The stress factor of critique

I sent my entire rough draft off to my writer’s group to read and critique late last night. I am so stressed that even in my sleep deprived state of meeting my submission deadline – self imposed so there is enough time for them to read the whole thing before we meet to discuss it – I still couldn’t sleep. What if no one likes it? What if they think it is total crap? What if their critique makes me cry? These are the thoughts going through my head.

The reality is, this is a rough draft in every sense of the word. There is at best cardboard cutouts for characters because I haven’t added all the layers and depth that need to be there. Description is very lacking in lots of places. But that’s because at this stage of the project, all I’ve done is gotten the story down from start to finish. Now the daunting process of editing for content and pacing and characterization and all the other things that I don’t have at this point will begin.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Writing is hard work! Wish me luck that my fellow writers like it enough to invest their time and effort into helping with that editing and revision process so that others may someday read it, too.