I went to the first critique group meeting in months, yesterday, for Vision writers, a group founded by successful Brisbane writers. And someone said that they enjoyed this draft better than the last. Which isn’t even remotely correct because I’m 100% certain – okay, 99% certain – this was A) the first draft and B) I haven’t submitted it before. I may have submitted an earlier version of the prologue, 3 years ago, but this one was rewritten from scratch, and after Children of Fire in its current (and likely one draft from final) form.
So this tells me that, unless I have submitted part of it before, my first draft reads like a second draft.
It’s validating to have someone suggest I’ve reached a point where I’m competent as a writer. I have had some elderly people compare my random journal-post samples as far higher quality than anything teenagers on the internet churn out… but that’s not really saying a lot, considering most of that is bilge from what I’ve read (except that from a certain 10 year old I read once… holy crap was that kid good! Look out for someone named Trevor something making news as an accomplished author before finishing school).
Am I a proud person? Or am I humble? Or am I ‘bipolar’ in that I can swing from one to the other depending on context, mood, or whatever? Or maybe I’m just True Neutral in the sliding scale of humble/proud? Just one of those things that one needs to be able to answer about themselves sooner or later, I guess.
