Tag Archives: critiquing

Technique

Do you have any sacred cows? (Go fish)

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Do you have any sacred cows? No, I don’t actually mean holy cattle—you know the cliché: something you absolutely cannot sacrifice.

We may be flexible about a lot of things in our writing—or not. During the various stages of development, we may be attached to certain characters or events or even words that we just refuse to part with in later drafts.

Until we take our perfect (or pretty good) little baby out into the bright light of scrutiny and let our critique partners and beta readers tear into her. Sometimes an innocent little comment (“this doesn’t feel like the right word”) can feel like a full-fledged attack when we’re so attached to that word.

But eventually, we often find that after a little time and thought, it’s not really as important as we thought—maybe it’s not the right word, or maybe the connotations aren’t what we’re going for. Maybe this character really is redundant. Maybe this event isn’t quite as critical as we thought—after all, they only accomplish X and couldn’t we put that in this scene . . . ?

And sometimes, no matter how much we think about it, there’s nothing we can do to “fix” it—or nothing we’re willing to do. This might be because our CP hasn’t seen our whole or latest draft, so they don’t know the full significance, or it might be a theme they didn’t notice. Or it might be an irrational attachment.

Sometimes we’re advised that there are no sacred cows—we should be prepared to change any- and everything in the quest to create the best book (and/or get published). But I wonder if being willing to lose everything is really the best route to create a better book.

What do you think? Are there really NO sacred cows? Are there things you absolutely could not change, even if it meant the difference between a million-dollar advance and bubkis?

Picture by Gamerscore Blog

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Technique, Works

Dealing with bad advice

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This entry is part 2 of 6 in the series bad advice

When we’re first learning to write and we turn to others for feedback and guidance, we’re eager to get their help. After all, the people we turn to are knowledgeable and kind and so much better versed in the ways of publishing, right?

Right?

Well, when we’re first learning, yeah, the people we turn to will probably be more knowledgeable and their advice will help us improve our writing. And sometimes, even the good, kind things they say can be hard to hear.

But sometimes, they have no clue what they’re talking about.

Advice is one of those things it is far more blessed to give than to receive.

—Carolyn Wells

I think we’ve all been there: we get some piece of advice—from a crit partner, from an editor, from a total stranger—that just doesn’t work for our story.

Maybe I’m not unique, but I’ve gotten quite a bit of off-the-wall, mean-spirited or flat-out wrongheaded advice in the last few years. My favorite . . . well, it’s hard to choose, but I do have a special place in my heart for the “tip” to kill off my murderer in the opening scene. Or the one piece of advice designed to “solve” a problem (when really, the real problem with this section was the exact opposite), that instead destroyed the tension of the entire story and introduced a major continuity and factual issue. And then there was the person who consistently demanded I add details—ones that were already there, just a few lines before their comments.

I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite.

—G.K. Chesterton

I hope I don’t have to tell you I didn’t follow that advice.

So this week, we’ll talk about how to deal with all kinds of bad advice—from the ill-intentioned to the “Are we reading the same thing?” kind—and how to move past it.

What’s the worst piece of advice you’ve ever gotten?

Photo credit: Rachel Sian

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Technique

How does your critique group work?

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I’m actually not looking for an assessment of your critique partners’ weaknesses and strengths 😉 . I’m wondering about the mechanics of critique groups. I recently joined a second online critique group, a brand new one just getting off the ground. We’ve kind of struggled to figure out how our new group was going to work.

The other group I’m a part of is well-established. Their mechanics were in place long before I joined. In fact, I didn’t join—I was admitted. You had to submit a sample chapter, a sample critique and a bio. If two or more members wanted to exchange critiques with you, you were in. Then, you exchanged critiques with the members who’d voted for your admittance, and any prospective members you voted for (if they got enough votes). So while we have some 20+ members (I think?), most people have only 2-4 others they’re actively critiquing.

That’s a good number—we’re never overwhelmed by how much work we have to do (even with four partners, I went weeks or months without having to crit or post anything), but we also get several sets of eyes to look at our work—but not so many that we get a lot of conflicting opinions. We also have access to lots of other writers for good advice, congratulations, and commiserating.

However, this established group, with its high entry requirements, requires that members have a certain level of expertise/experience/know-how. The new group is welcome to all comers (well, it was; we’re full now with around 10 active members). And as such, we were posting 30 pages each on the 5th and the 20th of each month (not everyone has posted every time).

That was kind of a lot—especially considering we’re all at different experience levels, and all needed different levels of critiques. So we’ve been searching for another method. We’ve settled on cutting back to 20 pages (or so) each, twice a month. On the one hand, that’s a little frustrating for me, because a 300-page book is going to take probably six months or more to critique. On the other hand, with so many people in the group, I don’t know that I could handle any more than that (especially since I’m still in the other group and behind there, too).

So I’ve been wondering—how does your critique group work? How often do you meet? How much do you critique at a time? How many members do you have?

And would you be interested in a series on critiquing? (At some point.)

On an unrelated note, if you’d like to win a free Kindle, you can check out this contest. But, um, don’t enter, so I can win, mmkay?

Picture by Nic McPhee

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