Be Clear on What You Want When Asking Partners for Critique

Tell Your Critique Partners Exactly What You Need

Tell Your Critique Partners Exactly What You Need by Marcy McKay | 15 Comments Years ago, I bumped into writer friend outside the library and immediately knew something was wrong. He looked ghostly white and on the verge of tears, though he was usually quite stoic. “What happened?” I asked. He shook his head, looked away, then whispered, “I just asked her—tell me what you think.” That’s when I noticed the pages clutched in his hands. His manuscript. It was just a few pages, but they were clearly bleeding red. After coaxing the story from him, I learned he’d given the first chapter of his first-ever novel to an experienced writer for a critique with no instructions. She gave him back a line-by-line edit, listing everything wrong with his story. He quit writing, which was a shame because he had talent. Although the experienced writer should have had more mercy on this newbie, he should’ve been clearer in his critique needs to avoid miscommunication. Don’t make the same mistake.

Tell Your Critique Partners Exactly What You Want Joe Bunting did an excellent job of showing how to give constructive feedback in How to Stay Popular in Your Writers Group. Here’s the flipside of that scenario—how to give specific instructions to your writers group or beta reader(s), whether you’re reading your work aloud for assessment, or giving them your manuscript to read solo. There are endless flavors of ice cream. The same is true for critiques, but here are three basics to use as guidelines with your writers group: 1. Vanilla Ice Cream This is the early stages of your writing, when there may not be many fixings added to it (don’t worry, all writing starts plain, whether it’s fiction or nonfiction). Don’t misunderstand me, I love vanilla, but it’s the simplicity of it that makes it so special. With a new story, you’re still trying to figure out pretty much everything: the plot, the characters, the direction, the theme. At this point, you want to find out what works best in your work-in-progress. Ask them: What did you like about my writing? Who was your favorite character and why? Was there a particular phrase or paragraph that stood out to you? Did my writing remind you of another author? Who? Benefits to your critique partner or writers group: They understand the parameters. You’re looking to build upon the brightest aspects of your story. 2. Rocky Road This is a very specific flavor. It’s chocolate or vanilla ice cream, with chunks of marshmallows, nuts and sometimes, chocolate chips added to it. This type of critique is later when you feel you have a stronger framework of the story, but you’re asking about certain facets. You may give them a few pages or your entire manuscript. Say: Really focus on the interaction between my characters. Please tell me what works/doesn’t work with my dialogue. Just concentrate on my description. Nothing else. Writing is accomplished through layers—rewriting, revising, then polishing more. I know people who spend the first pass-through laying down the structure, the second strengthening the characters and dialogue, the third layer focusing on description, and so on. Benefit to your critique partner or writers group: Your reader can more narrowly focus on what you want and read your draft faster. It also allows your work to be less-than-perfect. 3. Banana Split with Everything on Top This is whole shebang, when you feel your story is much more polished. You’ve taken your work as far as you can alone and need your reader to check everything: the plot, the pacing, the dialogue, etc. Benefits to your critique partner or writers group: Knows you’re ready to fine tune your work-in-progress and need a complete assessment of the positive and the negative about your writing. Warning! You cannot always bypass receiving negative feedback on your work. As some point, you must hear what’s wrong with your writing in order to strengthen it and there will be areas to improve. You need the negative comments as much as the positive. Communication is key Just as you should write with clarity, so should your instructions to others with your work-in-progress. Good luck!

Tell Your Critique Partners Exactly What You Need

Tell Your Critique Partners Exactly What You Need: "Tell Your Critique Partners Exactly What You Want

Joe Bunting did an excellent job of showing how to give constructive feedback in How to Stay Popular in Your Writers Group.

Here’s the flipside of that scenario—how to give specific instructions to your writers group or beta reader(s), whether you’re reading your work aloud for assessment, or giving them your manuscript to read solo.

There are endless flavors of ice cream. The same is true for critiques, but here are three basics to use as guidelines with your writers group:

1. Vanilla Ice Cream

This is the early stages of your writing, when there may not be many fixings added to it (don’t worry, all writing starts plain, whether it’s fiction or nonfiction). Don’t misunderstand me, I love vanilla, but it’s the simplicity of it that makes it so special. With a new story, you’re still trying to figure out pretty much everything: the plot, the characters, the direction, the theme.

At this point, you want to find out what works best in your work-in-progress. Ask them:

What did you like about my writing?
Who was your favorite character and why?
Was there a particular phrase or paragraph that stood out to you?
Did my writing remind you of another author? Who?
Benefits to your critique partner or writers group: They understand the parameters. You’re looking to build upon the brightest aspects of your story.

2. Rocky Road

This is a very specific flavor. It’s chocolate or vanilla ice cream, with chunks of marshmallows, nuts and sometimes, chocolate chips added to it. This type of critique is later when you feel you have a stronger framework of the story, but you’re asking about certain facets. You may give them a few pages or your entire manuscript. Say:

Really focus on the interaction between my characters.
Please tell me what works/doesn’t work with my dialogue.
Just concentrate on my description. Nothing else.
Writing is accomplished through layers—rewriting, revising, then polishing more. I know people who spend the first pass-through laying down the structure, the second strengthening the characters and dialogue, the third layer focusing on description, and so on.

Benefit to your critique partner or writers group: Your reader can more narrowly focus on what you want and read your draft faster. It also allows your work to be less-than-perfect.

3. Banana Split with Everything on Top

This is whole shebang, when you feel your story is much more polished. You’ve taken your work as far as you can alone and need your reader to check everything: the plot, the pacing, the dialogue, etc.

Benefits to your critique partner or writers group: Knows you’re ready to fine tune your work-in-progress and need a complete assessment of the positive and the negative about your writing.

Warning!

You cannot always bypass receiving negative feedback on your work. As some point, you must hear what’s wrong with your writing in order to strengthen it and there will be areas to improve. You need the negative comments as much as the positive.

Communication is key

Just as you should write with clarity, so should your instructions to others with your work-in-progress. Good luck!"



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Writing Tips: Write What You Know | Writing Forward

Writing Tips: Write What You Know | Writing Forward:

"Writing Tips: Write What You Know
Posted by Melissa Donovan ·

 Writing tips: write what you know.
If there’s one piece of writing advice that took me years to truly understand, it’s write what you know.

When I first heard this instruction, I thought it was odd. I don’t remember where I first heard it, but I do remember thinking that as far as writing tips went, it was absurd.

What about writing from your imagination or your feelings? How do genres like science fiction and fantasy fit into the idea that you should only write what you know?

It all seemed rather limiting. Was I supposed to write about American suburbia? That’s what I knew, and it was the last thing I wanted to write about.

One of the reasons memoir doesn’t appeal to me as a writer is because I don’t want to write what I know. I don’t want to relive my life. I want to use writing to live outside of my life, to explore what I don’t know.

I decided to disregard the advice and write whatever I wanted.

What Does It Mean to Write What You Know?

Over the years, I began to understand that write what you know isn’t one of those writing tips that is meant to be taken literally. It’s not a piece of instruction; it’s a guideline.

Think about the world of Harry Potter. J.K. Rowling invented a world of magic, a world that many of us might dream about but none could know in the literal sense. Yet she based that world on our world and on the many fantastical, fictional worlds that already exist in literature. Even if we’re not consciously aware of it, we are constantly influenced by what we’ve read, seen, and experienced. My guess is that in one way or another, the seeds of Harry Potter’s world came from Middle Earth, Narnia, and a galaxy far, far away.

The most fantastical worlds in storytelling are beloved because they are full of truths. They tell us who we are as individuals and as a society. I would guess that Ms. Rowling knows a thing or two about friendship and loyalty because there is truth in the relationships that exist between Harry and his closest friends, Ron and Hermione. These relationships have ups and downs but are constant.

While flipping back and forth between two channels late at night, Suzanne Collins saw kids competing on reality TV and footage of the war in Iraq. The images blurred in her tired mind, and the Hunger Games were born. She didn’t know a world where children are thrust into an arena to fight to the death. But she could take what she knew (or could learn), add a heap of her own imagination and render a believable world.

To write what you know does not mean to only write about experiences you’ve actually had or people you’ve actually met. It means you use what you know about life, nature, and humanity as the foundation for your stories.

Write What You Want

I believe the best writing is a balanced mixture of what the writer knows and what the writer seeks. Maybe the setting is the writer’s home town and the characters are based on her friends and family, but the plot is completely outside her realm of experience. Maybe the plot is taken from history, which the writer has researched (and therefore knows), but the world in which it is set is drawn from her imagination. Creativity and art are all about combining existing elements in innovative ways.

It is true: you should write what you know, but you should also leave room in writing for the unknown, room to explore and discover new truths, ideas, and possibilities:

Write what you feel.

Use your personal, emotional experiences and share them with the reader through characters you’ve invented. Emotional truths make a piece of fiction honest and compelling.
Write what you imagine. Let yourself explore a world of possibilities: fantastical beasts, mythical creatures, aliens, and strange, magical worlds.
Write what you experience. Every experience you’ve had can be translated to fiction. Remember your first day of school? Tweak that experience and give it to one of your characters, even if the character is an elf or an alien.
Write what interests you. You can write what you know after you’ve learned it. Conduct research about things that interest you and then use those things in your stories. Pull facts and ideas from history, current events, and textbooks.
Write what matters to you. It goes without saying that your work must matter to you. Write about what moves you, stirs your passion, fills you with joy or rage. If you’re invested in your project, it will come through in your writing and it will speak to higher truths.

What do you write?

How do you feel about writing tips like write what you know? Do you try to write what you know? How far outside of what you know do you take your writing? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment, and keep writing."



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Why the Best Characters for Your Story are Weirdos

Why the Best Characters for Your Story are Weirdos:

 "Why the Best Characters for Your Story are Weirdos

by Liz Bureman

 So much of what most of us consider to be good writing requires the writer to create a believable scene and realistic characters—or if not believable and realistic, close enough so that the reader willingly suspends their disbelief. Today’s article and corresponding writing practice is all about throwing those rules out the window by writing about weirdos.

The general consensus in writing for a modern audience is that subtlety and nuance are key to getting the reader on board with your story. This is true for many slice-of-life type stories, but not every story requires a delicate touch. There are entire genres dedicated to exploring the fantastic and weird, so why stay on the path of realism with your work?

There are many ways to get your freak flag flying on your pages, but we’ll start with how that works in characterization.

Weirdos Are Everywhere

When it comes to characters, writers are most often criticized because of the believeability of their characters. Taken at face value, that seems to mean that your characters should be the kind of people that you would find on the street or the bus or the subway or in your office or at school, and a lot of writers have somehow interpreted that to mean normal or average.

As a frequent public transit rider, I have to say to these writers: buses and subways are full of weirdos. (Share that on Twitter?)

In fact, offices and classrooms are full of weirdos, too. Have you spent any amount of time around children under the age of ten? And everyone has at least one story about a coworker who never wore shoes in the office, or who would inexplicably hoard Earl Grey tea from the break room at their desk, or who never wore deodorant.

How to Write Good Characters: Dig Into the Weirdness

Take this post as an affirmation to write your weird characters, and to really dig into that weirdness.

Make all of them residents of some alternate civilization where the Air Bud DVDs are a form of legal tender and Ashanti is a minor deity in their pantheon.

Give them a dialectal quirk that results in them adding the word “biscuit” to the end of all of their sentences.

Maybe you’ve got a serial killer who makes teapots out of their victims’ skulls.

The point is that reality is pretty rarely realistic, so there’s no reason to try to make your characters the beige version of “realistic”.

Can you think of someone you’ve seen or know personally who is a bona-fide weirdo (besides yourself, that is!)? What makes them so weird/fascinating? Share in the comments.

PRACTICE

Take fifteen minutes and write about a person in a food/beverage establishment. Get weird with the customer and the service staff. Describe appearances, verbal and physical quirks, behavioral tics, and general demeanors as you create the conversation. Post your practice in the comments and be sure to check out the work of your fellow writers."



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Write Books You Love. Think Global. Consider Multiple Streams Of Income | The Creative Penn

Write Books You Love. Think Global. Consider Multiple Streams Of Income | The Creative Penn: "Multimedia courses, merchandise and affiliate income

Many non-fiction authors offer multi-media courses through sites like ClickBank or Udemy. The Self-Publishing Podcast guys are now doing this for Write, Publish, Repeat, as is J Thorn, with his Finishing a manuscript in 60 days course. I have been selling courses for the last 4 years but have recently moved away from them to focus on more evergreen products that don’t need updating. I may revisit that decision at some point.

Some authors are also doing merchandise. My favorite example is comic creator and author, XKCD, since my husband has been a fan for years and has lots of his t-shirts. Hugh McLeod has a similar model at GapingVoid with Motivational Art for Smart People – brilliant branding!

Lawyer and indie commentary blog, The Passive Voice, now has a good selection of pithy t-shirts as well. I’ve had a look at Zazzle before and have thought about a ‘creative’ range – this is something I am certainly considering but the quality needs to be good. [I’d love to hear about other merchandising examples or service providers that you think are good for authors. Please do leave a comment below.]

If you have a content-rich website with decent traffic, you can make an income stream through affiliate links, which is a commission payment on sales. I have a small income stream from this method, but I am scrupulous about only recommending things I both use and am happy to recommend.

Currently, I recommend the Learn Scrivener Fast training, Joel Friedlander’s Book Design Templates, Jim Kukral’s Author Marketing Club and I use Amazon affiliate links for books. If you want to look at the affiliate method in detail, I recommend Pat Flynn’s Smart Passive Income blog.

Professional speaking and audiobook narration

One of my other primary income streams is professional speaking, which also feeds my travel junkie soul. I’ve written extensively about this in my book, Public Speaking for Authors, Creatives and Other Introverts, if you want to look into that as an option.

In 2015, I will be adding another income stream from audiobook narration. I’ve been podcasting for 5 years now and after narrating my own non-fiction books, I’ll be opening up for royalty share deals with other authors with decent platforms. Audiobook income has been a revelation for me in 2014, and I believe this is a growth market so I want to be involved. I also LOVE the royalty split deals as it means ongoing revenue for the long term, which is what we all want.

There is a technical barrier to entry with this, but if you fancy giving it a go, Audiobooks for Indies by Simon Whistler is a must. You can also listen to the interview with him here on this topic, including the moment I decided to become a narrator!

There are many other creative ways to make money from your skills, from your books and your knowledge. But in the end, it all comes down to creativity. I love all these other ways to make a living but I’m an author first, so I want to …

(3) Write something magnificent

This quote from Penelope Trunk caught my eye in a post about workplace revolution.

“I want to be writing the ideas people read late at night, with a glass of wine, to dull the searing impact of the life they’ve already chosen.”

Personally, I write for those people who are still stuck in the cubicle jobs that I once was. For those people who cry with frustration and unhappiness as I used to. For those who spend their commute plotting escape and their lunch hours reading escapist fiction to get out of their heads for an hour or two.

On my wall I have a sign that says, ‘Create a body of work I am proud of.‘

Yes, I want to make a good living but I don’t want to write books that are a waste of my time and yours. I want you to wake up thinking about something I have written.

I want to keep you up all night.

I want you to remember me when I die."



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Write Books You Love. Think Global. Consider Multiple Streams Of Income | The Creative Penn

Write Books You Love. Think Global. Consider Multiple Streams Of Income | The Creative Penn:

 "Create multiple streams of income from your books

I’ve gone into this model before, but read this post if you need a refresher. Your income streams can be:

Print – print on demand through Createspace or IngramSpark
Ebook – by distributor e.g. Amazon, iBooks, Kobo, NOOK, Google Play, Smashwords/Draft2Digital for subscription models and smaller vendors
Audiobook – ACX.com for US and UK authors. Other options for authors in other countries – see Making Tracks by J Daniel Sawyer and Audiobooks for Indies by Simon Whistler
Multiply these formats by country. So I am selling in 62. How many are you selling in?

Multiple these formats by language if you are getting into translations. I have German, Spanish and Italian and the moment, for print and ebook, with my first German audiobook coming in 2015, along with Portuguese and more in Spanish and Italian. More on translation here.

Think wider. How can you create more income streams from your books?

I’ve recently read and highly recommend Tony Robbins’ new book, Money: Master the Game. In it, Tony discusses the All-Season investing approach which anticipates the various market changes that inevitably occur in economic cycles. The idea to to have your investments in different quadrants so you can weather any type of market. The same approach can apply to our creative businesses.

If you only have one product (or one book) and one market (or one distributor), you won’t be able to weather the changes will HAVE to occur, since status quo is never an option. I’ve always taken this approach to my business and will continue to diversify in 2015.

My business card and email signature say: Author Entrepreneur. I do not make a full-time income from books. It could be a full-time income if I lived somewhere else, but I live in central London! You can see my last income analysis here if you’re interested in the split.

In my experience, unless you are one of the very few making hard core cash from writing alone, you either need a ‘day job,’ or you need to make income from other sources. I love writing books, but I don’t want to lose the love by forcing myself into a crazy production process.

My muse loves research and travel and that adds to my creation time. I’m happy with that, but I don’t want to go back to the day job, so while I write books at a reasonable clip, I also have other streams of income."



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Back to Basics: Why Am I Getting Rejected? WritersDigest.com | WritersDigest.com

Back to Basics: Why Am I Getting Rejected?
WritersDigest.com | WritersDigest.com:

 "Back to Basics: Why Am I Getting Rejected?
By: dmatriccino | September 27, 2010

 Rejection is often the No. 1 area of pain, concern, and obsession for writers. More often than not, writers want to know WHY they’ve been rejected. Here’s the standard advice I most frequently offer.

Why are editors rejecting my work when family and friends love it so much?
Your family and friends love you and see you in your work. An editor doesn’t know you and is often more objective, especially when it comes to marketability. Publishing professionals have distance; you and your closest friends/family may not.

I receive lots of form rejections that have little or no feedback on my work. What might be wrong?
Reasons for rejection can be incredibly subjective (indefinable issues of taste), but you might consider the following possibilities:

Something similar was recently published, or it’s a category that’s overpublished. You’re not the only person with your idea, so your work may be rejected simply because someone else beat you to it. (This can often be the case with trendy nonfiction topics.)
The timing is wrong. Editors change. Publishers cut back their lists. The market changes. Sometimes you need luck on your side.
In the case of nonfiction: You don’t have adequate credentials, or you don’t have an attractive marketing platform.
Your query letter, or the presentation of your materials, is not professional and/or does not meet submission guidelines.
You are querying inappropriate publishers, agents, or editors.
How many rejection slips do you consider the cut-off point—where I should give up completely?
If you put years of time and effort into a project, don’t abandon it too quickly. Look at the rejection slips for patterns or a direction about what’s not working. Rejections can be lessons to improve your writing. Ultimately, though, some manuscripts have to be put in the drawer because there is no market, or there isn’t any good way to revise the work successfully. Most authors don’t sell their first manuscript, but their second or third (or fourth!).

May I submit the same manuscript more than once to an editor or agent who has rejected it?
Once you’ve been rejected on a manuscript (NOT a query—but a partial or full), you’ve more or less killed your chances with that particular person on that particular project—unless the editor or agent says they are welcome to receiving a revision. If there’s no invitation to resubmit, then it’s not likely that sending a revision is going to result in a different outcome. This is why it’s critical to submit your manuscript only when you are absolutely confident it is the best you can make it.

Interpreting rejection phrases

“Doesn’t fit our needs.” This is the all-purpose rejection phrase that could really mean anything. It could relate to issues of professionalism, writing quality, or marketability. Don’t try to figure out what it means—it’s just a stock phrase that gets used again and again by everyone in the publishing industry.
“Doesn’t have sufficient market appeal.” This means exactly what it says. Perhaps the market for your work is too small, indistinct, or weird. Or maybe your work lacks punch—it’s not different enough, unique enough, or special enough for people to take notice.
“Just couldn’t get excited about it.” If someone makes this comment about your fiction, it usually reflects a weak story, a weak protagonist, or little/no compelling conflict. Your story hasn’t successfully and emotionally engaged the editor/agent.
“The writing doesn’t stand out.” This probably means your writing lacks style, sophistication, voice—or your story is boring, unoriginal, or uninspired.
“Not fresh enough.” For fiction writers, perhaps your plot line is too cliche, your characters are too common, or your story is not compelling enough for publication."



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