I sent the end of Book 1 to my in-person critique group yesterday. I expect there will be some adjusting necessary, though I am interested to see how they feel about the ending as they’ve read the whole book, whereas the online group was more inconsistent, with some people missing large swathes of it.
(On the submission material front, I re-read the book, taking notes on the first quarter or so to use in the query. I’m finding the actual writing of the query letter to be very intimidating, which is frustrating. And I still haven’t figured out how to even start looking for comps. A problem for next week, though.)
I’ve found myself, over the last week or so, starting to think about Book 2. Books 2 and 3 are drafted, though they will need to be adjusted at some point to match the changes I’ve made in Book 1 over the last few drafts. Part of me would like very much to jump right into doing that–I’ve got some really good ideas for changes to Book 2–but logically I know that I’ve got to get Book 1 completely finalized and ready to go out, and that it doesn’t make sense to spend a lot of time on Books 2 and 3 until, hopefully, Book 1 sells.
But, man, the urge. The urge, squiders.
I’m indulging a bit. Daydreaming. Writing down some thoughts so I don’t lose them. I may reread both drafts for my own entertainment. Might do some character sketches, or play on avatar makers (though finding ones that do green skin is always a bit of a challenge).
Hopefully that will be enough, for now, to squash the urge to poke any further.
Probably part of it is subconscious avoidance of query writing and that jazz. Just got to make sure I stay focused.
Any thoughts, squiders, on focusing on tasks even if they seem intimidating or scary? Thoughts on how to find decent comps?
