Readers and Critiques

Filed in: blog | writing    Tags: critique | revisions process

Parts of Across the Silk Road, aka Book 1 remastered, have been sent out to readers. No one has the entire manuscript, not even Little Sis, because I’m still hashing out the last chapters which are still in draft form. I have to thank my readers for being so patient with me and my jigsaw process. Right after I finish this draft, I’ll pick up from the beginning and revise in earnest again.

Last night, after critique group, I was thinking of how deep my revision process is. I expect a lot of the tone of the book to change and deepen in the subsequent drafts. Rarely does the structure or plot change, but the emotions get worked over and sharpened (at least I hope) which requires more invasive and far reaching changes threaded throughout the book. It’s so time consuming and nerve wracking to work this way, but I may just have to resign myself to it.

I wonder if this is in some way due to the style of critique I prefer, which I developed from working with Little Sis. I was telling her last time we were together how most readers will read and tell you what worked and what didn’t, giving you suggestions for what you can tweak. That’s definitely needed and very useful. But what my sister tells me is not whether the story is working, but rather, she tells me what the story can be.

The suggestions Little Sis will give are ones that will turn a scene on its tail. She’ll redirect the emotional path of the scene, at times, changing the tone of the entire chapter and perhaps even subsequent chapters. The characters will develop in an entirely different way from what I have on the page — but not in conflict with my overall arch. I can see where this sort of critique can be unwelcome. The changes are not insignificant, but her special skill is that she is sensitive to where the story is going. She’s able to tell me how to do what I want, but even better.

I think it takes a special kind of love to be able to do that. A special kind of tough love.

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My arch-nemesis: the comma

Filed in: book reviews | miscellaneous | writing    Tags: auction | commas | contest feedback | critique | grammar | judges

First off, I’m offering a group critique as part of a charity auction over at Ciar Cullen’s blog. Check out the Rose Group: Romancing a Cause

The premise of the critique is that Amanda Brice, Cynthia Justlin and I all swapped critiques of our Golden Heart® entries. Due to some diva mojo and our collective feedback, all three of us are 2009 Golden Heart® finalists. (By the way, RWA told me to put that trademark sign whenever mentioning the GH.)

I’m not a bad critique partner. I can be cruel, yet kind. But the one thing I cannot do is critique grammar, as evidenced by the Marlene entry I just got back. Judge #16, I thank you wholeheartedly! This thing has been through so many readers, and no one pointed out the mechanical errors to the level that you did. Were they just thinking I must have left out all those commas because I was typing fast? Surely Jeannie will go through and fix all these elementary mistakes herself. She can’t be that bad at grammar.

Yes, she is that bad at grammar. (Head on desk) Reason #1 that I’m a contest slut — your known readers and cps love you too much to see your flaws.

The thing is, I have an ominous memory of where things took a turn for the worse. I realized once that I was overusing the nefarious comma. So I did a quick lookup online about comma overuse. I looked it up online. Did I go to my Strunk and White’s, which I had used faithfully to write my master’s thesis? No, my lazy butt read something really quickly on Google and screwed myself up for the next year. I’m a quick learner — I pick rules up and program them into my head immediately. (Head on desk)

Ominous memory number #2. Not even two weeks ago, little sis was telling me about how people in her MFA program were griping about the period in education when people tried to get kids to read more for the joy of it and didn’t stress mechanics. So now we have this cadre of Lit majors who suck at grammar. “That’s me!” Little sis lamented. Little sis is my primary critique partner.

Judge #16 set me straight. I’m sending along a thank you letter soon, and I wish I could tack on some flowers and candy to that. (See previous comma. Now imagine a whole manuscript where that sort of comma was left out. See light bulb going off in Jeannie’s head about why she continues to get rejections.)

Re-programming starting now…

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My new writing playground

Filed in: writing    Tags: agents | contests | critique | writing

I have yet another playground on the internet – Miss Snark’s First Victim’s blog. Self described as a blog for aspiring authors, the site’s mistress “Authoress” is currently hosting a Secret Agent contest. Aspiring authors send in 250 word entries to be critiqued by a faithful following of bloggers as well as the Secret Agent of the month, who is actually a literary agent. Get this – the Secret Agent comments on every entry that makes the cutoff. A guaranteed agent critique! This month’s call for submission included romance so I jumped into the fray.

I’m getting some great pointers in my entry and reading the other entries is really helping me get a sense of what works in an opening. There are some very conscientious and thoughtful critiquers following this blog. Many of them are familiar with each other’s works, commenting that “they like the changes” or “it’s come a long way”. I might have to hang around a little more, though the last thing I need is another internet vortex.

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