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Posts Tagged ‘critiques’

Full Novel Critiques

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , on October 31, 2010| 2 Comments »

Hmm.  Got busy and forgot to blog until late.  Now I’m full of pumpkin pie.

I just got back the last of four full-novel critiques on MAGE STORM.  These wonderful people read the whole thing–inside of a month, too.  Previously, I’ve only had novels critiqued piecemeal as part of a chapter exchange that often stretched over several months to complete.

I really appreciate the critiques.  There are just somethings that I know these readers could judge much better than if it had been a chapter exchange.  Pacing, for one.  I’m always suspicious about pacing comments from someone who’s reading a chapter every ten days. 

At the same time, four complete, marked-up copies of my manuscript at once is a little daunting.  It’s hard to know where to start.  Guess I’ll still end up doing the revisions chapter by chapter just to break it into manageable pieces.

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Critiques–Again

Posted in writing, tagged , , on October 24, 2010| Leave a Comment »

I try to always have a critique or two going.  Not only to return the favor for people who critique my work.  It’s a fantastic learning experience.  A chance to analyze what worked and what didn’t in someone else’s work in a way you’d never be able to do with your own.  And then, if you’re smart, turn it around and ask yourself if you’ve done the same things. 

I’ve been doing more critiques than usual this month.  Partly because of the new writers’ group that I joined a little over a month ago. 

Well, something strange happened to the remainder of this post.  Half of it just seems to have disappeared.  Maybe I’ll try to reconstruct it later.

The short version is that, between critiques I’ve received and critiques I’ve given in the last week or so, I’ve come to a new realization of how annoying some of my writer’s tics, like double spacing after the period, can be to others.  I have to work harder to fix that before I send anything out.  There’s no point in aggravating a reader, whether it’s someone trying to help you with a critique or an agent or editor you’re trying to impress.

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Voice

Posted in writing, tagged , , , on October 17, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Voice is one of those things that’s really hard to define.  To some extent, it’s what makes one writer’s work different from another’s.  Some writers have such distinct voices that you can pick out their work without looking at the cover.  Others are able to modify their voice substantially according to the story they’re telling.

One thing about voice is that it takes time–and a lot of writing–to develop. 

It appears, from recent critiques, that my voice best suits middle grade and young adult stories.  Although it took me a couple of days to wrap my mind around that paradigm shift, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with this.  In fact, in many ways it’s good news.  Good to think that I’m establishing a voice.  And, frankly, young adult is one of the better markets right now, so that’s not exactly bad news, either.

It’s making me look at the recent rejection of BLOOD WILL TELL in a new light, however.  If my voice is young adult, then I’ve been marketing that story all wrong and that, of course, could be one reason it hasn’t gotten anywhere, yet.  Because I think it’s a very good story.  (Of course, I’m not at all prejudiced about that.)  In fact, in some ways it reminds me of Kirstin Cashore’s GRACELING, which I’m reading now.  At least, the protagonists are similar in some ways.

So, I’m going to stop for a bit and think about it.  Possibly get a few more opinions from people familiar with the genre.  It really would take only minor changes to the manuscript to reorient it as young adult.  If I were going to re-query some of the same agents, I might need to change the title.  There are a couple of references to Valeriah’s age (25), which would have to be changed downward to about 18.  Likewise a few mentions of how long she’s been doing something that would need to be shorter (or else she started very young.)  And only one scene that I would want to take a look at and possibly revise a bit. 

If that’s all that needs changing, maybe it really was young adult all the time and I just wasn’t smart enough to figure it out.

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Writers’ Groups

Posted in writing, tagged , , , on September 15, 2010| Leave a Comment »

I’ve never belonged to a face-to-face writers’ group, mainly because I haven’t found one that suits my needs, yet.  However I do belong to three different online writers’ groups.  You’ll find them listed on the right side of this blog, if you scroll down.

Writers’ groups can be great.  They’re a place for support, which all of us occasionally need.  They’re a great place to learn about the ins and outs of this business, especially if they have members at all levels–beginners new enough to ask all the questions and veterans experienced enough to have some of the answers.

Still there are different kinds of writers’ groups, even online.  I’m a member of a brand new writers’ group (literally, the forum only started at the end of August), and so far it is completely awesome.  We’re divided up into smaller groups based on our interests–novels or short stories, genre, etc.  It’s possible to belong to more than one group.  I’m currently in a group focusing on young adult fantasy novels.  It’s a new experience, getting critiques only from people who are interested in the same kind of writing I am.  I love it.

I am amazed at the quality of writing, story ideas, and critiques in this group so far.  I predict that in five years at least one of us will be published.  Hope it’s me.

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Critiques–Knee-Jerk Critiques

Posted in writing, tagged , , on August 18, 2010| 4 Comments »

What I call knee-jerk critiques occur when a critiquing partner has just internalized one of the “rules” of good writing.  You can tell when this has happened because every third or fourth comment is the same.  “Avoid -ly adverbs.”  “Watch out for said bookisms.”  “You’ve used passive voice.  Make it active.” 

I put the word rules in quotation marks above because, while these guidelines represent best practices to a large extent, there isn’t one that hasn’t been broken to good effect in the right circumstances.  Barring basic grammar and spelling, of course.

It is always better to use a strong verb instead of a weaker verb and an adverb.  “Strolled”, “ambled”, or “trudged” convey more than “walked slowly”, but not all adverbs are necessarily the work of the devil.  Used sparingly, they still have a place. 

Contrary to the rule above (just to show that there always is an exception), it is almost always better to use “said” or “asked” in dialog tags, rather than the stronger verbs like “whispered”, “screamed”, “commented”, “suggested”, “whined”, etc.   In this case, you don’t want to keep the tag simple so that it doesn’t detract from the dialog.  Then again, sometimes the fact that the character is whining might be the point and more important than what they’re saying.

Passive voice is my least favorite because half the time the segment that’s marked by the critiquer isn’t even in passive voice.  It might be in, say, past perfect tense, but that’s not passive voice.  And again, while I recognize that active voice is more interesting, I might choose to subliminally emphasize my character’s helplessness in a situation by using passive voice for a short section.

The only problem with these knee-jerk critiques is that after a while they generate so much white noise that it’s hard to sort out the valuable comments.   

It’s a fine line.  Like anyone else, I’m capable of slipping back into bad habits and, say, using a said bookism when I didn’t intend to.  I appreciate having that pointed out to me.  But I guess you only need to point out the same thing just so many times in any one critique.  Too much, even of a good thing, can be distracting.

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Backstory and Characters

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , on August 15, 2010| Leave a Comment »

This is what I’m wrestling with right now.  THE IGNORED PROPHECY is intended to be the second in a series (of four, hopefully).  However, I very much want it (and all of them) to stand on its own.  That requires a very delicate balance.  I need to give the reader enough background to understand how the characters got where they are now, how they know each other and relate to each other, and establish the milieu all over again.  All without sounding like an info dump or slowing the story down too much.  Piece of cake, right?

It was easier in THE SHAMAN’S CURSE.  I had a handful of characters, basically a nuclear family, with only one or two exceptions, to start.  All the other characters got introduced as my point-of-view character met them.  Simple.  Now, I’ve got all these characters–and I mentioned in an earlier post that there are quite a few–and I have to reintroduce them with enough information for the reader to go on with, but not so much that I stop everything every time a “new” character turns up.

Last pass, I clearly had way too many characters introduced in the first chapter.  Some of that was unnecessary.  Just because I know they’re there doesn’t mean they have to make and appearance.  I’ve cut that back.

I’ve added a little reflection by the main character to hopefully give the reader some understanding of how he got where he is now.  I’ve tried not to make it too long or an info dump, but only a reader will be able to tell me that for sure.

Now, I’ve still got to work in how the main character is related to various groups in the story and show a little more depth of the world-building.   Oh, and there are still several characters I need to do a better job introducing. 

This is nowhere near as easy as it sounds–and it never sounded easy.

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Critiques:Not Your Kind of Story

Posted in writing, tagged , , , on August 11, 2010| 1 Comment »

I’ve blogged about the importance of critiques before–both giving and receiving.  Some recent experiences have brought the subject up again.  I’ll probably have more than one blog on this topic.

The first subtopic of critiques is “Not Your Kind of Story”.  Sometimes, you read a story and know that it’s just not one you would have continued reading if you’d picked it up in a magazine or anthology.  If it’s a novel, it’s one you would have put back on the bookstore shelf or stopped after the first few pages.  It’s just not your kind of story.

In that situation, if I’ve agreed to do a critique, I will go ahead and read the piece.  I try to be up front about it in my critique and say right at the beginning that it’s not a story that appeals to me.  That doesn’t make it a bad story.  Very few stories are going to be universally liked.  And I appreciate it when a critiquer does the same for me.  Let me know right at the start that this just isn’t your cup of tea. 

With that out of the way, well, there are certain things a critiquer can still help you with, points of clarity or occasionally style that apply to all types of stories.  Things that can be hard to spot in your own work.  And I will still mention, if applicable, the parts of the story that just didn’t quite work for me–getting from point A to point B didn’t quite make sense or the ending didn’t feel satisfactory.  I could be wrong on some of those points because I’m not as familiar with the conventions of a subgenre I don’t read, so stating that up front is important.

It’s nice if you can include one or two things you like about the story anyway.  Usually there is something–a particular bit of imagery or an original bit of worldbuilding.  Something.  I’ve been reminded recently that I’m not always as good as I should be about remembering to do that.

What a critiquer shouldn’t do however, in my opinion anyway, is tell you that you should have written an completely different story.  Someone else should be the main character or the story should be about something else entirely.  Those aren’t helpful critiques.  They don’t apply to the story at hand.  Worse, those comments tend to cloud the critique and make it difficult to respond to the parts that might be helpful.  That really makes the whole process a waste of everybody’s time.

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Synopses (Again)

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , on July 18, 2010| Leave a Comment »

If you’ve read some of the older posts in this blog, you know that synopses are a particular bugbear of mine.  Like them or not, though, they are necessary, so I’ve got to make peace with them one way or another.

I’m currently in the middle of a synopsis challenge on Hatrack River Writers Workshop.  That means I’ll have half a dozen or so other synopses to read and comment on over the next week.  It’s amazing the things you can spot when your critiquing someone else’s work that you’d never spot in your own.  Hopefully, this helps all of us learn to write better synopses–or at least improve our current ones, if nothing else.

Since I was already in synopsis mode, polishing up the synopsis for BLOOD WILL TELL, I went ahead and wrote the first draft of a synopsis for MAGE STORM, too.  They say that it’s easier to write the synopsis before you write the novel and before your head is full of all the wonderful details and subplots you create.  We’ll see.  I don’t see how it could be any harder that way.  I also took a crack at the synopsis for THE IGNORED PROPHECY and wrote a proto-synopsis for the new version of SEVEN STARS.  Glutton for punishment, I guess.

Now that that’s done, I’m back to work on MAGE STORM, and making progress, with assorted revisions to balance things out and try to keep the internal editor busy with something besides my first draft.

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Unexpected Revisions

Posted in writing, tagged , , , on July 7, 2010| Leave a Comment »

I mentioned last time that I had gotten into some unexpected revisions on BLOOD WILL TELL, which I had regarded as complete.  It happened like this:  I had actually gotten a request for a partial on this one, which, unfortunately, ended in another rejection.  But the rejection came with a little hand-written note.  That’s good.  It seems the partial was confusing.  That’s not good.  Ever.

Well, of course, it’s not confusing to me, but I have the whole story and more in my head.  So, I asked the writers at the Hatrack Writers Workshop for some help.  Several people stepped up and offered to read the sample and give me their opinions.  It’s great to have a forum like that and I appreciate them all.

So far, the opinions run along these lines:

  • Several people felt that they couldn’t connect with the main character until about the middle of the second chapter.  Not good.  One way to fix that would be to just move the beginning to that point, and I may still do that.  There are some things that I establish in that earlier chapter and a half that I’d like to keep, though, if I can.  So, I’m sweeping through trying for deeper immersion in the character.  (Sweeping may be too big a word.  It’s been almost a week and I’m still on Chapter Two.)  I’m also trying to tighten it as I go with a few judicious cuts.  I’ll go through the whole thing.  I actually think I get pretty good penetration into the character’s POV later.  This may be a failing of mine, that I take a chapter or two to really settle into the characters’ heads.  Something I should look out for and fix in second drafts.
  • A couple of people didn’t like the abrupt introduction to Chimeria.  I’ll pause there for a paragraph to introduce the differences between our world and the magical realm.
  • Some people found the exposition of the premise, which I tried to weave into the story, confusing.  People expect certain things when they see werewolves, unicorns, and dragons.  I’ve consciously stepped a little outside what’s expected.  But I may not have made that easy enough to follow at the beginning.  I think I can reorganize the way certain things are brought out that will hopefully make the whole premise more understandable.  And spend a few more words to help clarify.  Hopefully it’ll make it more interesting, too.
  • It has been suggested that, with this complicated premise, this story might need a prologue.  I tried an ELANTRIS-style prologue (which you can find under Chimeria on the Worlds tab), but it just doesn’t work for me.  So, instead, I’ve tried writing an even earlier first chapter.  This chapter takes place at a very dramatic and important event that occurs twenty years before the rest of the novel–the murders of the main character’s family, witnessed by her as a five-year-old.  I’ll have to see how that works.

All of this, of course, is taking me away from new writing on MAGE STORM.  Well, the new first chapter counts as new writing, too.

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Reusing Milieus

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , on May 12, 2010| Leave a Comment »

“Becoming Lioness” is set in the same world, and uses some of the same characters as THE SHAMAN’S CURSE and THE IGNORED PROPHECY.  In fact, it’s based on an event that should happen in the fourth book of the series, if it ever gets that far.

The last set of revisions (which I finished this morning) were prompted by a couple of critiques and one comment.  It made me aware of just what a delicate dance it is to provide enough information, but not too much in a short story.  There are both benefits and drawbacks to using the milieu from two of my novels for a short story. 

On the positive side, all the world building was already done.  I know this world and these characters intimately.  That part was easy.  From at least one comment, I think the world came through as being much richer than my other short stories, probably because it is.

On the negative side, I know this world and these characters intimately, meaning I know way too much about them to fit into a short story. 

This last revision was mostly cuts, removing places where I had too much detail or backstory.  It might enrich the story, but it was killing the pacing.  Asking the question: does the reader really need to know that for this story to work?  I don’t know yet if I cut enough or too much.  In some places, I had to combine characters or even slightly alter events from the way they will be in the novel in order to make the short story better.

The next short story that I’m considering is also set in this world, based on an event from THE SHAMAN’S CURSE.  So the take-away lesson is: to really think carefully about what I put in.  Some hints at the backstory may serve to enrich the world.  Too much just bogs things down.  And I can’t let myself get too tied down to the way it happened in the novel.  I have to do what works best for the short story, first.

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