Last night, a critique group gave my recently finished novel a well-deserved roasting.
Don’t get me wrong – I’d expected it – and the feedback was very constructive.
I wrote the story without a solid idea as to what it was going to be about – letting it unfold and change as I went.
I don’t know if that was a mistake, but the story I began writing certainly became something entirely different by the end – and it showed.
There were plenty of opinions about all sorts of aspects of the story, sometimes even coming from opposite directions. It told me about the problems even if the proposed solutions varied.
One of the most useful things I found was that people sometimes saw things in a different light from what I’d intended.
I was surprised two or three times when I realised what I thought were minor points had such big impacts for different people – things I plan to fix (or use better).
What I didn’t anticipate was the encouragement I received for a totally unedited first draft.
Although it has (some fairly big) problems, it was largely regarded as a very readable, fast-paced story with enough going on to make people keen to know how it ends.
With any luck I can keep that aspect when I rework it.
Overall, I came away with a lot of new ideas and a fresh view of a story I was otherwise too close to look at objectively.
I’m not entirely sure I’d throw a first draft at a critique group again, but I’ve got no regrets either.