. I mean, who am I to even assume I could become a published author. I gloomed around for a few days, despite the encouragement from my family. They thought it a wonderful review, overall very positive, which it was — is!
BUT
It takes years to hone technical skills and I don’t have years to play around with — 2019 is my time to get published!
After much inner debate, I decided to set aside the revision (for now) and concentrate on completing the first draft of my second novel.