Well… I had a look at my printed copy of “PFTETD”. It’s pretty eye-opening to give the story a bit of a read after some four months or more of separation.
I still believe this is probably the best story I’ve written yet. Still, it is flawed. Right from the get-go, I can see it now. The opening drags just a little slowly. The language is occasionally awkward even after several drafts. There are still some characterization issues.
I’m not sure how I would fix these problems. I haven’t actually read it all the way through, just the first few pages, so I’m sure there would be more problems revealed with a more complete read-through.
It’s a good story. But it’s not a good story. You know, like, really good. I knew it wasn’t great, but I thought it was really good. Instead, just as Westley wasn’t all dead, he was just mostly dead (sorry for the spoiler, folks, but there’s a bit of a statute of limitations on classics like these), the story isn’t all good, it’s just mostly good.
So, you know… I might actually learn a thing or two at JordanCon by workshopping this.
