After an exchange of emails with Miranda where we talked about what I was looking to achieve from the mentoring scheme, what elements of my writing I was particularly keen to focus on, and similar areas for consideration, the time has now come to step up to the oche.
I’ve been submitting fiction for a number of years now and I don’t ever remember being nervous like this when submitting a piece. Not that I think the response from my mentor is going to be a tirade of abuse of the “you can’t write, what are you doing on this scheme?” sort. I suppose I’m conscious of the desire to “make a good impression” (as we all are, surely?) and also that this is a leap of faith for me because typically my “public” writing falls into two categories: reading out raw work in workshops and writing groups while the ink is still drying, or submitting stories for publication once they have been worked and worked and worked and I’m satisfied that they’re as good as I can make them. The work submitted to Miranda is somewhere in the no-man’s-land between those two: I’ve written it, I’ve started to edit it, but it isn’t finished.
But it’s out there now… and whilst I’m waiting for the reply I’ll get on with some of the issues I have with the structure and storyline of the novel as it stands.
