With A Little Help From My Friends
I have the best friends in the world. No really. I do. I'm so damn lucky.
My best friend of 20 years packed up her family and moved 3 states away from home five years ago when my hubby and I moved. Okay, so it was hubby and best friend that actually wanted to move and talked me and best friend hubby into--but still. Awesome.
I moved away from a state I lived my entire life in--27 years. I keep in touch with about 2 people (thanks to Facebook I am back in touch with many, but it's not the same thing) from my life in South FL (well yeah, it was Boca, which pretty much sums up why).
Fast forward: 5 years in NC. I have zero desire to ever step foot "back home". It took 2 years (not kidding here) to get used to the fact that people were nice. I mean really nice. Like strangers saying hi as they pass in the grocery isle nice. As opposed to, you know, how dare you walk within 3 feet of my majestic Boca-like prescence--who knows, maybe they weren't as narcissistic as I thought, possibly they were just afraid that some of their well paid for plastic parts would become contaminated by human interaction. (The Beautiful People, indeed, Brian.)
Where was I. Oh right. My friends. And how freaking awesome they are.
I, cooincidentally (I swear, L!), moved within 15 miles from an online friend. Someone I had really connected with. The connection didn't end online, we really clicked IRL, too. She introduced me to 2 other friends. Fast forward a little more and a couple more came into the picture. Now, we all have twins--which is what drew us together in the first place, but it's not what holds us together. We actually like each other. Sure, we all have our quirks and differences. But, with each one, I can find something major in common; we have fun, we are real. And, more than that, I really like them, love them, adore them. And I am eternally thankful for them.
And their help with my writing. Not only their help, but their patience with my obsessing over the writing.
Okay, we're moving right along (yes, I'm always this longwinded and incoherent).
I have been excessively obsessing over my first chapter. It's okay. There's nothing fundamentally wrong. But there's something missing. A fellow critter at B&W gave a great critique and hit on part of it. But, I was still having trouble really getting it fixed. So, off went an (yet another) attachment to my 5 Musketeers (and my awesome Read Test Dummy, Heather). Hubby of one of the Musketeers volunteered to read it and I said: Yes! Please! Help Me!
And help me he did. Wow. He didn't say this is what's wrong, or I don't like this, or that's good. He went through line by line just offering a comment here and a comment there: hey, I got why x was doing y. Okay, this is what I got from this. Well, I see why she's saying that, but I need to know why he's over there, etc, etc.
And there it was. BAM! The missing thing. The proverbial nail on the head. *smacking head a la I should've had a V8*
So, anyway, thank you Mark. You Rock. And, seriously, you should give up your day job and become an editor.
.
My best friend of 20 years packed up her family and moved 3 states away from home five years ago when my hubby and I moved. Okay, so it was hubby and best friend that actually wanted to move and talked me and best friend hubby into--but still. Awesome.
I moved away from a state I lived my entire life in--27 years. I keep in touch with about 2 people (thanks to Facebook I am back in touch with many, but it's not the same thing) from my life in South FL (well yeah, it was Boca, which pretty much sums up why).
Fast forward: 5 years in NC. I have zero desire to ever step foot "back home". It took 2 years (not kidding here) to get used to the fact that people were nice. I mean really nice. Like strangers saying hi as they pass in the grocery isle nice. As opposed to, you know, how dare you walk within 3 feet of my majestic Boca-like prescence--who knows, maybe they weren't as narcissistic as I thought, possibly they were just afraid that some of their well paid for plastic parts would become contaminated by human interaction. (The Beautiful People, indeed, Brian.)
Where was I. Oh right. My friends. And how freaking awesome they are.
I, cooincidentally (I swear, L!), moved within 15 miles from an online friend. Someone I had really connected with. The connection didn't end online, we really clicked IRL, too. She introduced me to 2 other friends. Fast forward a little more and a couple more came into the picture. Now, we all have twins--which is what drew us together in the first place, but it's not what holds us together. We actually like each other. Sure, we all have our quirks and differences. But, with each one, I can find something major in common; we have fun, we are real. And, more than that, I really like them, love them, adore them. And I am eternally thankful for them.
And their help with my writing. Not only their help, but their patience with my obsessing over the writing.
Okay, we're moving right along (yes, I'm always this longwinded and incoherent).
I have been excessively obsessing over my first chapter. It's okay. There's nothing fundamentally wrong. But there's something missing. A fellow critter at B&W gave a great critique and hit on part of it. But, I was still having trouble really getting it fixed. So, off went an (yet another) attachment to my 5 Musketeers (and my awesome Read Test Dummy, Heather). Hubby of one of the Musketeers volunteered to read it and I said: Yes! Please! Help Me!
And help me he did. Wow. He didn't say this is what's wrong, or I don't like this, or that's good. He went through line by line just offering a comment here and a comment there: hey, I got why x was doing y. Okay, this is what I got from this. Well, I see why she's saying that, but I need to know why he's over there, etc, etc.
And there it was. BAM! The missing thing. The proverbial nail on the head. *smacking head a la I should've had a V8*
So, anyway, thank you Mark. You Rock. And, seriously, you should give up your day job and become an editor.
.
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