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In praise of first readers
Jan. 18th, 2006 03:04 pmI've been writing for 13 years, and the WiP will be my twelfth published book. You'd think I'd have figured some things out by now, but I swear there are things I knew back around book four and five that I'm now relearning.
Last night I was looking at the notes my critique partner made on the opening four chapters of the next book. I find having her look at my writing is incredibly helpful, because while I can see some of the flaws, I'm too close to the writing to spot all of them. In this case, I was worried that a couple of the scenes weren't working, but she assured me that I nailed them.
But it wasn't all good news. There were a couple of scenes that I thought were fine, that she pointed out aren't working. And the reason why they aren't working is that the viewpoint character doesn't have anything to lose. I'm not telling a story in these scenes, I'm doing "A Day in the Life" documentary. Of course she's right, and it's frustrating because I know better than this. Once the flaw was pointed out, I went "D'Oh!" and immediately thought of how the scenes could be strengthened, cut or tossed entirely.
First readers. Good things to have. Even more valuable than spare inkjet cartridges or that emergency stash of chocolate.
And in the vein of what makes a good critique, Holly Black has an interesting LJ entry talking about how a good critique helps identify what's great about our story and pushes us to bring the rest of our writing up to that level.
Last night I was looking at the notes my critique partner made on the opening four chapters of the next book. I find having her look at my writing is incredibly helpful, because while I can see some of the flaws, I'm too close to the writing to spot all of them. In this case, I was worried that a couple of the scenes weren't working, but she assured me that I nailed them.
But it wasn't all good news. There were a couple of scenes that I thought were fine, that she pointed out aren't working. And the reason why they aren't working is that the viewpoint character doesn't have anything to lose. I'm not telling a story in these scenes, I'm doing "A Day in the Life" documentary. Of course she's right, and it's frustrating because I know better than this. Once the flaw was pointed out, I went "D'Oh!" and immediately thought of how the scenes could be strengthened, cut or tossed entirely.
First readers. Good things to have. Even more valuable than spare inkjet cartridges or that emergency stash of chocolate.
And in the vein of what makes a good critique, Holly Black has an interesting LJ entry talking about how a good critique helps identify what's great about our story and pushes us to bring the rest of our writing up to that level.
