Hello all,
Has anyone here ever struggled with succinctly describing a work in progress to others?
I’m in the middle of writing my first manuscript, a speculative/horror novel, and about a quarter of the way through to my projected word count. While I’m largely a pantser by approach, I have a decent end-to-end outline of the major beats, arcs, characters, and themes through to the end. However, when discussing the manuscript with friends and family, I find myself falling into a lot of protracted descriptions of the above (ex. “Then this happens…then this…but then this…and this means…”, etc.) in such a way as that I seem to muddle the overall picture of what I’m writing.
I will disclose that I am clinically autistic and tend to think and describe things abstractly, while fairing better with writing my thoughts down (like here, for example). While I am focused on just enjoying the writing process in and of itself and have low expectations for where this may go (I do plan on querying when this is complete), my difficulties in describing the story coherently are filling me with foreboding for when I may decide to try for querying or pitching.
Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated, particularly from fellow neurodivergents. I would please ask for some grace and understanding in the request for feedback and refraining from responses of the “go back to the drawing board” variety; please presume competency/confidence in what’s in my head verses my lack thereof in communicating it outwardly.
Thanks!