When your internal monologue stops talking, you may feel free to show your novel to a friend, or a fiction-writing group, or a workshop. But not before. That internal monologue is a sign that your subconscious is still working out the story. If you show someone else  your work-in-progress while your inner story machine is still cranking, you’re dooming your work. Because, as insightful and as clever as your friend may be, they cannot share your vision. It’s your vision — born of subconscious needs that you most likely don’t understand, or at the most have a small inkling of. That’s what makes it your story. And when your friend finds a problem, and she will, she’s going to help you solve it with her vision. And now you’re off on a tangent that you can never cleanse. Someone else’s vision has now wormed it’s way into your story. It’s tainted. Out of whack. Doomed.

Curse or blessing, my internal monologue never stops anymore. It always has more to say, more, more….