Worthwhile Endeavors Take Time

I spent this past weekend at a girlfriends getaway in a lovely mountain cabin. We all used to work together and have been friends for many years. There's nothing quite like close friends with whom you've shared many ups and downs of your life and of theirs, and who can gather around the fire and pick up on any conversation because you know each other so well. Years of experience has its advantages, both in friendships and in writing. I cringe sometimes when I go back and read some of my very early work. They're two dimensional, like factual accounts of a kid's story rather than the subtlety it takes to make the reader feel like they're actually living the story along with the protagonist. Furthermore, they lack the emotional depth needed to make the reader care about what happens to the characters in the story. To achieve these essential elements takes hours upon hours of reading and writing for children. That's not really surprising. Anything worth doing well requires that kind of stick-to-it-ness, that kind of dedication. You have to love it, and I do. I'm on my fifth year of writing and revising my tween novel, SEASHELL SECRETS. I'm almost finished with what will hopefully be my last revision, which was quite extensive despite the fact that it won first place in the children's category at last years Pikes Peak Writers Paul Gillette Contest. Even after all these years and all this work, I still love the story, in fact, even more now. It remains to be seen whether a publisher will love it, too.