Love and Hate

I'm beginning to have a love/hate relationship with my manuscript. I'm becoming too familiar with parts of it...so much so that I am sick of those parts and they lose their luster and I start second guessing the quality. I am also noticing a lot of flaws in my writing as I go back and edit another section and re-edit it and then revamp it and reevaluate it and edit it again.... The same words that I wrote on Monday I'm enjoying on Tuesday and by Friday I'm completely redoing them again.  I know its all part of what they call the "writing process." As a first-time novelist I'm learning as I go and feeling my way in the dark.
Overall...I still love it though! Seriously. I enjoy writing and bringing characters and scenes to life with just black words on a white page (or screen, for right now!) It's a fun challenge to overcome my shortcomings as a writer and learn more about myself as I work through them. As I look at my book as a whole I am still very excited and confident that the finished product will be great. It has a long ways to go yet. I am also enjoying how God strips away the arrogance through the daily grind. He gives me enough challenges to keep me humble and enough victories to keep me going. As always keep me and the work in your prayers. That's what I always need the most!

As I promised last time...here's a little fruit of my labor. This is Benaiah, the main character speaking:

A noise from within the house stops me, listening, senses on high alert. The strange noise comes again…a muffled scream, a shuffling sound. I run to the door and stop just inside. My eyes are so used to the light that I’m momentarily blinded by the darkness inside. I look in through the courtyard and squint into the darkness beyond.

Piram is on top of my mother, forcing her down onto a stone bench. He has a fistful of her hair and he’s pulling back, stretching her neck in a gross, unnatural position. His mouth is next to her head and he’s hissing violent, hateful words right into her ear. Something snaps inside me. Hatred explodes in my brain and all my senses burn to life with intense heat. My thoughts go blank. I don’t speak. I must end this once and for all! I rush at Piram. My muscles bunch in readiness and I unleash years of pent up fury. My fist connects hard with the side of his head and he reels backwards, off of my mother, down to the dust where he belongs. Hateful worm! How dare he treat her like this! I’ll kill him with my bare hands!