Mark and I finished talking about the World of Nightcraft; and then we went through all the characters; and that all went very, happily, productively (if exhaustingly) well.
And then today we started working on the last, simple agenda item: going through his actual marked-up manuscript, so he could explain to me in detail each and every Wrong Thing he noticed there.
(experienced writers are chuckling now, and feeling a little pained…)
Yeah. About halfway through–well, halfway through the manuscript; probably not even a quarter through the comments, because they were heavily weighted towards the end–I said, “I need a break.” And then I realized I was in tears; and then Mark felt awful; and then I had to go do something entirely else for a while; and ultimately, we realized that this approach was Just Not Helpful. I mean, most of this stuff will be moot anyway, now that I’ve got the world-building in much greater order; I will know what’s wrong with these scenes, and how to fix them. So having my nose rubbed in what didn’t work, example after example after example…yeah. Not Helpful.
Unfortunately, he’d already stayed a day or two longer than he’d meant to, so he had to go home this evening; fortunately, I am such a happy introvert, I do really well by myself. Exhausted as I was, I went to yoga class–which was marvelous, just what I needed: something tough and complicated and PHYSICAL to focus on. Perked me right up, actually. Then I came home and made a delicious, weird dinner that nobody but me would have loved. Then I proofread for an hour, because that makes me feel competent. And now I’m going to go to bed and read till I can’t keep my eyes open any longer.
And tomorrow, I’m going to get up and tackle chapter 1 of this manuscript.