There is always a scenario you never considered. Yesterday I was telling you all how my imagination was driving me mental because all that my mind wanted to do was imagine possible outcomes. I thought of wonderful things and awful things that could happen when I was contacted. I never thought I might not have been the only one. There was another woman who tried to go into the seminar with her pram and consequently was refused entry. She’d driven twelve hours to attend the convention (holy heck, 12 hours in a car with a baby, glad that wasn’t me). In all my musings I’d not once thought I was not the only one or might not have been the one he was looking for.
It dawned on me that this is why we have friends and test readers we share our stories with. They can help us see the scenario we never imagined. I know sometimes I’ve been stuck for an answer and talked with T-J about my problem and he has far too often calmly replied ’what if you…’ to which I glare and pout simultaneously for a few moments because he found my answer so easily whereas I’ve been moping and moaning for days over the issue.
These external views can be so helpful, not just to see answers we couldn’t, but to see plot holes and other flaws. I can’t imagine putting a story out for public viewing without first showing it to my close reader friends. These people whose opinions we value are worth more than their weight in gold (tempted to make a bad joke about worth their opinion’s weight in gold). If you have someone like this who compliments your weaknesses, don’t let them go!
