My Mammoth Skin is Thicker Than Your Alligator Skin

If you follow the blogosphere, twitter, or a number of writing websites, I’m sure that you’ve heard of multiple writers who may have damaged any chance they had to publish with a traditional house. Their reactions to reviews on various websites made many members of the writing community watch the train wreck in progress.
    
Before you think I’m going to specifically focus on any one reaction, let me ease your fears. This will cover a little of the same ground as a previous post, but its important to review. My discussion today centers on how a writer needs to deal with things like critiques, reviews, and the opinions of others. I think I just stated a Bit Important Thought there, so let me rephrase it to punctuate my point.
    
Critiques, Reviews, and Editors offer opinions on our writing.
    
While some of those opinions can affect whether the writing sells or not, it is just one or two people’s opinion. The prose may flow fine. Your dialogue might hold witty lines. That one person just didn’t find it to their liking.
    
Does this mean the story or novel belongs in the middle of a bonfire or a fireplace?
    
Um, no.
    
In other posts, I’ve stated that writing is a very personal endeavor. Releasing that writing to another is like letting the baby bird fly from the nest. If you’re pushing for publication through traditional channels, however, others will need to check that baby bird’s feathers. This means that we must steel ourselves for that dreaded “Sorry, kid, it’s just not your time” response. Consider that J. K. Rowling received twelve rejections before she sold Harry Potter. Emily Dickenson also received twelve before her first sale. Nabakov ran into the denial block six times before he sold Lolita. Stephen King even suffered though more than 50 rejections before any editor would accept his writing. Personal experience points to 31 rejections before I made my first sale and I’m still receiving them.
    
Such hallowed grounds, the realm of rejection.
   
Ah, but the steeling doesn’t end there. For that fledging may have received acceptance by an agent or editor, but the world at large hasn’t had its say yet. Your story or book awaits the word of the critic at large, they of the varied tastes and expectations.
    
This means that you may have comments from others that don’t match those of the critique partners, the agents, the editors. You’re about to have an opinion with no attachment to you in any way. It may not be pretty. One star reviews, harsh words about your plot, your characters, your word choice.
    
Again, more opinions.
    
With all these opinions flying around, what is a writer to do? While my advice is simple to say, it’s not as simple to do.
  
Listen.
Hold your tongue.
Find what the common thread is from these running opinions.
Thank them for their time.
    
Do not feed the troll by giving a negative reaction. I’m going to pull a little from my movie buff background here. Kevin Costner starred in “For Love of the Game,” and he had a very important line for all careers, I think. I’ll paraphrase it as best I can here.
      
"You can go out there and give them a sound bite, do a little dance. Or you can walk by with your head held high and the next time we come here, we’ll work the wall together.”
     
What did he mean? He meant that you don’t lose your pride over one mistake. It may be a goofball, totally unworthy step for you, but it happens. Everyone makes mistakes. Don’t fulfill the role of jester. Keep your heart intact. Come back to try again. And again.
    
We writers can do the same thing. Armed with the knowledge of the common thread of opinion, you can go back to your present work in progress and find ways to improve from the common thread. Sometimes, you’ll find the problems they refer to in the comments, sometimes you won’t. It won’t be easy. If you have critique partners, when the work in progress goes to them, ask them to look specifically for the items from the common thread. They might see something that you don’t.
    
But what if there is no common thread? Well, find the top three frequent complaints. Frequently reviewers poke at plot, characters, and ability to hold their attention. The more comments you receive, the better prepared you become to improve your writing, if it really does need it.
    
Just remember that the writer’s skin must rival that of any mythical beast to survive outside our own little nest. Once the hatchling has left the nest, you can’t call her back

“Seminar” - Service With a Smile

Come on in. Take a seat. We’re about to get started.
I like this auditorium. There is nothing but front row seats.

Today, we’re here to talk about customer service. Why should a writer be concerned with customer service? I’ll address that shortly.

Let’s start with something important. We need to define customer service. I’m not talking about the vague dictionary definition. I mean the workable definition.

Customer Service – Developing a relationship between two or more parties for the purpose of exchanging of goods or services.

That works for our needs. It contains many important phrases we need to look at in order to understand why the definition is important.

It talks about developing a relationship. That actually is an important step for customer service. Many companies claim they are oriented toward customer service, yet they lack the actions to prove it. Customer service is not about getting the customer, getting their money, then getting rid of the customer. Repeat sales are unlikely in that environment. See most pushy car salespeople for examples.

It also mentions the exchange of goods and services. Consider a visit to the deli counter at the grocery store. If you go at the same time every week, you’ll usually encounter the same counter person. A relationship develops as you get meat and cheese and they get money. They call you by name. Eventually, you might even make sure only to go when this person works, so they can work you the best deal.

Good customer service with a smile.

Let’s link this to writing now. Think about the two items that the writer sells – Their writing and themselves. This is especially true with the new self-publishing revolution overwhelming the reading public.

I see the questioning looks.

Writing is only half the sales equation for a writer. Good writing works to get you in the door. However, it’s the writer themselves that make the full impact.

In the past, publishing houses had marketing groups to work with writers and bookstores to push books, establish images. However, back then, the pace was slower. It took time for people to write letters, mail them, and wait for them to travel. Everything is at instant access in the modern world.

Get a review – react to it as the writer posts it.

This is very dangerous for the modern writer. Early in the internet’s existence, new users were taught to walk away from a bad email. Take a breath. Write out the email for your first reaction, and then delete it. Instant still took time.

With the web and high speed connections in the home, or in the pocket, there is no chance to walk away. It’s right there, all the time.

I’m sure you’ve heard the horror stories of authors who blow up at bad reviews. While this creates a temporary spike in sales, it hurts their overall sales. Now, people will think twice about reading from an author whom they won’t know if said author is going to go ballistic because of something they say about the book.

Just as companies and businesspeople must put forward a positive image, so too must a writer. It's worse for the writer. The company image they project is their own person. For good customer service, we can’t let our emotions react to a review.

Absorb the review. Then step away from the computer. Leave the smart phone on the dresser for a while.

Take 24 hours to think about the points the reviewer mentioned. Calm your raging frustrations at their inability to understand.

Show your business side. When you go back, thank the reviewer for their time. They are providing a service as much as you are. Take a moment to address their questions, in polite, constructive comments. Then thank them again.

At that point, you’ve completed the task and need to just walk away.

You’re customers, aka your readers, will appreciate the professional image you project, and possibly become repeat customers.

How Could You Shred My Baby? – Critiquing Writing – Part 6

Up to this point, I’ve offered insight on giving feedback to other writers about their writing. As you’ve worked to enlighten others, that same enlightenment reached within your mind to tweak your own writing. Now, others have gotten their hands on your writing. They want to return the favor.

Don’t do anything hasty.
Put down the scissors and back away from the table. We promise, we won’t harm the document.

Accepting a critique is about as difficult as giving one, if not more so. It’s not something that comes naturally to people. You’ve created something and opened it to the public for comment. Naturally, the creator feels protective of their creation. The overprotective parent complex, one might almost assume. This isn’t that far off. I offer three thoughts to consider as you receive comments on your writing.

Thought one: The person offering the critique is trying to help improve your writing. Listen to what they have to say.

This is a Big Important Thought here. You’ve placed the writing on the table for help. Don’t immediately start arming your defenses when the person comes back to offer their help. It will ruin the experience for all those concerned.

Your intent here should be to let the reviewer speak their piece. Make notes, either on a copy of the manuscript or a blank piece of paper. If they’re good, you’ll find both praise and encouragement woven through comments about uneven storylines, plot holes, and flat characters. Some of their comments might pull your ponytail or twist your gut. That happens. Hold your tongue until they finish explaining their reason. You might find that they offer a valid point after all.

It's not good to go into a critique expecting to defend your choices. It brings the ugly out of a writer. Listen to the opinions. Take the comments in context with the story you’ve had reviewed. Consider what the person offers. Remember that all they offer is opinions and you’re not obligated to use any of them.

Thought Two: The target of their comments is the writing, not the writer

With a good partner analyzing your writing, their entire desire points to improving the writing before them. As an extreme example, they may have a personal vendetta against the writer, but a good reviewer ignores personal feelings and focuses just on the written word. A person who writes a critique but can’t separate the writing from the writer actually is not a good person to write the critique. If you know a person has difficulty with such separation, simply don’t ask for their help.

Family and friends might find it difficult to point out problems, because they don’t want to hurt your feelings. They won’t be much help either.

When receiving a critique, know that some people search for mistakes. It makes them feel better. They want to swing hammers at the support beams. These beams are the story’s beams, not yours. That type of critique wants to make sure your story survives the harshest of editors. When they’re finished, it should. However, that also assumes you take at least a part of their advice.

Thought Three: Ask for clarifications if you don’t understand what they mean, but don’t argue with their comments.

For some reviewer’s comments, it might not offer enough help for you to consider the error that they felt that they found. Never be afraid to ask for clarification of a comment. Sometimes, the reviewer may not have the ability to elaborate. It’s the impression within their minds that just doesn’t fit. Perhaps what you thought a key turn of phrase doesn’t work with their experiences, but they can’t figure out a way to phrase it. Keep note of it, as it might be an area that you changed and the sentence doesn’t fit the new section but is a perfectly good sentence. I’ll touch on this more in a moment.

Under the same concept, don’t immediately jump at their comments and try to defend against what they tell you. What they give you comes from their experience and their way of looking at the story. Their experiences will color the story differently to your colors. If you found a subject matter expert, or SME, they could point to a piece of story that just ain’t right. (Yes, that I did on purpose.) Don’t argue what your research told you against what the expert tells you. The expert tends to win those arguments, because they have better research for their field.

I have had times when the comment about the change is vague. “This feels wrong,” they said. It didn’t help my edit. When I received it, I asked the person to clarify what they meant. It turned out my unusual phrasing didn’t work within the context of the story to their mind. With that clarification, I found it easier to rework the piece for better wording. I got the additional information without challenging the reviewer and we both got a better experience from it.

With this being American Football season, I’ll close with a football analogy. A critique is a hand-off of the ball to you, the runner/writer. Your objective is to weave between the defense/obstacles and get to the final goal – being published

Novel Writing Tips for November

Okay, so for those worrying through NaNoWriMo, you’re through four days. This means you should have around 6700 words, with the hope of 8400 by day’s end.

What’s that? You’ve not gotten that far?

Let me offer some suggestions to jump-start your creative process.

First and probably the most important for doing the mad-dash novel writing that NaNoWriMo requires, remember that you don’t have to write in chronological order. Heck, your scenes don’t even have to be written in a logical order. This also means that if you know the ending, but not the beginning, you can just write what you already know, then go back and fill in the blanks. Just write the scene and rearrange later.

Next, consider additions. Early on, you have an advantage. The cast is still evolving. You’ve not established a lot of plot to harbor your difficulties. So why not add in a character? Need comic relief, add a wise cracking sidekick. Looking for the romantic angle, add a lover for one of the primary characters. Adding a character doesn’t make sense?

Um, you’re just trying to get writing, making sense comes later.

Oh, advantage of adding a nonsense character now – you can kill him off later when the book starts to flag again! Yup, the death of a character jump starts things as much as the addition of one does. In fact, at one point, you may need to contemplate killing off a primary character to either 1) make the plot work or 2) move along creatively. A death scene creates different reactions from different people, so just writing about reactions can easily get you three thousand words.

Speaking of reactions, tell the reader what your point of view character is looking at when they enter a room, forest, or car. Descriptive paragraphs fill pages with words. Think Robert Jordan or David Drake. They can make for many pages worth of words. And those words can be pared down once the story is completed.

I’ve heard some people expound on the joys of pages worth of dialogue. This really depends on how many soliloquies that you have your characters speaking. My dialogue tends to be quick shots of conversation, sometimes to fill in details, sometimes for character action interaction. They don’t expand my word count as much as a paragraph of description that lasts two pages.

Honestly, these techniques work outside of November as well. Just get the story written then revise once it’s completed. After all, Revision is Writing.

The Art of the Deadline

Huh, look at that. It’s November again.

What’s the big deal about November? National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, is the big deal. I offer a chocolate, coffee, and Red Bull™ to all those attempting the mad writing dash this month. I’ve attempted it in the past, but am taking the year off to just cheer on those that I know taking part in the monumental task.

Ah, I see we have some disbelievers in the reading audience.

I was told, early in my writing career, that a “true” writer doesn’t do NaNoWriMo. I believed those that told me such things because I was SO new to the game and they were “experienced” writers. I hadn’t discovered then what I know now.

There are benefits to NaNoWriMo, some of which I will express here. Feel free to offer rebuttals to my opinions in the comments.

One big thing that the event teaches is Writerly Habits. Before 2005, when I attempted it for the first time, I wrote when I felt like it. Sometimes, I’d go months between writing sessions. “The Muse hadn’t moved me recently,” I’d say with some aplomb.

It was an easy excuse to use, when I was younger and naïve.

NaNoWriMo taught me to put my butt in the chair and write, whether the muse spoke to me or not. If I wanted to write, I had to make the effort. It wouldn’t make the effort for me. As the years pressed on, I learned that an every day approach wasn’t required, as long as I made the final numbers.

It also teaches that Revision is Writing. The objective of NaNoWriMo is to create a first draft, not a masterpiece ready for publication.

Tips to reach the end usually include:
Kill off a character.
Write a sex scene.
Skip to the next most interesting scene.
Add a character.

A lot of those sound familiar, don’t they?

You’re not supposed to revise as you write during November. However, if it requires adding a paragraph with a character in a completed section, go back and do it! If you add a silly scene with five pages of description, it can be edited for better flow later. All words are sacred during the event.

Consider, also, that NaNoWriMo offers a solid, fixed deadline. Complete manuscript A by November 30. No leeway, no wiggle room to weasel an extra day from your agent. It offers a great training ground for people who want to write, because it gives you a short period of time and a set number of words to complete.

As a plus for many writers attempting the challenge, they can experiment with something outside of their comfort zone. Normally, I write science fiction, fantasy, or general fiction. In 2005, I tried mystery. I attempted a book with a large cast and an epic disaster for 2009. I’m not proud of the fact that 2007 was my “adult fantasy” year. For 2006 and 2008, I stuck to genres I knew, but I played with other aspects of the challenge. Could I reach 60,000 words in 30 days? I know one professional writer who says, thanks to NaNoWriMo, she won’t ever write westerns. It’s about the experiment, not the final product.

Another advantage of the event is the development of community. I knew that writing was a solitary adventure. That gave me mixed emotions. Then I tried NaNoWriMo and found this huge community of writers, more than 100,000 strong, who were attempting this feat together. People gathered to discuss their plot, their successes and failures, and their distractions. Friendships developed. Suddenly, I wasn’t alone in my writing. I had people I could turn to and ask for help with my plot or character problem. Writing groups have grown from this event. I’ve heard of two marriages from people who met through NaNoWriMo.

Of the 100,000 plus that attempt it every year, not everyone reaches said deadline. Some just give up, which one can’t do with a contract. Some struggle all month, but they can’t get out of their plot’s way. And some sign up, but never get started. Those who are in it for the love of the written word and the community that NaNoWriMo creates thrive.

I’d encourage every writer to attempt National Novel Writing Month once. Win, lose or draw, I suggest making the attempt. Don’t talk bad of the event that you’ve never tried. It may not offer the type of writing environment that you’ll thrive in, but that’s okay. It’s a learning environment for everyone.

The murderer is … the Bentley? – Critiquing Writing – Part 5

Now we’ve written the critique, we need to know how to present it to our fellow writers. If you’re working through email, it’s rather easy. Paste the text of your critique into the body of the email, perhaps attaching a file with the notes/changes directly in the document. You’ll receive a return email with questions for clarification, possibly, but not always.

It’s when you have to sit and face the other writer where things are a little different.

So far, I’ve come across a few scenarios which I’m going to mention up front, to give you an idea of what you’ll possibly face. Younger and/or inexperienced writers will be almost bouncing out of their seat in anticipation of your glowing review of their masterpiece.

Let them down easy.

They will want to defend their choices, their voice. Encourage them to reexamine the issues you spot. They may fight every comment or suggestion. Don’t feel offended. You’re offering an opinion, so they aren’t required to do anything you point out for their benefit. As long as you did your best to offer them constructive help, you’ve done your job.

On the other end of the spectrum, you have the experienced writer. If a writer has received many critiques, or gone through the process a lot, they won’t seem to react to your comments. A pad of paper may sit near them, where they scribble notes about the spots you thought needed work. You’ll hear some comments, but nothing overtly like an argument. Otherwise, you receive thanks and that’s about it. These writers aren’t ignoring your advice. Assimilation of the concepts that you offered might require some thought. Perhaps you’ll receive a call or email at a later date asking about a particular comment you made on the story, seeking clarification. You might not. Everyone will react differently.

Now, let’s talk about the actual presentation.

I’ve found that most articles on writing critiques state that you want to offer a positive, then your negatives, then end with a positive. Psychology says that the last thing a person hears matters. Not always true. A bad comment will lodge in someone’s craw no matter where it’s heard.

My suggestion is to couch everything as an encouragement. Consider the attitude of the writer as well. If a writer looks tense, try to offer your comments in softer phrasings, so that they fall into cotton rather than brambles. Consider what help the writer wanted with the story. It’s a good place to start. If they gave no real instruction, start at the top of your notes, with the impressions, and work your way through your notes. As you cover important points, pause to see if you’ve explained it well or if the other writer is confused. A deeper review might be required for the other writer’s benefit.

If you don’t know the technical term for a problem, it doesn’t usually matter, except to the rule gurus. Explain what felt off and why. Sometimes just saying the phrase didn’t work for you during the reading is insight enough for the writer to look at it.

It’s a rare case, but you may have a piece that is so hard to read that you can’t. Literally, the writing just prevents your progression through the text. Don’t feel bad. It does happen. Take a breath. Organize your thoughts. Look at the writer you’ve agreed to help. Then POLITELY say that the piece needs work and why. Try to site examples to help them understand the problem.

Normally, I won’t give absolutes. Today, I’m going to repeat one I made earlier, because I feel it’s a Big Important Thought:

NEVER EVER state that a piece of writing is crap, garbage, or any other euphemism you can think of for horrible.

Imagine the fragile nature of almost any writer. Even with thick skin, when someone completely trashes a piece of writing, while still in the working state, it crushes the writer. Other writers are not our competition, or our enemies. They are our union brothers and sisters. They are compatriots in the march through the gates of publishing. It’s better for us to work with them to better everyone, than to crush someone away from the game.

As another thought, Karma has a way of coming back and crushing your spirit the same way, whether you believe in Karma or not.

Revealing the Agenda of a Scammer

Okay, so based on my title, I’m going to say this goes farther than my normal “your writing journey” type posts. After reading through some of the things that have appeared out on the web in recent days, however, I needed to post some form of commentary on the immature, low-handed douche-baggery that some idiots are peddling.

Please don’t let my fire for the topic scare you away. I’m going to attempt to keep my fingers civil.

First, for my readers that haven’t heard yet:
http://accrispin.blogspot.com/2011/10/agenda-of-write-agenda.html

This link takes you to a blog post from Writer Beware, an author advocacy group and the visible branch of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. This small group of writers volunteer their valuable writing time to research scams and other issues that effect the honest, hard-working writer.

I’m posting this link because a new “advocacy group” has surfaced calling themselves “The Write Agenda.” They claim to do the same work as Writer Beware. Looking at their website (which Writer Beware provided links to, so I won’t), they are a group of whiny people, a group with an agenda. Yes, their agenda is to attack Writer Beware, Preditors and Editors (another independent author protection website) and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. It even narrows the attack to Victoria Strauss and Ann Crispin.

I wondered if these people ever left middle school as I read their pages.

They have created a “banned book” list of those who speak out against their organization. This list contains a who’s who of the Science Fiction and Fantasy genre.

They also want to hold a “book burning!”  Suddenly, I find myself staring at a modern day Hitler. Book Burning!

To quote the movie “The Patriot:”
To Arms! To Arms!

Such immature and idiotic rhetoric as they spout on their page can be ignored. When you go to destroying things as the Nazi’s, you’re threatening to remove freedom. THAT I can not abide.

Throughout the writer blogosphere, you’ll find commentary on this from the likes of James MacDonald, John Scalzi, Rita Webb, and Jim C Hines to name a few.

While not a member yet, I do hope to become a member in good standing with the SFWA. I support the work they do to help newer authors, such as myself. I’ve met Ann Crispin and know that she is an honest and caring person, one who gives selflessly to the writing community. If you read this and hope to publish, I’ll say that Writer Beware and Preditors and Editors are two of the best sites to check for avoiding scams.

And if any of the TWA decides to come after me, I’ll offer another quote, this one from the movie “The Replacements:”

Come on, Bring it! Ya big fatty!

How to Review a Poem - Critiquing writing - Part 4

A good poetry review or critique can take about three steps, to allow a person to garner the most from what they are reading.

1) Clear your mind and read the poem through one time. Make notes on your initial impressions. If the meter or rhyme scheme slowed you down, make sure that is part of your notes. Does a particular image jump out of the words at you? Are you sensing romance, hatred, or another strong emotion from the writing? All of these things will be noted when you write your review. Keep a "This is great!" section, so that you can offer positive as well as constructive feedback.

2) Read the poem through a second time, paying close attention to the details the poet put into the poem. What images does the poem convey? Are they trying to give one scene or multiple scenes from the poem? Are they being metaphorical, satirical, or literal? Is there a background to the poem, which is necessary to put the writing in context for the reader? Concentrate here on the actual verbiage of the poem, what the poem is saying. If you had not tracked the meter and rhyme before, pay closer attention to it here.

3) Read the poem a third time, this time watching for mechanical, grammatical, and other base items. How consistent is the poet's punctuation? Do they constantly switch between tenses? Is something misspelled? Was that done on purpose? This is your last chance to look at the meter and rhyme scheme. You may want to make additional notes on it, if either is a serious enough flaw to damage the poem. As you work though this portion, noting things to praise the poet for not making a mistake with is always helpful.

Now that you've read the poem and made your notes, it's time to write the review. Remember that poets are human and they like to have their egos stroked now and then. Open with something from that "This is great!" section, or a positive impression that the poem gave you. Don't use all your compliments at this one juncture, though. Next, detail your suggestions for the problems you spotted within the poem. That is important to repeat. Detail your suggestions. The poet has the option to ignore your review so making your suggestions sound like demands or requirements will guarantee they won't be taken. If you are going to suggest items outside of the basic grammar rules, offering a reason why or helpful rewrite for a single line would also be beneficial. Do not rewrite the poem for the poet. Finally, take the last positives that you have saved up and close your review with encouragement and a few more strokes to the writer's ego.

As a final reminder, remember, the type of reviews you leave behind, dictate the types of reviews that appear for your own writing.

The Extended Critique – Critiquing Writing – Part 3

Your critique skills are growing stronger, grasshopper. Now that we’ve developed the speedy critique, it’s time for the critique that takes time. Someone gives you a manuscript and asks for your opinion, with more than a day to tear the document apart.

Quit rubbing your hands together. This isn’t time for you to play Evil Editor.

As with the quick critique, I’m recommending the spare paper to make notes on as you go. If you work better with the manuscript on the screen, open a second file to make your notes. The quick critique could probably fit all its notes on one page. The longer critique could easily span multiple pages, depending on what you find. You might be putting more explanation on the page than you did before, as well. So be prepared for the extent of the work.

Also for this type of critique, if you have any form of writing library, I’d gather it together so you can reference their concepts. I’ll explain why as we go through the steps.

Okay, we’ve gathered our supplies, so let’s get to work.

Step One: Read the story. If you’re comfortable with it, read it aloud.  Make notes on the spare paper about your initial impressions. Because you will be doing so much more with this critique, feel free to leave this section sparse.

Step Two: Second reading. This reading goes looking for the glaring show stoppers. A show stopper of this nature jumps off the page and grabs you. It won’t let you go. It could show up as grammar and sentence structure, poorly created or one dimensional characters, or any of a large number of things.  I can’t say more other than you’ll know what I mean when you spot it.

The problem may be so bad that it hurts even your inner editor. (It’s amusing watching that little creep curl into a ball, I know.) Make notes on each find, including a mark of some form within the manuscript, if the author permits it. Personally, I’d use a pencil to mark a physical document, in case a question early in the document gets answered later, so you can erase. If you’re working on screen, make sure you highlight in a different color, to make your notes stand out from their base text.

Now that we have hacked the surface issues, let’s see what’s below the surface.

Step Three: Third reading. Seek plot holes, character glitches, story problems.

Your eyes may start to cross from looking at the same story by now, but the extra readings become necessary. You needed to break through your reader’s eye to the editor’s eye, and as a writer, it sometimes takes an extra pass or two for that to happen. If you are writing a few of these in a day, once the first is complete, the subsequent might take less passes.

Plot holes come in two forms, really. Some appear in the show stoppers section. If they do, don’t mention them twice. It won’t help your fellow writer.  Others will be smaller, less obvious. Maybe early in the story, the main character picks up a 9-millimeter semi auto pistol, but in scene three, it’s a Colt 45 revolver. (I exaggerate, but it’s possible.) In both cases, the character still had a gun. Readers will pick on a small detail like this and poke holes in the story because of it. They will count shots taken, compared the count to the gun and its capacity. It affects the rest of their view of the story. So catching these before they get to print is important.

A character glitch might come from something about the character’s motivation. Perhaps the character willingly bashed the heads of puppies for three pages with spiteful glee. However, the henchman offering a puppy for such treatment doesn’t get a splash of puppy brains. The main character ignores the puppy. Did the writer explain the reason for the change of heart? If not, you’ve found a glitch. 

A change in the character’s name also counts as a glitch. If the author refers to a character as Joe for five pages, then you find him called George, note it. The writer may have changed names mid creation, but they never went back to make the change in the rest of the document.

While I don’t condone it, grammar errors are found during this pass.  Extra or missing punctuation, missing objects of verbs, passive sentence structures all get mentions here. Some of these may occur higher on the list of your critique checklist. A run-on sentence, to me, is a show stopper. To others, it could fall down to the third reading. Mostly, grammar is not part of the critique process unless you’re a final reader before the publisher or agent gets their hands on it.  Depending on what version of the draft the writer handed to you, some of these grammar issues may change with the next edit pass.

I’m going to repeat a Big Important Thought here. Once a problem is noted, try not to repeat your find multiple times. The harp is a beautiful instrument, but not when reviewing the writing of another.

Step Four: If you want to make one more reading, it’s done here. Most people I’ve spoken with tend to catch so much with the first three readings, they don’t need the fourth reading to know what they still have awaiting a comment.

This last read is a fine tuning read, beyond all the rest.  Check for sentences that just don’t feel right. Again, I can’t tell you exactly how to spot these sentences, you will just know.  Perhaps it’s a piece of dialogue that catches you just the wrong way. A turn of phrase that dates the manuscript might be worth a note as well. If you read it aloud earlier, find those bumpy spots in the reading. Read them aloud again, making notes on where you hit the pothole.

With your notes in hand, it’s time to return to the writer who asked for help. In a future post, I’ll cover the process of presenting a critique.  Just remember that an extended critique will take more time to review than a quick review. This isn’t a problem, but be sure to allow for the additional time. Remember to encourage.

With these two posts, I’ve offered thoughts on examining a short story or article. I’ve placed the points of order in how I go through the writing. As a matter of course, feel free to rearrange as is comfortable for your work process.

The Quick Critique – Critiquing Writing – Part 2

Okay, so you’re looking at this piece of writing in front of you. Someone requested a quick once over of the piece. The writer wanted your impressions. Perhaps they’ve asked for a specific something from you. This may be true more with genre writers, but anyone can ask for a focused critique. No problem.

 

Personally, I recommend having a piece of paper and pen or pencil with you when working any critique. It allows you to make notes on your impressions without marking up the manuscript with unnecessary marks. With computers, it’s easier for a writer to give you a throw away copy of the story. However, the scrap paper offers more space for notes, so it’s worth having handy.

 

Knowing your strengths and weaknesses will assist you in this process. If your writing has issues with shifting point of view, touch on the subject if it jumps out at you, but don’t concentrate on the subject. With all that said, here’s what you do.

 

First step: Read the story. Duh. The first pass won’t be a deep reading. You just want to get a feel for the voice, the style.

 

On the scrap paper, write down impressions of the story as you read. Include both good and bad impressions. I’ve had a sheet that started with “Great Opening!” followed by a series of notes on shifting point of view, only to praise two more unique phrasings I’d not seen before. If something in the story freezes you midsentence, that deserves a notation as well.  Draw a line on the page to separate the initial impressions from the next step.

 

Step two: Go through the story a second time. This pass requires a bit deeper reading. You’re reading this time for show stoppers. Find that sentence that took looking at five times before you figured out what the writer wanted to say. If the writer gave you a throw away copy, note the issues on the manuscript. I’ll use a pencil and draw a bracket around the offending sentence. If jargon or other story specific piece grabs you and won’t let go, question that as well. Make notes about each piece you’ve found on your paper.

 

With critiques like this, two passes may take all the time you have available. With the second pass complete, now you want to present your findings to the writer. Go through your notes with the writer, giving a small explanation on what you’ve found. I’ll cover this a little more in another post.

 

Before that post, however, let me give a Big Important Thought on the subject of critique writing.  Normally, I won’t give absolutes here. I don’t feel it’s my place. Today, I’ll make an exception.

 

NEVER EVER state that a piece of writing is crap, garbage, or any other euphemism you can think of for horrible.

 

Pay attention to what you find in others’ writings. It may be you’ve seen it before – in your own.

Helping Fellow Writers – Critiquing Writing – Part 1

Now that we’ve gotten out of the cave and found a group of like-minded writers, we find a new wrinkle to smooth in our quest as a social writer. Someone handed us a copy of THEIR writing and wants us to offer our opinion.

Feeling better? Smelling salts does that to the head when you faint.

I realize that the feet don’t feel fully stable on the ground of your own writing. To now take someone else’s writing and poke its weak points doesn’t feel right. However, I have a secret for you. Finding a fault in another’s writing will help you detect faults in your own writing. You’ll be better able to identify issues. Over the next few posts, I’ll take you through critiquing another’s writing. With this post, I’ll introduce you to my thought process concerning critiques.

There must first be one ground rule placed on any critique that you do. The writing is your target, not the writer. Even the most hated of enemy asking for a critique needs to have some hope of an honest critique. So when you read anything, forget WHO gave it to you and just worry about the writing on the page before you. With that ground rule in place, let’s move on.

I have found that two situations exist where you may find yourself asked to review another’s work and give your opinion. The first situation happens at almost any time. You’ll be talking with another writer about your latest project. Your conversation partner whips out their manuscript, or portion thereof, and asks for an opinion on the spot. This may also happen at a writer’s group, at the beginning of the meeting when everyone arrives. In this situation, you won’t have time to delve deep into the story minutiae. A few quick reads of the piece and they want your answer.

The second situation contains a bit more planning concerning your time and opinion. Perhaps through email or snail mail, a fellow writer may send you a manuscript with a request to dig into it. With the writing group, you get a writing piece from a group member prior to the next meeting. Sometimes it’s a day or two, sometimes you get a week or more.  Either way, the piece is in your hand for an extended period. Now is the time to pull out resources about plot, characters, and genre to challenge the manuscript at hand.

In both cases, you want to do your best to offer the other writer insight into what they gave you, without changing the story to your style. That’s a Big Important Thought, so I’m going to repeat it.

Offer help and insight without changing the story to your style.

It’s a temptation to look at a sentence and say “That’s not how I’d word that.” However, that’s not your job as a person critiquing the manuscript. Your job is to find the rough spots, the glaring errors, the show stoppers that causes a reader or editor to slide to a stop and refuse to proceed.

Don’t be afraid to look at a piece and not find anything wrong. Honestly, a writer may hand you a story that reads like a great piece, with nothing so glaring that a spell checker wouldn’t locate it easily. It’s rare but it does happen. In that instance, tell the person! Don’t TRY to find something wrong, because then it becomes rewriting to your style.

Over the next few posts, I’ll cover the actual technique of a valuable critique. I’ll even offer a few thoughts on critiquing poetry, since poets will ask for help as much as story writers.

Just remember, your support means a stronger story for both yourself and your critique friend.

The Writing Group Conundrum

So far, you’ve been writing in your cave for a while and decided the time has come to venture out to find others of like thoughts and processes. Books and articles exist on the subject, explaining about finding the right match, the perfect group. They also mention that it takes time to meet and understand the people. I won’t argue against the people who did their research.

What I want to do is add to the concepts that they put forth.

Many of the articles that I’ve read, in addition to the books on the subject of writing groups, suggest that someone needs to pay attention to a factor, or maybe two, when selecting a group. I’d say that each group can be placed into a three-dimensional graph. One axis will hold a continuum of people from social gatherings to professionally structured groups. A second axis will hold a continuum ranging from general writing to genre specific writings. The final axis holds a continuum running from basic writing/chit chat groups to pure publication preparation.

Another way to look at this is to think of the red-green-blue sliders available on many televisions. Where the slider sits on each bar affects the image that you see. In the same way, the group falls onto the three sliders and affects how they operate. This breakdown can make a large difference to someone trying to find a place where the person might feel comfortable. A social fantasy writer who just wants to gather with other writers won’t feel comfortable with a group that is dedicated to a professional structure, with determined publication preparation of their romance novels. Any more than a person looking for a professional, literary fiction, publication prep group would be happy with a humor-based group writing for the fun and social atmosphere.

Remember the earlier post where I told you that I didn’t care what genre you wrote? It’s different here, because it makes a difference for your writing group.

As you seek the group that is the best fit, start with deciding what you seek in the group. Are you interested in preparing your work for publication? Are you interested in learning new things about the writing business? What structure are you seeking when you join a group?

Many of the previous points I bring out because I have experienced a little of each of these groups. During November, there is a month long event known as National Novel Writing Month. Those who experience it shorten it to NaNoWriMo. (It’s still a mouthful, I know.) This entire concept is to write, to get that first draft on paper. They hold writing groups throughout the month, but each group has its own dynamic. Some groups will gather and share space, but all they do is write. Some groups will gather, discuss plot points, and try to marshal people along the pipeline. One or two rare groups will gather, settle down with drinks (normally non-alcoholic) and just relax their strained fingers. Whether any of these groups prove useful depends on the attendee. This mad dash writing shows a microcosm of the writing world. The desire to write, the gathering of like minds, and the hope to have a finished novel at the end of 30 days all show a compressed timeline to what some writers take years to accomplish. Personally, I enjoyed my five years I did it, though I stressed all of November. Other writers I’ve spoken with find the entire endeavor useless. It’s all about perspective.

All of this leads to narrowing down your choices. A fourth slider also exists for someone to consider, but it holds a lower ranking for me than the others. This one deals with choosing the amount of time the group spends on line (be it web based or email based) to how much time you spend meeting in person. Some people prefer face-to-face meetings. Others live with their computer and online works fine for them.

Just remember that as writers, the more we experience, the richer our writing can be.

Trapped in a Cave

In my previous posts, I’ve concentrated on the personal side of the writing journey, dealing with the writer versus the paper or blank computer screen. Much of the journey will definitely travel a path with these factors at the front of your goals and ambitions. For some, this could come as a wonderful, escapist trap.
If this is the lone reason you write, my next few posts won’t make much difference for you. However, if you aspire to more than just a scribbler, if you’d like to be published, you’ll need to break away from the writing space.

Let me come at this from a different angle.

Your day should consist of more than get up, eat, go to writing space, breaks for sustenance and disposal, then return to bed. The writing will suffer with a lack of stimulation. Not to mention, with the lack of personal contact, you’ll start going a little insane.

I see the tic starting in those eyes already.

How can you not remain trapped in your own mind?

A lot of writing deals with the "What If" type thought process. It becomes increasingly difficult to create those scenarios if you have no basis for them. Step away from the writing space, stretch your mind and body, and experience LIFE! Walk though the park, drive to the local mall and people watch, find a local museum. Heck, even hang out at the library. I’m not suggesting that you need to spend oh my god amounts of money. But you do need to see the world in order to offer the insights that your writing will grow from and be made believable.

Another thing I’d encourage a writer to do is READ. I understand the fear of writing like the author that you’re reading. Imitation is okay when you first get started on a draft. The more you write, the more you develop your own style, your own "voice" as the experts call it. It’s possible to write in your own voice even as you read others.

As a different way to look at it, how can you claim to have written a literary masterpiece if you haven’t read anything to compare it to?

For those of us who hate crowds, me being one, I know this is a difficult task to accomplish. But I can also offer a different tact that will get human contact. Find a local writing group. They can be small groups that gather to share wisdom of the writing journey, as well as helping each other find errors that one might miss in their own editing passes.

There are those out there that state what I’m writing here are just clichés of the writing world and to ignore everything I’ve offered.

Even the anarchist will sound like a cliché after a while.

Consider I only offer my opinion on all these posts. My opinion comes from research and personal experience. Mine is but one person’s journey along this crazy planet. Others will experience different issues, different life-changing events. That’s not to say any offered view is wrong. It’s what makes we humans unique.