Chapter Nine: Murder Wind
This is an admittably slow chapter, but it’s necessary. You can’t go 50 mph all the time, and we’re only going to speed up shortly. I like stories with contrast in their plot, so here’s my best attempt at that. In the meantime…
An interesting word in critiques.
I’ve had friends and relatives read and critique anything of length I’ve ever written. That list of who has varied according to the piece, and usually to how decent I think it is. Of the trilogy I’ve mentioned, the core included my mom and my best friend for the first book; for the last, which I personally felt was my strongest one of the three, I also reached out to my fiancé for critique. For David, that list doubled.
Since coming up with the basic idea four years ago, The Sum of David as a completed work has been my main goal, my pinnacle – my intended masterpiece. The grand culmination of all my writing practice in the past (Oh-so-grandiose music goes here).
But let’s be serious. I’m only twenty-five years old. I’m a full-time graphic designer. And outside out of the full eight months I dedicated after my workday to writing the third and relatively final draft of David, I really just write whenever I feel like. I would love to see it in print, and let’s all hope for it good and hard, but let’s also be realistic. I’m not a professional.
That doesn’t mean I didn’t want the thing I’ve been poring my energy and effort (and free time and lack of social life) into to NOT be the best I can make it. Which meant that I got to the normal crew – Mom, Kelly, Josh – to read and give me feedback, but I also enlisted the help of three others for their critiques.
There’s a danger in that, of course. Even trusted friends won’t always give you the roughest news, even when you want to hear it. And you don’t want to turn it over to someone you don’t know very well, because there’s a good chance they’ll be under critical of it in fear of hurting your feelings.
I begged everyone who read this to be good and hard on David, and got some great responses. The person I knew the least about said he regretted agreeing to do it at first because of the time commitment; but he loved it by the time he finished it. Convincing a doubtful reader is a wonderful accomplishment, I promise, but I’m also sure it wasn’t flawless… and I didn’t get any sort of “well, it was slow here” or “was X really necessary?”. Maybe ending on a high note makes you forgive the sins enacted before that point, but I want the whole thing to be enjoyable.
What this whole thing means is that I’m open to criticism. There aren’t many of you out there reading, but I’d love to hear any comments on the individual chapters, the story up this point – whatever ‘this’ happens to be – characters, plot, pacing, whatever you got. Hate it, love it, let me have it. Whatever David is or will be, I still want it to be the best I can do.