What Happens When you Get Feedback on Your Novel: And Why It Changes More Than You Expect

I went into the manuscript assessment expecting feedback... I

wasn't expecting a revelation.

It was terrifying. If you have done anything like this before, I'm sure you'll understand that fear. This was my baby of twenty years and I was handing her over to the industry to judge (and let's face it, the pessimist was present) find lacking. I am pleased to say that was not the experience I had.

It might sound like an exaggeration when I use revelation, but that is what it felt like. She ahd stagnated. My novel. I had edited over and over and I was just not feeling it. There was something off. I knew she wasn't ready, hence why I put it in for an assessment.

Thank all the gods I did.

As I read it, it was like the 'base contageous clouds' (sorry Shakespeare) were being removed as I realised with each point what was happening. It wasn't wrong, it just wasn't quite there yet and I could finally see why.

I had lost her. I had lost my Edena, her core. I had been so stuck on trying to stay true to her, my fifteen year old self - I had missed the point that editing was more than cutting and makeing it read well. It needed to physically move around as the characters and the story developed. Let's face it, my characters don't go easy on me, their quite defiant in what they want to happen. That was why it needed a new structure, because the characters had grown outside of my original events and that needed sorting.

I didn't mean to rewrite it, but it was clear. The story no longer fit.

The assessment gave me another pair of eyes.

Getting feedback meant someone else sees the work without the familiarity you have with it. They aren't attached to it in the same way. Also, having someone used to the industry, someone who professionally can tell you the truth in a way beta readers and friends and family can't adds that extra level.

I feel now, like I've managed to get through to a deeper layer, a clearer structure and direction that is now aligned with the world it has actually become. It showed me where to look.

I have recieved a new clarity, which sometimes freightens me because I am now, no longer lost in the process. I'm not rewriting the story, I'm writing the story that was there, beneath the waffle and I am following if further than I had before.

I'm reaching the heart of it finally and now I see it, there is no going back.