The Critique Session

Friday evening I attended a critique session by the critique group I belong to.  I was, I confess, a little nervous, because when I had taken a writing class decades ago, the criticism was very harsh, and not at all what I would consider to be constructive. But it is a rule in this group that we try to be as constructive as possible.  They genuinely seemed to like the beginning of my novel, as raw and crude as it was, and had some very useful notes for me.  “Notes” is a theatrical term for suggestions for improvement.  They asked some very insightful questions, and I took copious notes.  

When giving a critique, it is of paramount importance that you sandwich your critical suggestions between complimentary remarks about what you liked about the piece which you’re critiquing.  That way, the criticism doesn’t sting as much, and is more like suggestions for improvement.  Then too, I must have matured in the almost 50 years since taking that class, and my writing improved.  

In my critiques of the two other works which we discussed, I took pains to follow suit.  I genuinely enjoyed the 2 pieces we discussed, and my notes were based upon things which I failed to understand, but when the author explained  the background behind the things which eluded me.  Once I understood that the architecture was based upon medieval Japanese architecture, the image of the house became clear to me.  What I at first had taken to be wallpapered walls were, in actuality, walls made of paper.  I then remembered about shoji screens and the houses in the novel Shogun.  She had based it on anime,  being of that generation, but there wasn’t much difference in our imagined images.  

The other piece took place in Regency England, and from my reading and viewing of Jane Austen’s novels, I had very little trouble imagining the setting for that piece.  I had a very clear picture of what an early 19th century print shop would look, sound, and smell like, and populated it in my mind with representative characters.  

I look forward to this coming Friday, when the next critiquing session will be.  I also wonder what the sessions’ effects will be on my writing.

What to Do while Waiting for more Edits Redux 3

Well, I’ve finished the 1st round of edits for Takuhi’s Nightmare. And I don’t consider the jobdone until I’ve sent them to Patricia.  It’ll be anywhere from 2 weeks to a month before I get the next round back.  That’ll take me about a week to do.  It doesn’t take me very long to do them.  I don’t rush,but I don’t put them off, either.  I get all excited when I get my edits because I realize those put me this much closer to publication.  .Even after 8 books, I get all excited when publication gets close.  You would be excited too if you had had to wait for over 50 years for your work to be published.  

The ebook industry is a real book for those of us who don’t want to go through an agent.  I tried an agent decades ago, but she was so greedy that I shut that down fast.  She wanted to be paid to read my book, for cripes’ sake!  Greedy bitch.  I hope she failed and is now living a miserable retirement.  I am now continuing to write the opus I started for Camp NaNoWriMo in April.  I liked the April Camp Nano better when it was Script Frenzy.  I managed to churn out a stage play and a screenplay during that month.  I’m sure that I could turn out another one.  

I am trying to break out of the 60K 30 chapter rut I’ve gotten into with my other books.  I want this one to be a real novel.  I am aiming for 68K words and 34 chapters.  Wish me luck.  And I am searching for a better title than the one I am using as a working title.  Intergalactic Encounter just doesn’t have any punch to it, know what I mean?  If writing gets to be too stressful for me, I can always color.  I have a whole collection of adult coloring books and colored pencils.  Coloring is relaxing.  The most stressful part of it is deciding which color pencil to use.  

Then, too, are the files in my critique group’s folders.  I really ought to read and critique another one of them.  Patricia is way ahead of me in that department.  Then too, I may find critiquing so stressful that I’ll have to color in order to relax after doing each one.  The other day I had my first experience with word sprints.  That’s where you set a timer for say, 20 minutes, and write as much as you can for that amount of time.  Do NOT go back and edit.  I just type whatever comes into my head on the subject of my book.  The voices were cooperative today, and soon I had 2 paragraphs of material.  Then I ran out of voice, and had to quit for the day.  

Stay tuned next week for more news from the art of writing.  If I have any, I’ll also impart some news on the progress my book is making towards publication.  Just remember, a Writer’s work is never done.