Your Greatest Critic

My latest Woman's Weekly story, "Frozen" -- a four-part serial exploring the implications of embryo donation -- is out on the newsstands this month.  I just received my contributor copies of the first installment, but the others will take a few weeks to get here. It can be hard waiting for them all to arrive, so I rely on comments from my in-laws in the UK to let me know that each new issue has hit the stands.

The Wallaces have always been super-supportive of my writing. Whenever we Skype or chat on the phone, they always ask me how the writing is going or if I'm working on something new. When I have a serial published, they are the first to tell me they are reading and enjoying it. This time, my father-in-law told me that it is "by far" the best story I've written. My mother-in-law said it sparked a lively discussion in her sewing group. Their praise means more to me than they'll ever know. Today, I sat down at the computer raring to write the next serial, because I felt like I must be doing something right.

We need our critics to make us better. We need our critics to make us feel that we are better. It can be hard to share your work, especially if you are new to this. But it is essential. So if you don't have your greatest critic, get one. It will make you a better writer.

My adventures in Adventures

You probably already know about Adventures in Children's Publishing. After all, they have over a thousand followers. But I just found it and can't recommend it highly enough.

Not only does it offer an amazing collection of informative posts (character worksheets, check lists, and the like) and some great contests (today they are offering 13!! giveaways), but once a month, five lucky people get their first 1250 words posted for a month-long workshop, starting with a critique from contributors Martina and Lisa, as well as the other workshop participants and any other followers who want to comment.

I am fortunate to be one of the five this month (my entry is #5 here). I have to say that Martina and Lisa give some of the best critiques I've seen around. When I went through the other entries to add my comments, I found that Lisa and Martina already made my points, better than I ever could.

If you haven't found Adventures in Children's Publishing yet, go check them out. If you want to offer your comments to the workshop entries, I know I (and I'm sure the other participants) would be very grateful. But definitely check out the comments from Lisa and Martina (both on current entries and on the ones from March), because I learned so much just from reading their critiques.

The Blame Game

As you may have read yesterday, I had a bit of a crisis where my editor came back and asked me to change the ending of one of my story segments. I spent a good part of the day pouting because it was one of the parts that I thought really worked.

But then I reminded myself that I am a professional writer, which means that I am NOT ALLOWED to fall back on that idea that if a reader doesn't think something works, then it must be the reader's fault. I'm sorry, but that thinking is for amateurs.

Let me repeat that, because I think it is a critical idea that separates good writers from bad:

If your reader doesn't understand something in your story, it is YOUR fault as the writer, not their fault as the reader.

If you reader doesn't think something works, it means you have failed to communicate motivation, action, something. Just to make things complicated, sometimes what a reader says doesn't work isn't always the problem. They just know something is wrong, but can't put their finger on it and may give vague feedback that doesn't always make sense. This is where having savvy critique partners (who are writers, not just readers) who can put it in the language of the craft is essential.

For example, a reader may say "I didn't like it when Jane jumped out of the car." What didn't your reader like? The action? The timing? What Jane said when she threw herself out? Your knee-jerk reaction might be "But I can't cut that scene! It's critical to the action!"

When the problem is verbalized by a writer, it becomes clearer. "I don't think you've clearly shown Jane's motivation to jump out the car." Suddenly, you know how to fix the problem -- no, wait -- you know how to make your story BETTER. Your reader was right.

Remember, this is not the blame game. You cannot blame the reader for your mistakes as a writer.

The good news is that if you can accept this truth, it shows that you are a good enough writer to identify and fix your issues.

A cry for help

Remember how I mentioned that I blog because I want to find critique partners and beta readers? (I promised to do a post on that when I my WIP was closer to that stage.)

Remember how I posted on the importance of cliffhanger endings in a serial?

Yeah, those two things just came crashing together.

I just got the word on my latest serial from the editor: they love the writing, but don't like the ending of part 1 and want me to change it.

I don't quite agree with the assessment but recognize that the editor knows her market best and therefore will do as they request. Trouble is, I'm having a bit of trouble breaking away from what I've written and seeing it in a fresh light.

So, I'm desperate for a critique partner like RIGHT NOW.

The story is written for a British woman's magazine, target audience of 30-60 year old women. There are three parts, around 11 pages each. I am seeking someone with experience in writing (and of course, reading) women's fiction to read it and give me some feedback that might help me think in a new direction. I was hoping for feedback fairly quickly.

As this is on spec for a publication, I am unable to post it. I have, however, added a new tab that has one of my shorter pieces (The Way to a Man's Heart -- 1700 words) that ran in the same magazine a few years back. Take a look... if you like my style and might be willing to help me out with some feedback on the new piece, drop me an email and we can discuss the details further. I will be happy to return the favor sometime (I am a former editor and have critiqued quite a bit).

Thanks!!

You have to have a goal. Do you have a goal?

I'm just about breaking my arm from patting myself on the back today. And the reason? I wrote 1000 words today. Now, this normally would not be a huge accomplishment for me. On a good day, I'll knock out 3000 words. But I haven't had many good days lately. In fact, I've barely written a word in six weeks.

I have several reasons (excuses) for this. The primary one is that my kids are home for the summer (seriously, 11 weeks for summer vacation??? Give me the UK system any old day -- 6 weeks!). This is a big problem for me as I am a bit of a prima donna when it comes to my writing time. I need a good hour to faff about before getting my game face on and then I'll write for a solid three or four hours. I cannot do that with the Prince of Dinosaurs and the Drama Queen dancing about. Even sticking a movie on buys me only two hours and that means they're finished just as I'm deep into my zone.

The second is that I'm still querying, which is really breaking me down. I am not patient and I am not an optimist. It is a debilitating process for me.

And the other reason is that I don't have a goal. Strangely enough, it isn't enough that I have an editor ready to cut me a check when I finish my current serial. Without hard dates to work toward, I flounder.

Things have to change.

So here are my goals (because posting them here means I've got witnesses):

• I am committing to finishing my current serial by August 15.
• If I finish a second serial by September 1 (and that's a big if), I will use half of that payment to attend a conference this fall.
• I will get my new WIP underway starting September 1, with the goal of finishing my first draft in November.

This means I need to cut through the paralysis that querying seems to put me in, work out some new writing practices that let me work in less than ideal conditions, and actually start writing again. And I need to get my gameplan together.

So that's where you come in. I'd like to find some crit partners for my new WIP. I know that my first novel suffered for not having the right kind of readers and that is a mistake I will not repeat this time around. So if you or someone you know is interested in forming a new group, please let me know in the comments (or send me an email). This WIP is commercial fiction, although I am comfortable working with writers of other genres. I'm happy to provide some writing samples so we can see if we're suited (obvs, it won't be from the WIP because I haven't written it yet!). I'll be ready to start exchanging chapters in September.

And the next thing, can you recommend some good conferences this fall? Location is not important (I'm in Texas). I'm looking for some exposure to other writers as well as editors and agents, whether through pitch sessions, workshops or informal opportunities. I'm thinking Backspace in NYC in November, but I'm open to any suggestions.

Thanks very much to anyone who can help me out on either of these suggestions. And, bonus points to anyone who can identify which movie my blog post title came from.

And thanks for reading this. I know I've been absent for a while and it feels good to be back.

Wanted: Feedback on Critique Software

Recently, I posted about using Gary Corby's neat little wildcard string for searching out one of my grammar quirks. Since then, I've been playing around in Word trying to find a way to highlight echo words, only to come up empty-handed. I then searched on the 'net to try to find a macro for finding repetitive words and phrases and came upon the AutoCrit Manuscript Editing Wizard.

The wizard allows you to paste in a scene or chapter (the amount you can paste and how often you can do it is dictated by your subscription level) and get feedback. The basic subscription (listed as $47) gives you reports on overused words, repeated phrases, sentence variations, repeated words, dialogue tags, first words, names and pronouns, frequent phrases. The higher subscription levels give you more.

I am intrigued. Normally, I am skeptical of software that analyzes writing (don't even get me started on Word Grammar check). But these days, I am so over-familiar with my manuscript that I feel I am missing some basic stuff. So I wonder if AutoCrit (or similar) might help me with some nitty-gritty mechanics.

Any thoughts on this? Does anyone have any experience with AutoCrit or any other program that would do similar things?

How much do you know about a book before you read it?

Last night, my first chapter was read in a writers' critique group. The result was not pretty. At the risk sounding like one of those writers who blames the reader's lack of understanding on the reader rather than the writer, I do think that this was less a problem with the chapter itself and more because I didn't give the readers ANY framework before we began. I said 'This is the first chapter of my novel, which is commercial fiction' and then the reading began. At the end, the first comment was "I didn't know where you were going with this." Consensus ensued. At the end of all comments, I gave a quick blurb of the book (like what I would put on jacket copy). Suddenly, there were smiles and nods. They could picture it, they liked it. The foreshadowing made sense, what I was building up made sense.

This made me realize that as a reader, I NEVER read a book without knowing something about it. I either look at a review, or at the very least, the inside flap or cover copy. If it is a recommendation, there is always a brief description. Does anyone just pick up a book, open it and start reading?

A reader needs some sense of where the journey is going to take them. One reader last night said "I didn't know whether this was horror or romance." Big difference. Imagine you are traveling: how disoriented would you be if you didn't know whether your plane was heading to Africa or Amsterdam (both very nice places, but requiring very different mindsets).

The trick, of course, is how much information to put out there. Enough to get the cerebral juices flowing but not enough to spoil the story. I once read in a great post (have to try to find it so I can link to it here) that when you write a novel, you need three synopses. You should have a synopsis that is 1-2 pages (for queries -- think of it as a detailed map), 1-2 paragraphs (also for queries and where a bit more info is needed -- sort of like driving directions from the internet), and 1-2 sentences (for telling someone -- like pointing a tourist in the right direction). Great advice.

So now I'm off to fix some things from last night (see, I know my writing is not perfect and that I will always learn something from a critique, whether or not I agree with it). And then I'll get started with my maps.

Have a great writing day!