Stepping Stones

The waters of resignation run cold.

I'm closer now to needing a genre-specific beta reader for S7. A dedicated, interested reader willing to say, "This part sucks" or "Why the hell does he do that?" or "Is this chick modeled after a Barbie doll or what?" if need be.

Do I really need that? Part of me says absolutely yes. Part of me says why? Why base your work's value in its current state by one person's feedback? Does every story work for every person? What if I get a crummy reader who takes sadistic pleasure from presenting as a helpful beta reader when in fact they slowly target and snipe my dreams along with my prose? Regardless of the script's actual worth? What if they take it and run with it, chop it down to 100k words, and find a publisher for it? (Wow, you may think, do you really think S7 is that good? That it's worth stealing? Hell, if I thought it wasn't, why would I still be working on it after all this time?)

I posted some early excerpts back in like 2008 on a message forum. I got about ten responses. They ranged from "Wow, I can see what's happening so clearly in my head. I want to read more!" to "You can't write for shit, pal. Take a grammar class."  Luckily, it was more positive feedback than negative. However, the point stands - not everything works for everyone. I hold this to be a universal truth.

Which leads me back to something I've read over and over. "Write what you'd like to read." The question then becomes, do I like System Seven?

Of course it's a loaded question and I mean loaded with two barrels, each pointing in the opposite direction.  On the one hand, I love the story. In revising it, time and time again I find myself falling into the scenes, soaking up the vibes, digging the progression and pace.  On the other hand, I've read the scenes dozens and dozens of times (if not more). Stare at one thing too long and even the most beautiful sight can become drab and lose its attraction. Yet, even with that, I still love this story. For me, that says I've written what I like to read.

I get the feeling I really need to stop rubbing the damn script's shiny buttons and put the thing out there. So what next? Traditional queries, likely. Which means the dreaded query letter. How do you summarize an epic story comprised of 228,000 words? I guess I'll find out. How I do at that may mean more for the script's chances at success than the script itself.

Time to cross to the next stepping stone and see if I stay out of the waters of resignation.