#experiecne

Recently, Google Chrome celebrated its 10th birthday on September 1. Google started its journey on September 1, 2008 with a dream of fresh approach on browsing experience. Today when we see the scenario, ‘Browsing’ means ‘Google’. 60% of the population uses Google for browsing than any other rival search engine.

Last week, I joined a new critique group. (Yay!) What I submitted for feedback was the first chapter of my middle-grade novel Rodney and the Gonjii.

Now Rodney is my baby. This story started as a short back in '06 and I eventually turned it into a working series. The first book, however, has been on my editing and rewriting board ever since my first Nano in '07.

We've been together a long time. With my current version, I believe I've finally reached the point of near-perfection, but I've still only had a few people read it. So of course it was the logical choice to set before a new group of fellow readers and writers, to see how it looks through the eyes of someone who hasn't seen earlier versions.

They loved it. The feedback was all positive, and the only critiques I received were a few grammatical pointers. Even my Dad -who is my unofficial editor and Grammar Cop- pointed out no mistakes.

I should have been ecstatic, right? But I wasn't. Because I had it in my head that there was still something wrong with it. That it wasn't quite, well, perfect.

I am 21. There is quite an age gap between me and most of the writers I've ever known. As I sat in that group listening to the others read their work aloud, I could only think There is no way my stuff can be anywhere near ready. I'm a baby compared to the rest of these writers! Obviously there has to be something still seriously imperfect with Rodney.

So, no. I wasn't ecstatic. In truth, I was quite despondent, because I had been hoping that now someone would finally point out whatever glaring problem my story had and I could work on fixing it. But everyone loved it.

It was my dad who finally made me realize my problem. I keep comparing myself to writers by age, looking at the difference and coming to the conclusion that I must be more arrogant than I am a good writer, because I'm convinced this book is almost ready. But it doesn't matter how old I am. What matters is years of writing experience.

I began writing -daily, if I could manage it- when I was 10. Sure, most of it was crap, but I have been writing diligently (mostly) for the past 11 years. No matter how you look at it, that's a lot of experience.

I may be young, but I am a seasoned writer.