She did it again.

My critique partner, that is. She’s the one who emailed me out of the blue with a question about a literary agent I had some experience with. After several conversations she asked for a sample of the novel I was trying to sell.

She offered to go through it page by page, editing and offering suggestions. After making sure she wasn’t planning to send me an invoice for her time when she was finished, I said, “Sure!”

She was SO complimentary, and offered so many good insights on everything from individual word choices and sentence structure all the way to character development and plot that she got me excited about writing again.

Well, that book is ready to go, but I’m currently without an agent so I’ve put it aside for now. I had started a new tale; a thriller based on internet and computer technology, but had bogged down when work and other life events and interests intervened to limit my time to write. I still think it’s a good concept and story, but after the first 10k words it’s just been simmering for a number of months.

Well, Katie asked to see what I had so far, so I sent her the 45 pages or so I’d put together.

This weekend I got her email response.

I had sent her a Word attachment. She opened it, used that software’s reviewing tools, went through my work line by line adding comments, suggesting changes, fixing awkward spots, and just generally making it much better.

Then she told me how good it was, and how hooked she’d gotten, and wants me to send her the next few chapters ASAP so she can see where the tale is going.

Darn her! She’s got me excited about writing again.

I don’t know when I’m going to find the time to write, but I’ll try to do a little each day if I can and keep this thing going.

Enthusiasm and praise. What a powerful narcotic that combination can be!