The Swap

It all began with my query. Revising one of my works in progress, I was putting together a query as I worked (I’m telling you, my writing process is chaos, it’s why I don’t like to give writing advice). Anyway, I stopped by Querytracker, where I could get some eyes on my query, but I was quickly drawn to one already posted.

It was contemporary young adult and sounded somewhat similar to my story. So I sent a pm to the author and asked the author if she wanted to swap. She said she’d love to and so we did.

I peeked at the first few pages. It was good so I read twenty more. And yeah, some parts were like mine.

Only better.

While my story is between first and second drafts, what she sent me was nearly ready for the bookshelf. I looked her up and saw she had a debut novel for sale.

So I bought that.

Yeah, it was that good. Suddenly the novel on my bedside table, along with whatever I else was working on was lost as I devoured critique pages. 

You know what that means? It means this manuscript was killer. It means if I was an editor I’d be all over this.

Unfortunately, as a critique partner, it left me with little to offer other than. Wow, you’re amazing!

So yeah, I got to read a great story. But part of me wonders, Can I do that? Can I write a story that good?

I think so, I think I can get my work in progress to where it needs to be. But it’s humbling to come across someone doing exactly what you’d hoped to do. 

And doing it spectacularly.

Okay, gotta run. There's work to be done!