Or I could admit that first attempt amounted to the scribblings of an uneducated beginner not even smart enough to take a class for four years, and all the hard work I’d poured into that novel counted as practice.  I’d written enough to qualify a couple times over for ‘the half million words of crap’ we’re told new writers need to complete prior to writing anything good.  Over-achiever all the way.

So I had that going for me, which I took to mean everything I write now will be awesome.

Bottom line, the goal remained:  I will be a professional writer.  So I had to choke down my pride and, after surviving that, I took my first major step wearing big boy writer pants.  I acknowledged that first epic fantasy story could be treated as an Epic Fail.

Then I threw it away.  All 1000+ pages of blood, sweat and tears.

And I started again from scratch.

Out of pure stubbornness, I didn’t even start an entirely different story.  There was a little more blood to squeeze out of that first stone.  I loved the core of that original idea, so I salvaged some of the world building, some of the characters, and the nucleus of the conflict.  Then I redesigned the plot from the ground up.

Like building modern-day Rome on top of the ancient catacombs.

The resulting story is infinitely better than the original, and I’m now working with an agent to try to find it a home.  And instead of waiting forever for that sale to happen, I’ve actually moved on and since written three other novels and e-published one of them.  Four others are in various stages of outlining, all of which I plan to complete next year.

Still plenty of blind spots, but I try to identify them one at a time.  It’s more satisfying that way and a lot less painful – like lancing a single blister instead of performing open heart surgery on yourself.

Still, it was that first major awakening that salvaged my writing career.  I’ll always be grateful to David Farland for beating me down so thoroughly (in a nice way).  Now that I can walk again, I’m a better writer for the experience.

And now I’m looking forward to paying forward the favor.  You may find me roaming the halls at conventions and workshops, looking for blind spots to destroy.

It’s for your own good.  Some day you’ll thank me.