Positive feedback

In my last post I expressed serious doubt about my new chapters -- the ones being told in Anna's voice. I had two main concerns -- finding space in the book for Anna's POV, and whether her voice was working at all.BUT my lovely, encouraging mentor J. Albert Mann sent me her feedback today on the first 70 pages or so. And here's the first thing she said:

So, I love Anna's voice!!

Huzzah! It's not a disaster! This has made my day. <3I haven't dived deep into her comments yet because, frankly, I just want to live with that positivity for a bit. It's really really hard for me to accept - and believe - positive feedback. My brain wants to whoosh right past it and focus on the negative.

So instead I'm coming here to commemorate the huge relief this brings, and the encouragement it gives me. I just want to bask in that love. <3 <3 <3

What's funny is that Anna's voice is much closer to my own. After 2 years of writing in Evgenia's voice, my style has changed a bit -- it's become a teensy bit shorter and choppier to match hers. But mostly, I'm still verbose and excessive in my use of highfalutin vocabulary, and -- above all -- obsessed with em-dashes. And that's what Anna is all about. ;-)

Hopefully that shared style will help me get through the next 200 pages of revising to write her in!PS: Yes, being a writer is a goddamn emotional roller coaster ride.