Back on April 18th of this year, My Personal Writing Blog “The Written Word” Hit 8 Months Old, and so I Created a Questionnaire (Feel Free To Fill It Out If You Are One of My Readers Over There) Asking My Reader’s Opinion of My Blog Series (Which I currently have 3-4), and My Novella & Novel ”I Died Once” (I.D.O.) & “Chess With Agatha“.
I Received 2 Replies, both of which I Appreciated… And on one of them, the Reader said they wanted to Finish Reading “I.D.O.” (Which I Finished My First Draft Of Last Year) and “Chess With Agatha” (Which I’m Still Working On) and get back to me…
That same Reader did give me some very Insightful/Good Input on Some of My Blog Series however.
Well, just as I am at a Point where I am Looking for an Editor for “I.D.O.” so that I might Self Publish it This, or Next Month, That Reader E-mailed me a Full Review on Its First Draft…
It was Very Thorough, and Thoughtful, but it would take me a bit to “Fully” Reply.
At the point that this Reader did the Review, they hadn’t Seen The Prologue that I had Since Wrote, and so I then sent them that as well… Some of Their Questions and Thoughts might have been Altered a bit, had they seen the “Very Short”, yet “Fairly Insightful” Prologue. For the Sake of “Following Along”, should you want to Read Chapters as I Do These “Review and Reply” Posts, I shall Hold off on Showing The Prologue Until After I am Thorough, so that you Might have a Clearer Perspective to The Reader’s Perspective… Does That Make Sense? Lol Hope so.
For the Sake of “Brevity”, I shall Do Each Review and Reply Post “One Chapter At A Time”.
Also, as Opposed to Posting The Full Blown Chapter (They’re Fairly Short, as I Wrote Them as Posts), I will Instead Supply you the “Link” To Each Chapter that we are Discussing, should you want to check it out, and see What The Reader and I are Talking About, though I Think it is Possible for you to get something out of these Posts without Actually Reading The Chapters as well.
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“I Died Once” (I.D.O.) First Draft – Review and Reply
Chapter One – State Of Murder (Link Will Open New Tab)
DarkJade Reply: “She’s Definitely Sarcastic at the Beginning… Primarily from being in so much emotional pain all of the time from her difficult existence. I’m Glad it draws you in, and Makes you Curious about her.
DarkJade Reply: “I Tried to make the whole Suicide Thing very nonchalant… As Mady is very “Emotionally Shutdown” at this point, and pretty “At Peace” with the idea of not living any longer. Also with the Intent of making the Readers have to think “My God… Is She Going To Kill Herself? What could be so wrong that she would do this?”.
DarkJade Reply: “Mady’s Diagnosis; I Leave This Very Vague on purpose. This Story is very much from her point of view, and by this time in her life, the’ve been trying to stick pills in her for years. I want the Readers to feel her “Disconnection” from her world. I don’t want the Readers to know specifically what the “Pills” are, or What Her “Diagnosis” Officially might be… As the Story Evolves/Unfolds, it will become apparent why she was unhappy and thusly medicated.In other words, she’s not likely to “Think” about the pills by this point, and thus there’s “No Thoughts Pertaining to Them” for the Readers to share… Which is why she without thinking about it simply drops them out the car window one by one, without thought. I’m trying to also send the message that Mady hasn’t taken any of the pills they give her for years.Connect With Her; I want it to be a bit difficult for Readers to connect with her at first… It helps to give you a sense of just how disconnected she is to everything at this point… She’s not even really “Connected” to herself… Thus the Reader shan’t be yet either… She very much “Needs to be Reached”. As she gets more “Access” to herself, Her “Heart”, Her “Soul”, so shall the Reader.
DarkJade Reply: “Why is she trying to Kill Herself?; I very much want the Unraveling of the Story to Demonstrate/Make Clear why she was trying to Kill Herself. The Readers by no means are meant to know why in the Beginning. The “Disconnect” is the Message I’m sending to the Readers at First… “What could make her do this?” Is Indeed the Question I want the Reader to ask. To like you say, “Draw Them In”.Does This Tie to Her Diagnosis? Or is this Something Beyond a Chemical Imbalance? Some Form of Family Trauma? Does it have to do with Her Dad not being around, or is she at peace with that?; Any Diagnosis she might have, has Completely to do with the “Shut Off World Without Love” that she lives in.Because this is “Mady’s” Perspective, She doesn’t take anything to do with the Doctors Serious. Thusly, she doesn’t think about such things as Her “Diagnosis”.That is something that exists in the “Outer World”, which she is “Disconnected” from Emotionally. “Chemical Imbalance”, same thing, that would be an “Outer World” thing, not something that she would Ponder. “Family Trauma”, some of that is explained later, as you know. “Her Dad Being Gone”, no, to her, Her Father doesn’t even exist, beyond Stories, and Trinkets around the House… And The Supposed “Address” which she takes out of her box. And, “No”, she’s not at all at Peace with Her Dad Being out of the Picture.
How is the editing coming along?
