Dragonbane

Thursday:

I've managed to keep myself very busy so far since the kids went back to school. Today I did my exercise (30 mins of Fantasia) and prepared healthy food for each meal and snack, but mostly I worked on my novel. While it's certainly not perfect (no such thing) I feel like I am ready for my husband to read it, which is very exciting. No-one else has read it yet! But I've joined a critique group that starts next week, we will all read each other's works, one per month, and comment. So you get feedback from a lot of people. I don't know if I'll go first or not, but if no one else is ready I will. What I would really love is to have my novel polished and ready by April so that when I meet with a lot of publishers at the Aurealis Awards ceremony (I'm a judge) and I casually mention my novel and they say "send it to me" then I can! Depends how much work I need to do after other eyes see it... If there is a consensus that it needs major surgery then maybe I won't be ready by then.

I also need my elevator pitch ready for when people say "so what is it about?" Something like:

Seyune, a young magic-user, has to join forces with the slavers who capture her to defeat a greater foe. A dragon has found a way to drain the life-essence of other creatures to fuel her own magic, and she and her whelp will destroy everyone Seyune loves for their own opposing purposes.

That has the vital information (Fantasy genre, who is the main character, what is the problem she has to overcome, what are the stakes?) but sounds very unnatural when spoken aloud.

I am both very excited and very scared to have other people read it. What if they think it is rubbish and that I've wasted the last year and a half of my life? I can take specific criticism (this bit doesn't work, you need to change this other bit, I didn't understand why this character did this) but not "it's ok, I guess"! Don't crush my dream!

Quick report card:
Water: Excellent (finished three hours before bed-time so we'll see how that goes)
Sleep: Ok. Feeling alert, but not through any action I've taken.
Diet: Great. Right number of calories, right sort of food.
Exercise: Good. Did my 30 mins.
Mental Health: Great. On a bit of a writing high.