So, I showed up to Sanderson’s class yesterday, and before the class started he turned to me and said “would you mind if I critiqued your submission this week in front of the class?”
I was kind of surprised! He was with our writing group this week (the class is divided into six or seven small writing groups) and I had submitted the first 2.7k words from The Lost Colony. I’d written that section way back in August, before I’d really gotten to know the characters all that well. I’d edited it a little before I submitted it, but it still felt a bit unfinished.
I told him it was ok as long as he kept my identity anonymous, but Cavan and all the other wonderful guys in my writing group guessed it was me first…yeah. And I’m a horrible liar, so I wasn’t able to cover it up.
I was a little bit nervous as Brandon went through and said “this is good, this is a little too wordy, this part contradicts this part,” etc. But overall, it was actually really cool and helpful! He actually said it was kind of decent, and that most of the mistakes were the same kinds of mistakes he makes in his rough drafts!
There were a few other flaws that did need some deeper work–introducing conflict earlier, making the perspective closer to the characters, and giving more detailed visual descriptions of the world and the characters, but overall I came away saying “holy cow, I really want to write now!”
And then I went home and spent the rest of the night chained to the apartment computer, writing a monster of a poli sci paper. Ugh!
I did get in a little bit of writing in my story, but it was VERY very little–I think just a sentence, right before I got my laundry and passed out on my bed. Man! It’s frustrating!
But yeah, it was really cool that Brandon critiqued my stuff in front of the class. And actually, it was really helpful for everyone else too. He then brought up something to make us feel a bit better–a self-published fantasy novel that even he couldn’t save. Something about Al, the flexible hero, fighting a sword wielding shadow named Draco from the land of Zorax. It was…pretty bad. And it helped out our self-esteems quite a bit.
Man, only 30 days before my deadline for this novel! I’ve got to finish it! Urgh!
