Writing: Getting Back On Your Feet

A writing colleague asked me: "How do you pick yourself back up after a setback? How do you keep on keeping on?"

At first, you don't. You fall, sometimes flat on your face, sometimes you break a figurative bone. The fall can be from a short height or from a seemingly high mountain, depending on what you have at stake. It hurts. Usually our pride smarts the most and longest.

I don't think there is one definite way to get back on your feet. Your character, personality, and circumstances all play big roles in the fight to endure.

For myself, I've been broadsided, sometimes knowing beforehand that I might be (which is akin to watching a tragedy unfold before your eyes while you're helpless to prevent it). After a really big blow to my ego in regards to my writing, I withdrew for a long time. I didn't feel like I had a leg to stand on, and that every word aimed against me and my story had to be true. I had no self-confidence left. Emotions were so bad and so high that it affected me physically. The last thing I wanted to do was continue writing, or even communicate with anyone in the writing community. I felt like a fraud, a leper, that everyone was laughing at me behind my back.

In other words, I had to take time off. Partly because of how self-destructive I was feeling, but mostly because I couldn't see or think clearly about the situation. A few months later I started to see. I wasn't a terrible writer or a hack, but I did have areas I needed to work on and improve. I realized that some people weren't going to like my story no matter how I rewrote it or packaged it, and that's okay. I certainly don't like some things I read. We're subjective creatures.

There came a critical point where I had to ask myself if I wanted to sacrifice the integrity of my story in order to please one or two people, or even a collected body of people who shared the same mindset. Bearing in mind, that yes, I wanted to please an audience, I wanted to sell my story, I wanted to make it as reader friendly as I could and that I could change some aspects to meet those goals. But I had to really think about who my target audience was and what their expectations were. Who was I writing for?

I had a life outside of writing to fall back on. I couldn't just lock up and stay hidden from the world. I have a family and a community of people relying on me. They made it possible for me to get up in the morning each day, to even smile. Focusing on the other parts of what makes me, me rekindled my drive to write.

I think it's easy to lose yourself when you dive fully into the writing community. We're affected by personalities and hit with a constant barrage of opinions. While writers collectively are viewed as great individualists, we really tend to act as sheep like most people do. We want public approval, sometimes so badly we're willing to write what we think the collective wants us to write and how they expect us to write it. We try to fit into some mysterious, mythical mold and grope around in the dark to find the magic elixir or key to unlock the doorway to opportunity. Admit it, we've all taken a turn doing it. Don't belligerently deny it.

My solution to overcoming a writing setback? Get to know yourself again. Get away from the writing community. Read what you really love to read. Fantasize to the length and breadth of your imagination regarding your story because no one is going to be standing at your shoulder judging you. Write with abandon again; turn off the internal editor that was primed and set by your desire to appease and supplicate. What makes you, you? How does that reflect in the way you write and express yourself? Look at your story. Do you love every aspect of it? Does it excite you to read any passage over and over again, or are there places you skim over or get bored with? Fix them.

Is your life well-rounded? If it just revolves around your writing, you won't have anything else to fall back on when the writing life gets tough. Writer friends are great and fine for support, but people who are actually around you are even better. People you can see and touch and laugh with, who will hug you and love you whether or not your story is going to make waves in the literary world. People who know there is more to you than being a writer.

And sometimes, even though we never want to admit it, sometimes our story isn't reader-worthy. It's a story just for ourselves that only we can truly visualize and love. If we're beating our heads relentlessly against a brick wall of rejection from everyone (and I mean everyone), no matter how many times we've revised, maybe it's time to set that story aside. I have a few stories like that. Oh, I never bothered trying to get them published because I already knew they were special only to me. I still pull them out and get a thrill when I read them. Their purpose is realized right there. And that's okay.

So, you look at your other stories and ideas and visualize your target audience. Is it a broad audience or a small one? Set your expectations based on that. If your goal is to break into the publishing side of the writing world, then pick your brightest, best idea and work on it.

Sometimes stepping back from the novel you care so much about can help you see if there are really problems in it or not. Kind of like cleansing your palette between courses during a meal so that the taste of one dish doesn't intermingle with the taste of the next. Maybe you've been locked into one story world for too long and need a vacation. Working on a story that is totally different can be refreshing to your creative side.

Another good way to help bounce back is to write in a journal regularly. There you are free to express your grief, angst, and worries uncensored. Don't do it online. Most people don't care and don't want to hear about your problems. Vent your spleen privately. I've found that journal writing helps me get refocused and lets out all the negative energy so that I can think more clearly and objectively.

Sometimes the problem is we have a very clear goal and know exactly how we want to achieve it. So when we don't reach our desired milestones or can't continue on the road we've picked, we get frustrated and angry. We blame the road, other people, the universe at large. The thing is, who says there is only one road to reach your destination? Who says you have to meet every milestone on a generalized checklist to get there? There are other roads. Getting up from a major setback could be as simple as picking a new route, or even a new destination.

In a nutshell:
1) Be humbled so you can think clearly.
2) Get to know yourself again.
3) Vent in private not in public.
4) Have a well-rounded life so that other aspects can keep you afloat.
5) Take a vacation from the writing community. As long as you need. Don't feel pressured to make appearances or submit your work if you're not ready to.
6) Get realistic about your novel, your target audience, and your goals. Make changes based on your clearer perspective.

Above everything else, remember you are an individual and you are worthwhile. You have talents you're trying to develop and that's wonderful. Having goals and dreams helps make life meaningful, but don't let them crush or blockade you from living. And remember that popularity and acceptance are both fleeting and illusions. You are neither. Don't give up on yourself.

Don't Buy That Method!

Oh, there are so many great sources for writing instruction out there! Authors, editors, publishers, universities, writing forums, books, YouTube clips ... For a beginning writer or even someone who is checking out the professional side of things, the plethora of resources can be daunting and confusing. Should you get a MFA? Which conventions and conferences should you attend? Which workshops should you take? One group of people swears by this method, others swear by another. Bloggers try to help by sharing their favorite methods and it adds to the confusion.

First off, take a big breath and relax.

Secondly, congratulations for recognizing that any good writer needs to work on their craft. Anyone who assumes otherwise is in for a long, hard ride.

But here's the bit of truth you seldom run into when trying to find the one-true method: There isn't one ultimate method to writing or your writing journey.

I'm sorry if that's a disappointment for some, that there isn't a fast-track to writing bliss and success. On the other hand, if you're like me, knowing that fact is a huge relief. It's easy to think you're doing everything wrong because your writing journey isn't the same as someone else. Online, everything seems so competitive. We are exposed to more success stories than we would in our real lives. Those that make it big become instant rock stars (never mind if it took them years to get there, we only see the here and now) and the rest of us are poor, deluded drudges. It gets depressing if you let it. Sometimes we're tempted to pay someone to teach us the mystic secrets of writing and publishing, and granted, some resources are worth the price. However, most of what you need to know, the basics, you can find out for free if you take the time to do some research.

Ask any writer and they'll share the resources they found helpful. It's a place to start. The next step is trying out different methods and see what works best for you. Chances are you will spend several years developing your method. That's good, and healthy.

But wait, there's more.

While it's not good to only buy into the method someone's trying to cram down your throat, did you know it's equally detrimental to only create one method for yourself? Once we get into a pattern that works for us, it's tempting to stay there, and it's possible to churn out many adequate or good books that way. So why bother rocking the boat once we get in?

Our brains are amazing, and there's this wonderful technique called interleaving that helps stimulate creativity, memory, and creating connections between facets that normally wouldn't come together. In other words, you can write better than your one-true method will allow you to.

When we're in those early experimental stages, we're actually at our creative best. We haven't locked onto one method; we're trying lots of methods. We're interleaving. Let's look at some examples:

1. You've been stuck on a particular chapter, having difficulty creating the right dialogue and exposition between two characters. You know what's going on, what needs to be discussed, even know how your characters feel about it, but things aren't working out right. Say your one-true method is to pound out the scene then go back and edit it like crazy until it shines. Not bad, and yes, you'll probably think of snappier dialogue with each pass. But, what if you tried a different method, a POV reversal. You've had the scene written out in character A's POV, now rewrite it from character B's POV. Wow, you think afterwards, I thought I knew both characters sides, but look what else came out. Switch the POVs back adding in the new angles, or maybe you'll decide that character B was the right way to go all along.

2. You're an outliner. It keeps you on track and you can check things off your outline as you do them; it gives you a sense of accomplishment and productivity. You wake up in the middle of the night with your story on your brain. An unplanned setting, an event not on the outline, and interaction between two characters you never intended to meet up suddenly makes several plotlines make more sense. Grab a sheet of paper or a notebook and write like a pantser. Don't outline the scene, write it. Don't worry about your outline, after all, outlines aren't carved in stone and you can always change the whole thing tomorrow when you add this new scene into the story. The point is, you're brain has made new connections unfettered by a strict outline which can change the success of your story.

3. You've always written chronologically; it helps you keep your facts straight; but now your stuck and having a hard time moving forward. In the back of your mind is the next key scene, the problem is you have to get your characters to that point before you can write it. Rip out that mental stop sign and go ahead and write the next key scene. By writing it, you may come up with the pathway those characters have to take in order to feel, do, and say the things that this scene demands.

4. You write your stories in first person, present tense. That's what's been popular for the past few years and you've become accustomed to it, even love it. But it's not working for your current WIP. First person's leaving out too many important details and events that would enrich the novel for your readers. The situation, at times, when written in present tense makes you sound like you're hyping up the slow parts of your novel to a ridiculous level. Try writing in close third, or even the frowned upon 3rd omniscient. Does it make the story flow better? You may find you even like it. Or, it will help you weed out what isn't working well in your pet style.

5. You've got a big, complex story with lots of character POVs. Making each of those POVs different is a Herculean task. You've been editing and editing to try to make a difference but your beta readers are struggling to know whose POV they're in. Time to pull the novel apart and work on one storyline at a time, rather than as a cohesive whole. This way you get into one character's head and stay there for the duration of their story, allowing you the time needed to develop that character's particular syntax, perspective, and style, making their voice strong.

Get the picture? Don't be afraid to stop your usual writing routine to try out something new, something different. Our brains like this kind of stimulation. We have to look at our writing from new angles in order to keep it fresh. Study the methods of others, lots of others, decide which ones work best for you, but don't stop interleaving methods. Never put yourself in a rut because it is safe.

From my own experience, I never realized I was a natural interleaver until I learned about it. I seldom get writer's block because of it, and I'm bombarded by new ideas and new connections all the time. No two novels are written the same way. If anyone were to ask me for my method I'd have to smile; I have no method. I use many and I like to discover new ones to try out. Perhaps after reading this post you've discovered you're a natural interleaver too. If so, keep it up, and don't let anyone else tell you to box yourself in. Embrace the creative freedom.

Question for you:
What are some of the methods or resources you've found helpful when writing? Please share them so everyone can learn something new.

Guest Post: How Science Fiction and Fantasy Have Changed Over the Years

I'd like to welcome author Scott Seldon to the blog today to share his thoughts about a topic I've begun to investigate. It's good to share ideas and the thoughts of others and I hope to be able to add to them when I relay my own findings in the future. This is a starting point and I'm grateful to Scott for kicking it off. Please share your own thoughts in the comments.
 
What we think of as genre fiction didn't really exist a century ago. Jules Verne did not write science fiction, he wrote fantastical adventures based on his knowledge of science and where it could lead. H.G. Wells projected his hopes and fears of the future, again based on science. Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote romances (then the term did not mean what it means today; it referred to stories like Le Morte D'Arthur and Ivanhoe) set on other worlds. Today we consider all three and their works to be the foundations of science fiction. Their stories stand the test of time, but they are nothing like what we see modern writers producing.

You just have to look at the changes in our world to understand some of the changes to science fiction. In 1915, WWI raged in Europe. Einstein was a German. His Theory of Relativity had yet to be proven and was only ten years old. Atomic energy and weapons had not been dreamed of yet. Airplanes and automobiles existed, but were not much more than toys of the rich, though there already was an electric car. Spaceflight was a dream and Goddard hadn't even conducted his experiments yet.

Language has also changed, as has education. Latin was nearly always included as were the classics. It was to this world that science fiction and fantasy were born. Science fiction pushed into the future and to the other planets then known. They were swashbuckling adventures and their science was questionable by today's standards, but they let their imagination fly. Isaac Asimov was born in 1920 and grew up on the short stories produced in that period. C. L. Moore set out to write westerns, but ended up writing science fiction and fantasy. The stories for both genres bore some similarities because they still relied on the romance model. The difference was they were stories set in the future in space or in the past. Nearly all of the authors that would become well-known icons of science fiction and fantasy were growing up or starting their first works. J. R. R. Tolkien was about to begin his construction of Middle Earth as he manned the trenches.

But a century ago, none of this had happened yet and what we think of as a complex genre had yet to really be born. People did write what we today consider to be genre works, but the genre had yet to even be born. Typically the founding of science fiction as a genre dates to 1926 with the publishing of Amazing Stories.

Let's jump forward 50 years to 1965. Science fiction was in what I think of as a golden age. The greats were publishing stories and new writers constantly sprang up. Isaac Asimov had retired from fiction while Arthur C. Clarke and Robert Heinlein were going strong. The Lord of the Rings was complete and the seminal work of fantasy. The space age was on. Satellites orbited our planet and astronauts and cosmonauts had been in space. Science fiction graced our TV and movie screens. In fact, 50 years ago as I write this, both Lost In Space and Star Trek were in the works and Doctor Who had been on the air for well over a year. 2001 was still a few years away as was the Apollo program.

Gone were the Romances in space that filled the early years. Monsters, aliens, strange worlds, amazing sights, and incredible encounters filled the pages (and screens). Writers looked to the future, hopeful that we would soon be doing these things. Stories were set 20-40 years in the future with incredible ideas of where we could be. Some dreamed further and created the civilization they hoped we would develop into. Science fiction roamed the universe, peeing into every corner and finding amazing things. I would use one word to describe the tone of most fiction from this period - hope.

Language has changed. Latin was not yet gone but the classics were being studied less and less. Instead there were new topics to cover in schools. Science abounded with new discoveries. Medical, chemistry, and physics textbooks were filled with new things that previous generations had been forced to learn the hard way. We spoke in a more direct manner and the writing reflects that. Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein and the others used simple and clear language.

Some things in life had just begun to change. The Civil Rights Act had only been passed the previous year. No one had heard of LGBT and marriage equality referred to interracial marriage. Gene Roddenberry was forced to cede his female second in command and had to fight to keep the alien character. Uhura had yet to be cast and he had to fight for that. What we see today as a token African American and Asian American on the Enterprise bridge were hard won fights for diversity.

Which brings me to today. I feel that science fiction has lost that hope. 50 years on and the space program is routine. We have not even started a lunar colony or sent a manned mission to Mars. We are 15 years past 2001 and we have done none of these things that movies and novels projected. Science has come down hard on some of the old tropes such as FTL, time travel, anti-gravity, teleporters, and the like. Consequently, you don't see these those things as much any more, though Star Trek and Doctor Who refuse to give them up. Instead of professional scientists churning out the likes of Foundation, Caves of Steel, 2001, and many others, they stick to the facts, what could be real. Hard science fiction is no longer just for scientists, but it is braked by what the scientists deem possible. Our dreams of the future have gotten closer to home and are less fantastic.

Fantasy, on the other hand, is having its own golden age. The publication of some very epic tales by Robert Jordan and George R. R. Martin are truly incredible in scope. Terry Brooks and Stephen R. Donaldson have given us some great dark evil in their stories and given their heroes the talents to overcome. The likes of Sam Sykes and Mark Lawrence are currently showing us how dark the world can be. The adventure continues in the pages of the many fantasy writers out there as they explore ever more interesting worlds.

Tolkien still inspires. His language, as fitting a professor of linguistics, is an art of its own and that pushes fantasy writers to make good use of language. His world building set the bar high and few truly come up to his level, but not for want of trying. That isn't to say that it is in any way out of reach of readers, but I have noticed writers spend a few more words to help paint the picture.

Science fiction is producing some truly great works as well, but the tone is different. The sense of the incredible that was there a century ago and the sense of hope from 50 years ago has been replaced with exploring society. Science has cut off many from exploring the limits of theory, but they make good use of practical science and weave incredible tales. There is no lack of story telling skills.


Scott writes science fiction and prefers that idea of hope found in mid-20th century science fiction. He is currently writing about a space trader in the far future and looking for interesting ideas for his next novel. He is a big fan of Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, and Jack McDevitt.

You can find him at his blog and on Smashwords.

Filling the Void

A couple of nights ago my husband and I were trying to decide on a movie to watch and ended up putting on an old tape recording of a movie that came out in the 80's that he really wanted me to see. It was based on a comic book series and the main character had supernatural powers. The sets were well made, the costumes glamorous, and there were a handful of A-list actors playing out the parts. The special effects were pretty good for a movie made back then. Even the brief premise my husband had told me had potential.

But the movie felt flat to me. The screenplay jumped around too fast for proper story development. The characters were stereotypical and I couldn't get into any of them. I was never even sure who to root for, since the main character was a bad guy to begin with and who channeled his bad side to fight other bad guys. (His motivation to do this had been completely omitted from the screenplay.) I had to give my husband a ho-hum response afterwards and as I explained why, he admitted I was right.

It got me thinking about how often we encounter a creative work or endeavor and while we can pick out one or two good things about it (sometimes really good things) the rest leaves much to be desired. I've gone browsing for movies to rent and end up frowning most of the way through the store, because while a certain genre or premise or even actor piques my interest, when I look at the rest of the product I'm disappointed. We live in a day of remakes, rehashing, too many special effects, and worn out plot lines. Even TV shows string you along through all kinds of sludge, holding back that one vital piece of backstory just to keep you hooked to the whole series.

Many of us take to our own creative endeavors to try to fill in those voids. Say we like the idea of certain setting or type of character and we want to make the kind of story we can champion all the way. We write it. Why do you think fan fiction came about or the deluge of similar novels after one story has reached bestsellerdom? Individually, we want to add to that story, fix it, or make it go the way we hoped it would to begin with. Sometimes we want to revel in that kind of a world for a bit longer. We reflect borrowed light. And creative people have been doing this forever.

Have you ever been in the mood for a particular type of story, or story atmosphere? Have you ever shaken your head during a book or movie and thought about alternative outcomes? Do you lay awake at night thinking, "Wow, that was amazing. How can I do something that?" or "That story could have been better, they were so close, but they ruined it by adding in ..."? It's like an itch that won't go away. And having that itch can lead to productive writing.

However, I've always felt that once you've identified what you love or what needs changing, that you then find your own story path to play with, not someone else's. Spin-offs and alternate versions of something are okay, but people know that these versions are merely playing in the shadow of something else. Do you really want to relegate your time and effort to a shadow?

There's a market out there for shadow novels, I won't deny it. And some people are happy to be there.

But how much better it is to come up with something shiny and bright of your own. It's more work, and more to be proud of. To create something that fills in the voids of your desires and then send it out to hopefully fill in the voids of readers is a wonderful accomplishment.

Write to fill in the voids. Revise and polish until your story needs are satisfied. Find joy in your work. I challenge you to come up with something not in the shadow of someone else. Be a light. Create your own borders, be bold in your imagination, think carefully about how you tell the story, and have fun.

People who do are the trend-setters.

Front Matter, Back Matter, Why Does It Matter?

*Edit: This blogpost is geared toward print books rather than ebooks.

Okay, so you're putting together the finishing touches on your manuscript. It doesn't matter your route to publication here, except that if you are going the traditional route, follow your publisher's guidelines to the letter.

You have the text of the book, but then there are the other things that go into a novel and new terminology called front and back matter to grasp. Basically, front matter is what goes in front of the actual text of your book and back matter is what comes after the text.

These can include:
Your copyright page
Acknowledgements
Dedication
Maps, Tables and/or Charts
Pronunciation Guides, Glossaries
List of Characters
List of Illustrations, List of Tables (contained in the text)
The Principles of Magic (if applicable and your readers need a chart)
List of other works you've published
Title Page
About the Author page
Table of Contents
Bibliography/References
Preface or Foreword
Epigraphs (Quotes, Sayings, or Poetry connected to your book)
Introduction
Chronology
Appendix
Notes
List of Contributors
Excerpt from the text to entice readers

If you're publishing a novel it can be a head scratcher as to what you need and where it goes.

So let's talk about needs and wants.

The two pages which are definite musts are a title page and a copyright page. The title page restates the title of the book before the reader plunges in. The copyright page contains pertinent information regarding the copyright of the book and its publication. Both are front matter.

If you want to dedicate your novel, you can have a separate page for a dedication or you can include it near the top of the copyright page. I've seen it done both ways. Some people opt out of the dedication because they plan on an extensive Acknowledgement page(s). Or you can have both. Dedications are front matter usually. Acknowledgements can be either front or back matter, although for novels, I usually find them in the back.

A quick word about Acknowledgement pages; novels didn't use to have them. Then authors started using them to recognize the help of their agents, editors, or to replace a dedication page at the front. Nowadays it's common to not only list everyone involved in the creation of a novel but to include the author's quirks when around those people. It's kind of like sitting through five minutes of credits after a movie. The only people reading through the entire list are the people mentioned, or their relatives. Express gratitude, acknowledge that putting out a novel is a team effort, but then think about editing your Acknowledgements page for the sake of brevity, just as you would the actual text of your novel. It's your personal preference, just know that most people won't care about the people you mention or what you do during late-night critique sessions. I've seen novels that have an Acknowledgement section at least four to five pages long.

Maps can be either front or back matter. Tables and charts are usually back matter, along with pronunciation guides and glossaries; lists of characters, principles of magic; bibliography/reference material; chronologies; appendixes and notes; and list of contributors.

Do you need all of these things? No. In fact, less is more. I've heard of writers who want to include all the bells and whistles of their world-building with their novel and what it does is add extra cost for extra pages. From a personal point of view, I can't count how many times I've read a large novel only to find pages of world-building information at the back where I no longer need it because, well, I've finished the book. So should you include the world-building stuff at the front to make sure readers know about it?

Well, that's a problem too, because the more pages you put between the front cover and the actual text of your novel, the more readers aren't going to actually get to that text because you've weighted the front matter with too much information. You want your readers to get to that hook on your first page as soon as possible.

It really boils down to what is necessary. Many readers know to check the back for further world building info and sometimes when they finish the book they want more in order to savor the experience.

Maps are pretty much the one thing you can get away with stowing in the front matter. They don't give away spoilers and can pique reader interest before they start the story. Pronunciation guides are useful tools if you have difficult names but putting it at the front is a red flag to readers that their ability to blissfully read at their own pace through the text might be impeded by a lot of unpronounceable names. You don't want to place anything at the front that might deter readers from getting to that first page of your story. The same thing goes for Glossaries.

Not all novels need a map. They're fun to come up with and are a great tool for the author, but readers don't always need them. Consider the world of the novel. Is it a made up place? Is it huge? Do you have settings in many different places? Are your characters traveling a lot? If you answered two of those questions with a yes, then you might need a map. If you answered three or more with a yes, then a map is a good idea.

List of your other published works; a very useful promotional tool. I've seen these either in the front matter or the back matter. Sometimes its helpful to the reader to see that list before they start the book so they can take comfort in knowing they've picked up book #1 in your series and not #7. If the story's not in a series, you can keep your front matter nice and sparse by putting your list of publications at the back where you can entice the reader to check out more of your work after they've finished this book. You could also split it, if you're prolific and have a lot of books out, by having the series list for this book at the front and promotional lists for other series and books at the end.

Likewise, an About the Author page is a great promotional tool for back matter. I've never seen it in the front matter. The reader has just finished your novel and is now curious about the person who wrote it and there you go, you have a brief bio for them to look at. Links to your website, blog, or author pages on social media go great here.

Prefaces and Introductions aren't common in fiction unless a novel has been annotated, abridged, or re-released for a special anniversary edition. Another person usually writes these. Don't think that you have to have one if this is the first publication of your novel.

Epigraphs are front matter. A quick word about using them: they can be another great enticement for the reader to get to page one and start the novel, but often readers skim past them. I think I've only seen a couple of instances where an author used an epigraph to their advantage, usually sharing pertinent backstory or world-building in lieu of a prologue. Cute quotes, poetry, and sayings from other people don't have the same effect. You should want to immerse the reader in your world and your voice. Epigraphs are another feature that are often gratuitously applied by authors. You usually don't need one. They're extra candy flowers on the icing of a cake.

An excerpt from the book: I've only seen these done in paperbacks. They are one page and typically found right when the reader opens the book as another trick to capture their interest in the story. You don't have to use this tactic, but can, if you're putting out a paperback novel.

The Table of Contents is a front matter element. Do you need one? Chapter books for kids and middle-grade novels usually name their chapters and a table of contents is a handy tool to help kids navigate through a book. It's less important in young adult and adult novels. It boils down to the style of your novel. Think again about weighting your chapter openings. A title can be an enticement or a spoiler. If you are using epigraphs or location information before your chapters (which some people do effectively) you might want to avoid chapter titles because it's a case of too much information at the start of every chapter.

I do recommend naming your chapters for your personal use when writing and editing, since it can help you as a basic outline. That doesn't mean those chapter titles have to appear in the printed version of the story. Numbered chapters streamline the reading experience and let the reader flow from one chapter to the next without stopping to process other information.

Deciding on front and back matter is a matter of personal style (or the style of your publishing house) and something I haven't seen discussed too much online. Consider your reader and get them to the story as quickly as possible. Balance that out with information the reader will need or might want in connection to your story and you as the author. Don't give in to the temptation to use every front and back matter device known to man.

Questions for you:
What front and back matter elements do you like to see in a novel?
Do you know of any other front or back matter element I didn't cover and where it usually goes?
Are there any front or back elements you think are used too much or that aren't necessary in particular genres?
Do you have questions regarding front or back matter that I didn't cover?

Accentuate the Positive: What If ... ?

When you've been writing for a long time and hung around the vast writing world, it's easy to see a lot of negative things bantered about. Consequently, it's easier to start thinking negatively about others and even worse, about yourself as a writer. So much emphasis is placed on nailing a query letter, your opening pages, your synopsis, your social presence, etc. that it becomes a quagmire of shadowy rules, rejection, deception, and negativity.

Think about your realm of influence for a moment. Are you often a beta reader or an established critique partner? Do you edit or help with PR? I'd even be so bold as to add, are you a literary agent or publisher?

How happy are you? How happy are the people around you? Is daily snark regarding other people the norm? Do you pick up someone's manuscript prepared to be a skeptic?

What if this next week you could only mention the positive things about someone's work?

What if instead of tearing someone down, you show them that they aren't hopeless or crazy but that they do have some things going for them. It may be a lot, it may be a little, but think how much of a boost you could give if that other person knew what they did right for a change.

What if you set a goal not to speak disparagingly of anyone else? What if you decided not to listen to or share gossip?

Focusing on the negative is a piece of cake. While we do need to know what we have to work on to become better writers it doesn't always have to come in a negative or derogatory package. It takes strength of character to be a positive person, someone who is genuinely concerned about helping someone else.

It's as simple as dealing with a child. If you always focus on what that child is doing wrong or where the child is lacking, you destroy their motivation and self-esteem. If you focus on what the child is doing right and point out their strengths, it motivates them to do even better.

Sure publishing is a business but people aren't. Sure you run into delusionals who have an ego the size of Brazil, but most people aren't that way. There is a hopeful person on the other end of that manuscript, someone who is trying to do better and whose basic desire is to share something they created.

Don't assume that they are getting positive vibes from other sources. You may be their only outside influence that day, week, or month regarding their work.

I find it very disturbing that as a society we're obsessed with perfection without having a concrete definition or outline for that perfection. If stripped down to our very core, we are all imperfect people, and you know what, it's okay. As long as we're trying to be a better person each day, isn't it time we chill out and admit that we're never going to reach perfection? Why would we expect everyone else to?

There is enough room for everyone to express themselves. There are so many subjectively diversified tastes out there, don't assume that your subjective tastes are what must be the rule. You may be tired of a premise, but that doesn't mean others are. You may think writing X + U is a bad idea, but that doesn't mean someone else won't think it's a brilliant pairing. Your style won't be the same as someone else's, and that's okay. Their voice will differ from yours as well. It's okay.

Now, I'm not saying you have to love, accept, or buy every story, query, or synopsis that you get. I'm not saying to you have to write a detailed letter of explanation for every rejection you give. But can we ditch the snark in social media for a week? Can we ditch it in our conversations? Can't we write a blogpost saying why we love writers or what they consistently do right? Instead of the "reasons why I'm rejecting this" feeds can we focus on "reasons I love this" feeds instead? If you're critiquing someone else's work, is it so difficult to highlight all the many more places they are getting it right instead of the fewer places they are getting it wrong?

Perhaps I'm the crazy one. I'm guilty of succumbing to the writing world negativity at times too. It's something I intend to change. If any of this has agreed with you, will you join me in a positivity week starting today?

What's Your Point Of View?

The 4 Points of View:
1) First Person: The narrative is related by one of the characters, not necessarily the main one.
2) Second Person: The writer is speaking directly to his audience as if having a conversation. Not really popular or recommended for fiction.
3) Third Person, close: The narrative is in third person, but follows one character's point of view. If using multiple POV characters, only one person at a time.
4) Third Person, omniscient: The narrative in third person, switching from one character to the next, the writer has a god-like perspective over the whole story.

My most comfortable and natural point of view to write in is #4. My favorite books are written in this point of view, and I love having the big perspective when I write. It's easy for me to transition between character heads and locations.

I can also easily write in first person, but I don't enjoy the limited perspective much. I also feel that books written in first person perspective tend to be on the anorexic side, leaving out the bigger picture and thus some reader satisfaction. I'm not saying I won't read a book done in first person because I do read them. They are usually my light, fluff reads, no matter how high-concept they might be.

So what is the point of my opinion? That I decided to convert my natural flow in third person omniscient to the more challenging third person close in one of my books. It sounds fairly simple to execute, but it hasn't been. The way things are worded, diving deeper into each character's psyche, sectioning things off to keep different character pov's straight, and the added bulk such changes make, have proved more daunting for me than I initially thought.

In fact, I'd go so far as to say third person close has been the most difficult point of view to write well. I do like getting to know the characters more intimately. I like the challenge of keeping straight who knows what, and weaving threads. I do not like the inflated word count for the sake of a decent plot. I have multiple character points of view, necessary to tell the story, and getting that close to each one of them requires more space on the page to do it right, compared to head jumping. It's been very tempting to switch back, trimming the word count by half, and going against the current trend to avoid the omniscient pov. However, I'm too invested in what I've developed and what that has caused to emerge in the story to begin all over again.

So what have I learned from this writing trench? I recommend first person pov for shorter projects and smaller timetables. I recommend third person close for bigger books, only if you can keep it to one or two point of view characters. And I highly recommend third person omniscient for the largest plots, especially if they come with multiple point of view characters. It takes out a lot of the bloat. Even if it's not the point of view du jour, it can be done well. I'm still breaking my own recommendations with this one book, and none of you have to take these as rules, but if you want less heartache and headache from revision, this is what I've learned after many years of trial and error.

How about you? What is your most natural point of view to write in? If you've tried more than one point of view, what have you learned from the experience?


Edit: Here's a really good blogpost I found on the same subject. Head hopping vs. multiple povs vs. single pov. Go with what you feel most comfortable with and do it well.
 

Disgruntled Reader: In Which I Find I Sound a Little Like a Literary Agent

The other day I pulled up Goodreads to check out new and existing titles to add to my to-read list and also IMDB to view some new movie trailers and see if there were any new TV shows worth watching. While I read through lists and blurbs I noticed how easy it has become to answer "no" within ten seconds. Going by summaries alone or watching a trailer a couple of minutes long, I could decide if the story idea worked for me or not. Of course, I also considered that maybe some of the summaries/trailers might have held my attention if so many of them didn't sound like simple variations of each other.

There were an awful lot of crime TV shows featured where the main character was either a grouchy detective or had some paranormal ability. I sat back and wondered how people differentiated one show from another. None of them stood out.

I noticed a similar trend with books, not only on Goodreads, but also in links I followed on Twitter or announcements done on an agent's blog. (insert YA/MG character) lives in oppressive conditions until they discover they have (insert amazing ability/power) and can now either save the world or oppress it. OR (insert MC) meets (hot paranormal person) but generic obstacle (political/social/etc.) stands in their way. All of the descriptions modeled each other and none of them stood out because of it.

I'd like to think that every one of these TV shows, movies, and books have something unique and wonderful. As described, I'm getting a blasé feel for the current trends du jour. On the upside, finding comp titles for a new story has never been easier. Making any story stand out (other than popularity statistics) is very difficult.

Query letters submitting for peer critique often fall into the same molds too. We write the trendy formula or are expected to, even if the story doesn't fit the current summary mold. Without diving in too deeply to the query process, I'd like to just put in a plug for making sure you identify what makes your story stand out from the others and be sure to mention it in the query. What makes your YA character's abilities & situation any more special than the hundreds of other YA prodigies out there? What makes your love interest or the situation involving that love interest different than the usual struggles? Do we really need another grouchy or superpowered detective/cop/attorney? And if so, there should be a better reason other than fighting crime either of the normal variety or the supernatural. (These are only three examples, you can find boxed-in niche descriptions in any genre.)

One thing that would help is character voice in these descriptions. I hear several stories praised for having strong voice, but you know what—those voices sound an awful lot alike. They do! Character traits, especially for main characters, aren't leaping out at me either. I've seen their like before many times. Or, the voice in those descriptions are completely lacking. There's a lot to be said for great characterization in a novel or TV show. I think the marketing industry is either burned out or failing, perhaps both, when I see so many cloned summaries/trailers.

Gone are the days when having an extra-ordinary power or birthright will make a story stand out. Our culture is inundated with them. High risk stakes are great too, but also very common these days. Even what the main character stands to lose is running out of steam and growing repetitive. I'm worried. How are new authors supposed to break in without happening to touch upon agents' and editors' individual wish lists, you know, the wish list made up of story types they never tire of? And that's if they haven't already signed up several other clients who write in the same mold as you do. The same worry goes for self-publishing too. Die-hards who never tire of the—say grouchy detective stories—are pretty pretty much the ones who will pick up a story just because it's that genre. Generating new readers, not so easy, unless we can give them a reason to pick our story over all the others.

We can't be out of new ideas yet, or is everyone trending to the same two or three basic story plots these days? Perhaps we're on the brink of something new taking the entertainment world by storm. I hope so.

Maybe I'm so unreasonable about this dilemma because I read several genres and have to be convinced to notice a book or show. Writers and other artists must make me a fan. Make me want to read more than that short summary, maybe open up the book and try out the first page. I don't follow willingly. Yet I'm always on the hunt for something stellar, something that I can fall in love with. New worlds, new characters, great conflicts, insightful inner journeys, stories that teach me things, and especially stories I can't figure out by reading the summary or watching the trailer alone. So help me and others like me: make your story or TV show or movie stand out from the pack. Be noticeable. The next time I comb through Goodreads or IMDB or even my local library, please let me find something I can fall in love with, instead of the terrible disappointment I felt the other day in clone-ville.

Guest Post: E.M. LaBonte on What Makes a Protagonist Likeable?

Please welcome guest blogger E.M. LaBonte (aka. Nemune for the AQC crowd). I'm grateful she volunteered to offer to share her thoughts with us. Be sure to check out her blog The Realms of a Fantastical Mind. Without further ado, here she is:

What makes a protagonist likable?
Flaws, lots and lots of flaws. If the hero of every story was perfect how would the reader ever relate?
Flaws such as fears, set backs, and weaknesses all play a part in getting to like a character.

Fears: from the very simple, the fear of spiders and a fear of the dark to something more complex, fear of showing emotion, fear of falling in love. When a protagonist shows fear and reacts to certain situations that cause it, the reader can feel the same. Everyone knows what it is to be afraid, and that fear can connect the reader to the protagonist.

A great example: Ron Weasley and his fear of spiders. We cringe every time he sees one, and when he enters the forest with Harry to meet Aragog our heart races for his safety.

Set backs: Being unable to obtain the very thing the story is about. Failing or being obstructed or distracted from the goal is very normal in a readers life, so when the protagonist finds themselves having to rethink their path and how to get where they need to be, the reader can relate.

A good example: Perrin from the Wheel of Time series. When he finds himself able to communicate the wolves he pushes away from in. He fears that he has been bound to evil even though he knows that the things he's running from hate wolves. An inner struggle that no other character can see, it drew me closer to his character more than any other.

Weaknesses: Greed, chemical dependency, naïveté, emotional or financially dependent on something, or socially awkward. These things bring the protagonist down in some way or another, causing them to work through their weakness to grow as a person through the story.

A good example: Caramon Majere is a glutton and an alcoholic in the beginning of the Twins Trilogy. We watch him as he has to fight through his laziness, addiction to alcohol and his love for his brother in order to stop him from destroying the world.

Once the reader connects with the character through their flaws, the more positive aspects become more appreciated. Han Solo was a scoundrel and a crook, but even though he smuggled, and owed lots of money, his personality to do right brought out his likability. The balance has been set, flaws are made and now the protagonist can move to the next step, showing the other personality traits, the ones we would expect to see in a hero.


Thanks, E.M.! If anyone else would like to comment or add to her list, please do.

Disappearing Language

I'd like to preface today's post with a little video:

Seriously. Watch the video first.









Okay, here's assuming you watched it. Wasn't that fun? What did you think about those statistics regarding modern vocabulary versus common vocabulary even a hundred years ago? Children long ago had expansive vocabularies compared to adults today. It's a bit staggering to think about. I'm not saying I'd love to return to the lyrical stylings of Shakespeare but I do pause to ponder when I realize that we lose words from our active English vocabulary more and more each year, and with each passing generation. (And yes, we get new creative words each year to fill in the gap. I use the word creative loosely.)

What has this to do with books? Ever notice how whenever some literary bigshot puts out a list of must-read books most of the titles are for older classics? Kids and adults alike roll their eyes and yawn with boredom at the thought of trying to sludge through classic literature. Part of that reason is the language barrier. We're used to simpler language these days. With constraints and limits to our time, today's market calls for easy to read books that still deliver the rush readers' crave. To have to think or work to get through a book is frowned upon. No one wants to look up a few words in the dictionary, and dare we think of using any of these new—yet old-fashioned—words in our actual speech?

I suppose what frustrates me is when a writer naturally has a wider vocabulary (because writers presumably read a lot and have larger vocabularies than the average person on the street) and they submit their work to others to read and they get a lot of flack for making those readers have to think while reading. Reading today is primarily a pleasurable pursuit and yes, a lot of hype and big advances go to books that sell well because they are accessible to the masses. I'm not knocking on that. Publishing is a business after all. What strikes me as sad, is that in order to sustain the business side, some writers have to dumb down the vocabulary in their books. No one admits that's being asked of us (by the public mostly), but if we want stories to sell, the average person on the street shouldn't be expected to encounter any words that will make them feel uncomfortable because they do not recognize or understand them.

Okay, so some of you are probably thinking, "Yes! I have justification to go full-force in my manuscript and anyone who tells me differently is a vocabulary luddite." Um, no. Like anything, there needs to be balance.

For example, science-fiction is one of those genres where it is tempting and easy for any person of great learning to dive in and expound upon their knowledge within the thin shell of a fictitious story. I've seen it. Some of these types of stories do sell and have an audience—a limited audience, usually made up of other professionals in the same field (or aspiring amateurs) who grasp the terminology used in the story. In actuality, there isn't much story in these novels and many info dumps.

Beware the tendency to unleash your entire vocabulary or professional terminology on your intended audience. Realize that these kinds of books are not usually best-seller material although they can have a faithful following in certain demographics. It doesn't have to be science-fiction. It can be in any field or genre. Words for the sake of words does not a good story make.

Now before anyone gets up in arms, I'm happy to say that there are many books that still get through to the public and do well, that have a sprinkling of abnormal words. Most readers encounter an unfamiliar word, take their best guess at its meaning or skip it. Anyone who tosses a book aside over a handful of unfamiliar words probably isn't the right reader for that book or who has given in to the dumbing-down effect. Don't think I'm calling for tar and feathers here, it's their choice.

Personally, I get a bit tickled when I encounter a abnormal word when I read (especially in middle-grade or YA books.) I also love it when I read an unpublished manuscript that uses direct terminology to describe something in an accessible way. For one thing, it helps to cut down repetitive words and promotes the use of stronger nouns or verbs that don't need extra adjectives and adverbs as descriptors. And yes, I'm not above digging out my hefty dictionary from time to time to really understand a new word's meaning. Afterwards I tend to run into those words in other places and then find myself using them in both writing and speech.

I've seen the same effect with my own children. I read age-designated fiction to them but I also have been reading out of older classics to them. They do pick up on the language and have grasped the meaning of words that go over the heads of their peers. (Plus there's nothing quite as charming and cute as hearing a four-year-old use big words in a sentence.)

There are two sides to the literary snob label. There's the valid argument: why say something with an unfamilair big word when a simpler word will do the trick? True, yet we also run out of simpler words faster and run into repetition issues or sometimes the unfamiliar word drives home the writer's point better than its simpler substitute. I get alarmed at the growing trend in writers to embrace the easy way, to dumb down their prose in order to be more marketable. Society grows stupid with it. We do have an influence. If kids back hundreds of years ago could grasp a wider language because their books taught them too, what are we teaching future generations with our simplier language?

It's important to make books understandable to readers but it doesn't hurt a reader to have to think a little or even stretch their vocabulary. Balance is key. Writers struggle sometimes over word repetition and phrasing that isn't passive. We speak in a passive way and with a restrained vocabulary. Suppose we unshackle that restraint and instead of sticking to basic slang, profanity, and clichéd phrasing we start putting more of our rich, powerful language to use? Sure, kids today speak the way they do. We're also influenced by the world around us. Stay in any environment for long enough and you begin to act, think, and speak like others in that environment. Step into another environment and perception alters because it is not the same world. Written language is no different. If all we produce is dumbed down books, we also help contribute to a dumbed down society with a short attention span.

Give a group of people from one environment the power of influence through literature and other media and watch the masses be influenced by that environment until it spreads and spreads. People forget that there were other environments. Some scoff at others from different environments. Other environments attack the growing mainstream. Hurt and anger rebound. Respect is lost and smaller environments are trampled into dust. Right now we're seeing a mainstream of accessible, easy-to-read fiction full of limited vocabulary and sensationalism. It's always had its place among environments. Yet, it is only one environment and shouldn't be allowed to stomp out the others. It's arrogance to assume any one person's environment should be the mainstream or unchangeable.

There are so many sides to this issue, I can't begin to cover them. I think the video shows the point well. At the end of my ramble here I'd at least like to plead two cases: first, don't ever crush a writer just because you can't understand a handful of words here and there in their manuscript. Grow smarter instead. And secondly, don't go overboard, as a writer, with complicated jargon that makes your story thin and puts the reader at a distance. We shouldn't get all purple prosey or try to show off. Sometimes simple words and terms can have a profound influence. Sometimes moving away from our Teutonic words to Latinate ones works better. We can't go back to Shakespeare's time in an instant, if ever. We live in the here and now. We also recreate the here and now each day. Everyone who writes and shares their words has more influence than they know.

Receiving Manuscript Feedback

Last week I wrote about giving feedback. This week I'd like to talk about receiving it. We're flipping the coin, putting on the other pair of shoes, and have the First Aide Kit on hand.

I've said it before, writing is a personal process. But to be a published writer, you have to develop a thick hide to criticism and feedback. There isn't a single soul on this planet past, present, or even future, who is immune to both C & F. Like it or not, you'll get it. People love to talk and they love sharing their opinions, it's part of being human. No matter what stage of the game you're at, with regards to writing and publishing, you'll need and receive C & F.

Asking someone else to read your manuscript can be terrifying. I know. I tremble every time I send something out. We want our work to please our beta readers. Inwardly we're hoping for a wow factor. In some cases, we're also hoping to find out what is still wrong with the story--you know, that bit you can't quite put your finger on. The first step is, of course, to ask someone to read your story.

I don't recommend petitioning your favorite authors, big industry names, or even writer friends up to their elbows in revisions, contracts, or other duties that go with publication. You put these people in a delicate position. Those being critiqued can accuse these beta readers of stealing ideas, of being a jerk (just because they didn't love the story or the writing), or expect them to jump through hoops in order to get the petitioner a book deal. These professionals have enough on their plate already without having to cater to the whims and needs of the unpublished.

*If you know someone who's already in the publishing game and they offer to read your work (on their own initiative) that's an entirely different case.

We'd all love to have professionals help us skip a few corners and get our foot in the door. Most times, this won't happen. So where do you go to look for C & F help? Writers groups, conferences, conventions, online writing forums, and such. There's no shortage of places, you merely need to take the time to find one that suits you and dive in.

One suggestion I strongly feel should be a cardinal rule when it comes to C & F is if you want people to read your work, you need to be willing to read theirs. I've heard writers complain they aren't experts on C & F. You won't get any experience if you don't try. It's a cop-out excuse. Someone else is going to spend hours pouring over your baby, for free. Offer to do the same. We learn a lot by critiquing (see last Tues. post.)

Another good and fast guideline is to seek out more than one or two critiques. You aren't hiring industry professionals but fellow writers. These writers will give you what you need but in subjective doses. The more of these doses you get the more you'll discover patterns in the feedback. The areas that really need work will be apparent to most readers. Similar C & F from several beta readers is a red flag to you as the writer.

Remember that your beta readers are not the supreme authority over your story. They have subjective needs and wants as readers. Maybe they are really into paranormal but your story is straight up fantasy. Or maybe they hate certain settings, expressions, or plot devices. Sometimes beta readers are still new at the whole C & F process and tend to let their subjective voices try to change your story to how they would do it. Know how to spot this kind of feedback, don't think meanly of the givers, and ignore it.

Don't let your beta readers kill your voice. Don't let them rewrite the story for you. Don't be alarmed if one or two people absolutely hate your book.

But—watch the numbers. If several people hate your book, maybe it's doesn't have wide-market appeal or you are so green at writing you're boring them to death. If several people have issues with that scene about unicorns eating watermelon at a tea party while they discuss forest politics, maybe you need to take another look at it and see why those issues come up. If several people are noting grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors you need to pay attention to that too. Likewise with wrong word choice or unclear writing.

Over time you'll get a feel for whose advice you need and want and who's you don't. Some of my favorite beta readers are the ones that rip my stories to shreds to help me achieve clarity and plot progression. Some of my least favorite (whom I don't ask to read again) are those who clearly hate the genre I write in so why torture them or me with subjectivity issues?

Avoid the inclination to hate a beta reader that is harsh on you for the right reasons. Oh, we hate to think they're right. We scream, pull our hair, or shout at the computer for awhile. When we've calmed down and look at our story again we see it through new eyes and gosh darn it, that strict beta reader hit the nail on the head with their critique. Keep in mind that people usually want to read your work to help you out. Why would someone volunteer to spend hours of time and effort reading your unpolished work if their intentions weren't to help you?

Don't take C & F personally. This is where the thick hide comes in handy. When writing a story, throw your heart and soul into it. When receiving feedback, step completely out of your story and treat it objectively--even like a stranger. C & F is not aimed at you as a person. (Now I know that you do meet the occasional troll in some online communities that never has a nice word to say about anyone or anything but you seldom run into these trolls if you solicit a beta reader to look at your work in private or in a controlled setting.) Please don't think for a moment that you are worth nothing if everyone tells you to go back to the storyboard. You are worth something. The story just needs more time and hard work to match you.

I see all too often writers who give up after one or two bad critiques. Some writers outright refuse to take any C & F because they expected only praise. Usually this is the mark of laziness, acute self-doubt, or delusions of grandeur. You are going to have your eyes opened, painfully sometimes. Criticism tends to come in huge doses while praise is fleeting. Most people who sit down to write a story for the first time can expect not to publish that book. They're new at the game. They haven't done the leg work or gained the experience in order to produce a marketable book. It's the sad truth about writing that the general public doesn't tend to focus on or hear.

The trick is to take that C & F and learn from it. You haven't failed. Truly. You can now move forward and use your new knowledge to up your game. Don't give up if storytelling is really in your blood. If you wake up every day thinking about writing, you are a writer. Finding out that your baby isn't ready to be shopped is discouraging. Go ahead and rant, rave, or cry. This is a normal part of the process. Don't give in to self-doubt. Gag that little voice in the back of your head that says you'll never be a writer. If you want it bad enough, you'll do what it takes to get there. Ignore timetables, the Cinderella stories about other writers, and don't compare your progress to anyone else's. Learn and get back to work.

Beware C & F that tells you nothing constructive. Even the pros need editors and beta readers. If the people you've chosen to read your work do nothing but praise, it's time to find new beta readers. Writers need to stretch and grow. There is no arrival point. Search out other writers who will help you grow. Also, don't get addicted to praise. Don't be a dog under the table begging for scraps in order to be happy. Praise can deceive; lull you into a false sense of accomplishment and security. Revel in the snatches of praise you do get but don't let it go to your head.

Receiving C & F is a delicate thing. Be professional about it, even if you're a newbie. Don't argue back with your beta readers, don't go online and bash them, and don't smear their stories in revenge. Sometimes the initial feedback stings. Put it away for a day or two. Pull it out when you've calmed down and look at it again. Another cardinal rule should be: if you're emotional don't do anything. Take a break from writing and do something else you love. Let the feedback simmer and cool.

From personal experience, some of the harshest feedback I've gotten over the years has tended to make a better writer out of me. I've had to rewrite, revise, completely cut out, and even blow-up stories. I look at those early drafts compared to what I have these days and I smile. I'm forever indebted to the people who beta read for me and who have taught me so much about writing and about my own writing process. Sure, the negative reviews still smart, but I know how to deal with them now.

Knowledge is power, people. Don't deprive yourself. Seek out feedback, think hard about it, edit and revise, and learn.

The Critiquing Dilemma

If you write books you should read books.

If you want to learn to edit better and have your eyes opened to some major flaws in your own stories, you should offer to critique other writers' manuscripts. There's only so much you can learn from books on writing and workshops. Taking time to evaluate someone else's manuscript bridges so much more. It puts you in the editor's seat as well as the reader's.

Finding other writers to exchange work with isn't hard. The dilemma comes in the how to critique for others. What if you're faced with a story you subjectively don't care about? What if you find a rough draft in front of you? What if you can't find anything to edit?

The first thing I recommend remembering is that you are doing the other writer a favor. They need your feedback. They live for the praise but they also need to hear where the problems lie. They want their manuscript to be saleable, to feel confident in sending it out on submission. By reading the work of others and taking the time to analyze it, you'll also be building your editing skills which will help when you revise.

Some guidelines to consider when critiquing:
1) Subdue your subjectivity. It'll still be there and is the essence of you as a reader, but when critiquing for someone else you are trying to help that person out. It's not your job to tell that writer their ideas stink or that they shouldn't write about the subject matter they've chosen. If the subject matter isn't your cup of tea, you can always decline before reading the manuscript or make the focus of your critique the technical aspects. Aim to help the other writer, not attack them.

2) You are not the supreme authority over anyone else's manuscript. You will read and critique the story and then give it back to the writer. That writer may be getting other feedback as well. In the end, it will be the writer's call what feedback to accept and what to decline. Don't get frustrated if you see a later draft and find you were completely ignored. The reasons for this are manifold and I'll write a blog post about them later on.

3) Be on the lookout for the positive as well as the negative. The errors are easy to spot. Don't forget to point out all of the things that please you about the story or the treatment. Writers need to know what they are doing right so they don't start second-guessing themselves.

4) Make sure your criticism is constructive not destructive. Keep sight of your role, a helper. You want to see the other writer succeed. If you come across a place that is confusing or a glaring plot hole make sure you point it out in a way that doesn't say "Boy, you're an idiot." Make suggestions to get the other writer's brainstorming gears turning, but don't expect them to sign you on as the producer of their book.

5) Resist the temptation to rewrite for the other writer. Don't do it. I don't mean switching around a word or two to show better flow. I mean taking whole paragraphs or passages and putting them into your voice. Respect the voice of the writer you are critiquing, even if it's not your style at all. If they need to rewrite something for clarity, point it out, then let them take care of it. They need the growth here, don't deprive them.

6) Be honest. Another big temptation is to gloss over your concerns and give the other writer a friendly pat on the head. Sweet crits are not helpful crits. The writer can get that from their loved ones or friends who know nothing about story construction. If what you've read truly amazes you and you can't find fault with it, point out why. Let the other writer know what you admire about their style or characterizations. Show them that while you don't have anything negative to point out, that you still took the time to really analyze their story. If what you see before you needs the jaws of life, don't be a coward. Point out where the story lost you and recommend major surgery.

Avoid name-calling, derogatory remarks, and the tendency to tear down the other writer. Writing is a personal thing. Feedback shouldn't be. Writers aren't to take feedback personally, and critics shouldn't dish it out in a personal way.

7) Keep in the back of your mind some kind of alert button that can go off when you come across anything that reflects your own weaknesses. Maybe you weren't aware that you over-described your protag's attraction for the new kid at school until you see someone else gush on and on and on. Maybe reading all those dialogue tags will alert you to places in your own story that you need to work on. Maybe you'll see the way another writer handles foreshadowing and mystery in a plot and you'll realize that is something you need to work on.

8) Critiquing takes time, a lot of time. Know what your schedule and patience can handle. If you have a lot of other writers wanting to suck up that time, have the courage to say no if you honestly can't take on another critique. Don't sacrifice all of your writing time. Be sure to keep some for yourself.


Questions, comments, other critiquing pointers you'd like to share? Please do.

Your Story, Your Spin

Voice: “Voice is the author's style, the quality that makes his or her writing unique, and which conveys the author's attitude, personality, and character; or, Voice is the characteristic speech and thought patterns of a first-person narrator; a persona.” –About.com

Style: “Style…is basically the way you write, as opposed to what you write about... It results from things like word choice, tone, and syntax. It's the voice readers "hear" when they read your work…To an editor, on the other hand, style refers to the mechanics of writing, i.e., grammar and punctuation…” –About.com

Treatment: Never heard of this one? Author Dave Farland puts it best: “The treatment is the way that you choose to tell your story. It’s your personal spin as an author, the unique way that you choose to tell a story. It includes many of the elements that you’ll learn about in writing classes in college—such things as the use of character voices, choices in metaphors, character voices, the tone of the story, and so on. It even includes all of the elements of your personal style, your personal word choices, your phrasing, the lilt of your own voice—things that you don’t even think about and perhaps cannot change.”

Voice, style, and treatment are all rolled together. It’s the essence of you as a storyteller. Finding your voice is an exciting journey. Your treatment of the story sets that story apart from all others because it’s the essence of you as a storyteller.

There are guidelines and rules of grammar, punctuation, even story structure. When someone breaks those rules we tend to attack in a bloodthirsty pack. Yes, sometimes we’re critiquing a newbie who doesn’t even know the rules yet. But--I wonder how often we make this assumption of someone we don't know well yet. Perhaps that person isn’t as green as we think. Perhaps what we are assuming and harping on is in fact that person’s treatment of the story. (The bloodhounds freeze mid-air.)

A post on critiquing and beta reading will be forthcoming this month, I promise.

Some writers have achieved notoriety and even their brand name based on their rule-breaking story treatments. But breaking a rule just to break it or to make a sensation isn’t what we’re supposed to strive for. In these aforementioned instances, we’re looking at a writer’s style. Don’t be a copycat for the sake of sensationalism. Don’t rule-break for the sake of trying to make a big splash. You betray your natural voice by doing so.

How do you find and recognize your own voice or style? Writers agonize over the question. They look for the magic incantation to give them instant voice. Your voice will be like you, individual, unique, and something not naturally duplicated. We can emulate other’s voices for practice. I’ve heard of writers who take the time to copy out of books in order to get a handle on that author’s voice and style as an exercise. Sometimes we find we echo the voice of a book we’ve just read or that influenced us a lot.

Your voice is your take on the world, your vision, your way of saying things. Don’t be afraid to be yourself, especially when you analyze feedback from readers. Critiques are good for writers. They show you where flaws and common problems lie in your manuscript. They show the unclear parts, the boring parts, the questions that rise, as well as the frustrations on the part of the reader. Sometimes there is a tendency to try to replace your words with words the reader would have chosen first, to alter dialogue or description to the style of the reader. And yes, sometimes punctuation and grammar become a stylistic issue.

I don’t profess to be an expert. I’m not going to nitpick over all the instances that could arise. I will say that you need to stay true to your voice. Stick with your words, your style (unless the word you picked is completely wrong. I once had a glaring typo using “taunt” for “taut” that needed fresh eyes to point it out to me.) Remember that reading is a highly subjective process. Some readers will embrace and love your style; others won’t find it to their liking.

And don’t confuse your treatment of the story for glaring errors such as plot holes, info dumps, and clichéd characterizations. There are some writers who take great offense to any feedback and sum it up to the reader’s failure to recognize their voice, when the issues pointed out had nothing to do with voice.

Keep guard on the voice in your head. What sounds good in the silence of the mind may not translate well through the vocal chords. Use your brain and your tongue to smooth out your words, to articulate the story treatment the way you want and need it to be.

Voice and style go through a maturing process over time. They alter and change with each new story you write, much like your increasing skills in the art of writing craft. Avoid the pitfalls of comparison. Voices shouldn’t be compared. Someone from Tallahassee will have a different treatment than someone from Boston, Shanghai, or Glasgow. Age, gender, culture, life experience, personal philosophy, and even religion will alter one voice from another. Some styles appeal to larger masses of people than others. Trying to make yourself into one of these when your not can kill a writing career.

What about agents and editors? What about booksellers, librarians, and other gatekeepers?  If one is to get published, one needs to produce the treatments They want. Subjectivity, the arm of Fate extended toward writers, is either one’s friend or enemy. Going through careful research when submitting work for publication helps. Recognizing that some treatments will not gain admittance should not deter a writer from writing. Not if you write because you must; if your love of storytelling overrides fame, money, and all the glories of being published. Yes, we’ve probably missed out on some fabulous voices. We’ve all scratched our heads and wondered at other voices that rocket to the top of the lists—voices we don’t care for.

At the end of the day it may be you alone with your manuscript, kicking back and enjoying a tale told in your style. If you’ve stayed true, the words will delight you, the story will carry you away from reality, and a deep sense of satisfaction will cover you like a quilt. There’s nothing wrong with that.

If the Subjective-Powers-That-Be love your voice, you’ll be on your way to publication and possible mass-acceptance.

The important thing is to cultivate and stay true to your voice and style. Enjoy the path to discovery, don’t fear the growth, and don’t try to be someone you’re not.

Bonus Fun:
Here's something zany and unique. The kids are telling the story while the adults act it out. Hilarious--enjoy!