A conundrum posed to our regular attendees (and sundry passers-by). I pose it here because not a few of you are among those who treat these matters with professional interest.

The Wombat blushes to admit that he has for some time been working on a novel for young adults (even though the Wombat isn't even really sure what that means; but maybe simply that it's the sort of thing he could have imagined reading at the age of twelve or so).

It has of late seemed an attractive proposition to put the first draft of this project, in installments, up on the File in some quiet corner or other, for the perusal and even comment of those that are interested. It would make what I have now seem more real and it would, presumably, help spur me on to completion, while also inviting potentially useful noises from an audience of (I like to think) more than middling taste and discerment.

However, I don't know if there aren't risks. Is it harder to get a publisher interested once you've shared it with the world already on your website? Does that even matter anymore? And, thinking more broadly, is it too much of a breach of the necessary isolation of the imaginative work? Too much chatter in the study, too much talk about the thing before the thing is a thing? A risk of undermining the already fragile construction of an artificial reality before it's ready to have other people handling it? In short, is it creatively penny-wise but pound-foolish?

So, I ask: what do people think about such an idea? Should I share, or continue to keep Project X under wraps?

Oh, by the way -- it's a fantasy novel. Uh-huh. The Wombat blushes to admit, really, really blushes.