WIP Wednesday: Alternate Ending

I actually accomplished something this week, amazingly enough.

I wrote the alternate ending to my Up Lantau Running book. It was the new ending I was contemplating last week.

Not only that, I edited my alternate ending. And I posted my alternate ending on my critique group's site for further editing.

So, if my critique group doesn't dissect my new ending into tiny pieces, then I should be ready to start querying again (with my new beginning and new ending) when I get back to America. Yippee!

But that's not the whole story.

My husband, Aaron, doesn't usually read what I write. I mean, he does occasionally, but not a lot. I know some aspiring writers and their spouses are writing teams. Everything that's written goes under the husband or wife's telescope first, even before it hits the desk of the critique group.

My husband and I have never worked that way. Maybe because he's a science teacher; maybe because he's busy; maybe because he and I just have a lot of other things in common that we do instead of sitting around reading my writing; maybe because we're raising four children at the moment, which drastically cuts down on our spare time.

Whatever the reason, I'm used to having my writing be something separate. I can talk to Aaron about it -- he's a great listener -- but mostly it's my own personal thing.

This time, though, was different. I wrote the alternate ending and I asked him to read it. And he read it.

Right after he read it, he gave me feedback. He told me where he was confused, how it made him feel. He encouraged me, but he didn't rave about it or start dancing around the room (he's not really that kind of guy anyway ... and I'm glad, because if there were two of us like that we'd be living in perpetual circus-mode).

Today, thinking about my alternate ending, even though it was tough to write because it was tough subject matter, makes me feel light and happy. Because my favorite person in the world read it and helped make it better.

So, I really did accomplish something this week. And I had great help, too. Maybe this is the start of something good.