So yesterday I received my proof copy of Shadow Cat. I have to say I’m quite pleased with what I’ve accomplished. Dude, I hurt my shoulder trying to pat myself on the back, but that’s another story. Tomorrow I get to give my mother a copy of it. I’m so excited to show her what I’ve done–that writing a novel was more than just wistful thinking. Success or fail, I can’t help but touch the cover and feel a sense of pride. In a few days, SC will be available in print. Woot!
For me, writing is an ongoing learning process. I acquire new writing skills all the time. Not necessarily writing rules, but more on the lines of developing my voice and understanding the flow of words. It’s hard sometimes looking at Shadow Cat and not wanting to make changes. I’m not talking about fixing it for grammatical errors and typos (it should be virtually clean of those ugly buggers). I’m talking about nitpicking things. For example, I wrote: Her body and mind had instinctively gone into defense mode when he’d tried to grab her. Yet I so want to change it to something like: Her body and mind had acted instinctively when he’d tried to grab her.
Little things like that bug me every time I open Shadow Cat and read an excerpt. It’s not that the writing is bad. It’s more that I’ve picked up a few things along the way which I could apply to SC. I wonder if that’s why Johnny Depp never watches his movies when they’re in production.
I’ve already told myself I need to just let Shadow Cat be. Unless someone finds a glaring typo, what is, is what is. 🙂 Perhaps I should stop opening it and just worry about stroking the cover art raw.