Critique Day

I spent a few hours with my writing partner today! She lost her beloved mother two weeks ago and has been tangled up in family situations. I've missed her smile, her spark and her kind words. I've missed the gentle shove she gives me to keep me on track and writing. I've missed her sparkly eyes.

Today we had a warm hug, hibiscuses*, and salads at Mimi's Cafe. She opened my manuscript and cut to the bone, with love. "This section is perfect. This other stuff, it's not the same. It's okay, but it's not perfect like this section."

My novel is a story about a girl who joins the Army and on her way to report in for AIT, she gets caught up in a hostage situation. The backstory is layered in, between chapters, drawn from my own experience. My writing partner, who's also named Cindy, told me to open with the backstory.

Maybe the backstory IS the story? I've got some thinking to do.

Do I rewrite the first two chapters of hostage situation to make it more like the backstory? Do I cut the first two chapters? Do I toss the whole idea and just write a literary-type novel based on the backstory?

WWND? (What would Natalie do?)

Keep your hand moving . . .

Keep writing and the answer will come.

That's my answer?


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*like a mimosa, but with cranberry juice