Catching Idle Butterflies

Finished!

Yesterday after church I handed over "The Adulterer" to Pete. He said he couldn’t read it right then as he needed to be somewhere in ten minutes.

Not expecting him to, I said, “No problem. That’s yours to read whenever you get the time. If that’s not what you envisioned, or if you have any other changes, just let me know.”

“Sounds good,” he said. “I’ll read it out loud tonight to determine the time it will take and such.”

I walked away feeling somewhat good about it, but I also felt a twinge of uncertainty. I never read it out loud myself, and I do know what looks good on paper sometimes does not work when read aloud.

Either way, I’m sure Pete will tell me exactly what he needs when he gets a chance. In the mean time, I’ll tackle the next one – that one being another Pharisee who saw Jesus preaching in the Temple as a young boy (Character #3 as described in the "Out of the Shadows" folder).

Before I left the sanctuary, I went to shake Kermit’s hand. Before I had a chance to even say ‘hello’, he took my hand and said, “I finished it.” ("The Detestable")

Well it was about time. It only took him nine months!

He said he enjoyed it and, “had no problem seeing the story unfold. I actually had to start it over since it had been so long and I didn’t remember all that had happened. I managed to do it in one sitting.”

I liked hearing that. One of the things I always worry (can you tell I’m a worrier?) about is whether or not a reader can “see” the story and the characters. To Kermit at least, I did, and that it kept enough of his attention he read it all the way through without stopping was a big relief.

I asked him if he had any suggestions.

“Not being a writer,” he said, “I really can’t give you any. I would have used a different word here and there, but that’s about it. You might want to consider going through another revision. But then, I write nothing but sermons, so the word I would use may not be appropriate for your story.”

“What about the theology?” I asked, since that was the main reason I wanted him to read it.

He thought about it and said, “Nothing jumped out at me, so as far as that goes, I thought you did okay.”

Whew! One less thing to worry about . . . that is until I think of something else. Give me about six more hours and my worry box will once again be filled!