The Pitfalls of Multiple Critiques

I have been doing a fair amount of critiquing these days. It clears my mind so that I can dive into my own manuscripts with fresh eyes.  I have also noticed a lot of first page critiques up on blog posts.  I read them, scan the comments, and often cringe.

First, hats off to those of you courageous enough to put your work out there for others to critique. It is a necessary and often difficult process. Let's face it, none of us want to hear that are ms is lacking in one are or overflowing with description in another.  But we need to.  Second, and more importantly, be careful.  Sometimes we get so lost on other people's opinions of our manuscripts that we forget why we originally wrote it . . . we forget that it is our voice we are honing NOT SOMEBODY ELSE'S.

Now, what prompted this post of caution?  No worries, it is not a critique we got back on SILO.  That baby has left the hands of our "small group of well-seasoned" critique partners weeks ago, the revisions being read solely by Ginger.  It's a couple of other things actually.  I got a ms to read from a long standing CP of mine, one that was already full of comments.  Content wise, I agreed with a very small percentage of the suggested edits, what I took exception to was her completely inaccurate use of  grammar.  My CP was stressed out, got the dreaded comment that her ms was riddled with passive voice.  It wasn't, which has me thinking maybe it is time for another post on the difference between past-tense active voice and passive voice.

That afternoon I read a blog post for a fantastic author who was seeking a critique on her first 250 words.  She was off to an amazing and strong start, better then three-quarters of the manuscripts I have read in the past year.  She threw you right into the story, had the perfect amount of dialogue to action, and set the tense mood within a few well-crafted sentences.  Ohh . . . but did she have comments.  Problem was each one was telling her to switch something different up.  There was no consistency in the suggested edits, just a bunch of personal taste floating around.  And that is what scares the hell out of me -- that authors like myself will start changing things, start hacking up our manuscripts according the the personal taste of a few dozen beta readers.

My advice . . . DON'T.  Remember that it is your voice, your story.  Trust your instincts.  Don't be afraid to revise, but you have to whole-heatedly agree with the suggested revision. And by all means, look for the common denominator.  If three or four of your CP's are telling you the same thing, then address it.  BUt please, don't ever change the way you write because some random commenter on your blog didn't like the second sentence of your third paragraph!

How do I get around it?  Like I said, small, well-seasoned group of CP's who know my style, aren't interested in changing my voice, and read solely for plot and character inconsistencies. Took me a long time to find them, but they are fantastic!

Five Things Equally as Fun as Nailing a Revision!

There are a few things more exhilarating than hearing from your agent that you have nailed a very tricky revisions that encompassed more than 1/3 of you manuscript.  I mentioned this to a writing buddy of mine and the look on her face was one of sheer amazement.  That got me thinking -- perhaps I take my writing all too seriously.  I doubt it, but to play devil's advocate, here are a few material things that get me equally in a stir.

1. Chocolate covered espresso beans (eat them by the handful and are responsible for several successful edits in their own right)

2. My pocket dictionary of the "The most commonly mis-spelled words," because let's face it, there are a slew of words that our automatic grammar checkers don't catch.

3.  My blender.  There is nothing better then a frozen beverage on a hot summer afternoon

4. That tiny bikini hanging in my bathroom that I am still 10 lbs and 2 weeks away from daring to put on.

5. And lastly, the tow-behind to my tractor.  Odd choice, yes, but that thing can cart anything around from dirt, to tree stumps, to kids.

So there you have it, a very electric look into the five material things that make me insanely happy. 

No Page Untouched

Not a single chapter in my YA Speculative Fiction manuscript will go untouched in this final round of revisions.  Are they major character and plot edits?  Not entirely, but each small tweak sends ripples through the the rest of the manuscript, meaning no chapter, no scene, no page can go unrevised.  I'd be lying if I said I wasn't apprehensive, nervous that I will go too far in one direction or not pull back far enough on another.  S'okay though.  I got my revision emergency bag handy.  The Contents:  5lbs of freshly ground coffee beans and Almond Joy coffee creamer, brand new toner for the laser printer,  a rather large bag of M&M's, and a red pen.  Oh yes . . . and a kick-ass writing partner who's head is always in the game.  Not like mine :)

So for those of you who are also neck deep in revisions, tell me what gets you through the process, and I will add it to my bag of tricks.

Getting Better As I Go

I pulled up a very old manuscript of mine the other day -- one that will never see the light of day, one that most of my CPs don't even know exists.  I gave it a quick read through and realized just how much my writing has matured.  My sentence structure is now more complex, the threads more complicated, and the themes more edgy.  I understand the concept of well-placed back-story, realized there are hundred of ways to display emotion, and get that dialogue, although fun to write and essential, is only a small component of a well-written manuscript.  I have learned that an kick-ass first chapter is useless if the rest of the book falls flat and that scenes and chapters need to flow together seamlessly.  Am I done learning?  Is my writing done maturing?  Hell no!  But, it has come a long way  . . . from the dark, embarrassing crevices of my laptop to a manuscript I am not afraid to toss at my agent for review.

So how about you, has your writing matured over time or are you one of the lucky few born with an innate ability to just let the words flow?

Summer Reading Lists

My kids came home with their summer reading lists yesterday.  They opened the envelopes and sighed.  (Well one sighed; the other had a few choice words I won’t repeat) Spouting off about the merits of good literature, I grabbed the list from their hands and read it, only to find myself equally disappointed.  There were, of course, the required classics, which I pulled of my well stocked book shelf.  The rest of the titles I’ll have to buy. 

Their biggest complaint – they don’t have choices.  My daughter’s list had the requisite classic, three sci-fi novels, and one historical non-fiction.  No don’t get me wrong, I love sci-fi; I write Speculative fiction.  But my daughter doesn’t.  She hates it with a passion. Toss her “The Scarlet Letter” and she’ll be fine; make her read boy-centered sci-fi and she will fight her way through it.  And she has to read three this summer, not one.

My son . . . well in his box-of-a-world, he doesn’t have time for reading, not when there are baseball games to be played and friends to hose down.  Oh, he’ll read them, complaining right along side my daughter.

And thanks to an awesome tweet by agent Jennifer Laughran a few weeks back, I already know what I am going to do with both these lists.  I am going share them with my local Indie bookstore, maybe pick up a read for myself while I am there!

How about you – what’s on your kid’s summer reading lists this year?

Writing from the Linen Closet

Jamie Handling challenged me to come up with a metaphor describing what writing is like for me. The task was harder than I thought, but after a few hours of mulling it over, I've come up with a comparison.

Writing to me is like having a well-organized linen closet!

Makes no sense on the surface, I know; but keep reading, and I will attempt to explain.  I am not an overly organized person (mental white-boards aside).  I have notes scribbled here and there and stacks of mail on my counter that still need to be sorted through.  I have a basket of mis-matched socks and an inch of dust on that top bookshelf that I just can't seem to reach.  What I do have is an insanely organized linen closet.  All the towels are folded and placed in the exact same order, the shampoo, deodorant, and soaps are all neatly arranged in individual baskets, and in the bottom right corner is a sealed plastic tote that hides all my unsightly bathroom cleaning supplies.

The above is not so dissimalar from my laptop.

When you turn it one, you'll find a slew of files, all oddly labled, some containing the exact same information minus a sentence or two.  But when you open my word doc, things begin to change.  Each one is carefully named, its revisions carefully labeled and contained in their own sub folders.  The documents themselves are uniform -- same font, same layout, same header pages.  Now open it up, and what appears to be a creative spilling of prose on the outside is actually a well thought-out plot with complete character arcs, multiple threads all complicated, all closed, and all tightly woven together. 

So there you go, open the door to my kitchen or turn on my laptop and you will find a mess of crap that only I could decipher.  But open the door to my linen closet or crack open one of my manuscripts and you'll find an insanely methodical, well thought-out plan.

The Title-Go-Round

How is it that us writers can crank out 70,00 words of emotionally charged prose with relative ease, yet find ourselves stuttering when forced to come up with a title?  Trying to encapsulate your entire book into one two words is damn hard.  I am relieved to say, that after several go-arounds and a rather intimate relationship with the Thesaurus, Fatum now has a new name.  Better yet, it is one that all three of us (Lindsay, Ginger, and I) love. From this point forward, our Speculative Fiction manuscript is now called:  SILO

Now that we have settled that dilemma, I'm off to plot out book 2!

Hello Old Friend

I woke with the sun today.  Not because of the glaring light pouring through my bedroom windows or the evil woodpecker who has taken up residence in the gutter on outside my room, but rather because my older children were remiss in taking the dog out last night.  He was howling from his crate and oh so relieved to see me dragging my ass down the stairs.

It was quiet (still is  . .  . it's barely 5am).  With a cup of coffee in hand, I opened up an old YA contemporary of mine.  The first manuscripts I was proud to put my name to, it quickly reminded me why I write in the first place. I still love it, am still amazed I strung those sentence together and wove those thread.  So thanks old friend for reminding me that there is more than one trick in this old, worn down bag of mine.  I am going to make you as pretty as you make me feel and ship you off to Ginger.  Hope she loves you just as much as me.

A Step Back

As aspiring authors, we often measure the quality of our own work against the success of others.  We see an amazing query, read a kick-ass first sentence for a CP, watch a writing friend get a request, then an offer, see a book out on submission and sold before ours, and we find ourselves flying into a tailspin, questioning our own worth.  It happens to all of us, regardless of where you are in the writing journey.  As generous and giving as we are to each other, there will come a time when you find yourself chocking over a heartfelt and well-deserved congratulations to a fellow author.  

The question is, where do you go from there?

I go dark, both in my writing and in my virtual presence. I take a step back form my WIP's, my beta reading, even my revisions and re-group, force myself to remember why I got into this whole writing business.   I trust my a co-author to keep me on task, make sure our revisions are stellar and turned in on time, then I open up a new doc. and go back to my first love -- YA Contemporary.  I take all that raw emotion and pour it into a set of characters that are truely nothing more than an emotional extension of me.

So that said, I'm going to go dark for a bit, refuel my muse and recharge my mind.  I am going to write something completely off the wall and totally for me.  I'll lurk, leave comments, and be here for those of you who need a cheerleader . . . and yes, even a honest "congratulations."  Then come next Friday, when my kids are finally out of school, I am going to pack the kids into the car and drive.  Take a nice long road trip with no destination in mind, just clear, open spaces for me to think.  I have three weeks before summer activities kick into gear.  That's a lot of time, plenty of drive-thrus, and a massive amount of roads to travel. 

Either that or I could channel all my nervous energy into my garden, perhaps grow the world's largest gourd!

Book Shops

Our local Border's closed this past spring and the nearest one is now 30 miles away.  Not really far on a good spring day; but in the summer, in the height of tourist season, it could take me two hours to get over the bridge alone. We have a Barnes and Nobles in the mall, but then I have to fight for a space in the mall parking lot and deal with tourists who are shopping for the multitude of "things" they forgot to pack.

I suppose I could be economical and down-load my books to my e-reader, but there is something I love about the feel of a book in my hand and the smell of the ink.  So, I have discovered a handful of small  bookstores here on Cape Cod, ones I am sad I hadn't discovered years ago.  My Favorite:

                                         Titcomb Bookshop in Sandwich, MA

Titcomb Bookshop was started in an abandoned barn in the late 60's.  It is now three stories of new, used, and hard to find books.  They host book clubs, have an active schedule of signings, and are always friendly and willing to help.  I stop every time I drive by now, often leaving with a book I never would have picked up had the manager not suggeted it.

So what's your favorite bookstore or are you a digital type or reader?

Nervous Energy

Revisions done, long overdue beta reading mid-process, and only three precious more weeks of school.  The garden is planted, the bathrooms cleaned, and the lawn reseeded.  This weekend the boat got washed and waxed and hauled out to the dock.  Most of the tourists have left until Friday and my son has completed is four-day baseball game stretch. 

AND NOW I'M BORED!

See this is what I do when I am in a holding pattern . . . waiting for notes and submission plans from Ginger.  I suppose I could crack open one of my three WIP's or polish up my completed YA contemporary to shoot her way.  But that would require me thinking creatively; and in the back of my mind, I have the unspoken need to keep all my creative energy welled up in case Fatum (aka Atlas-F) needs another round of revisions.

Any ideas on how to stay this crazy amount of nervous energy I have screaming through my system?  I could start baking incessantly, but it is too hot to turn the oven on.  I could clean the grout with a toothbrush, or perhaps I should start reading. Read anything good lately?