New challenge

My dad is a writer, translator and editor: a professional. I write computer code for a living. Spot the difference. He's written two novels (and a bunch of other stuff). I can claim that I've written three novels, but there's no comparison. That's why I was rather nervous about telling him about NaNoWriMo.

Fortunately, he seemed to get the point of NaNo and he was really impressed that I'd managed it - even more impressed when he found out from my mum that I'd actually done it twice before as well. He was also very keen to see what I'd written. That was potentially embarassing (how well can anyone write a first draft at 30wpm?) but in the end I let him see the first couple of chapters, and then sent him the whole thing.

Now he's read through the first chapter and sent me some suggestions and comments. He pointed out lots of things I could do better, but he also pointed out some bits that he liked. Both are really encouraging: yes, he pointed out things that I'm doing badly, but I understand why they're bad and I believe I know how to make them better - and that's just as encouraging.

So now he's set me a challenge. He's off to Italy for two weeks, and he's asked me to re-write the first chapter (bearing in mind his comments) by the time he comes back. I had been thinking of putting it on the back burner for a while after the crapometer - but stuff that, a challenge is a challenge :)