Writing

So, You’ve Written a Novel… What next?

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ACT Writers Centre LogoThis article appeared in the December 2012 issue of ACTWrite, the ACT Writers Centre newsletter.

Before you try to sell your book to a publisher (assuming that’s the path you want to take), you need to make your writing as solid as you can; agents and publishers rarely take on a project that needs more than superficial work, and no reader wants a scrappy read – so self-publishing won’t help either.

The question is: how good is good enough?

Getting some feedback should give you that answer.

Other people will see problems you miss because they’ll see it from another perspective. They’ll also pick up on things that are clear in your own mind, but not so clear on paper.

Useful feedback requires some fairly specialised skills from both you and your readers; you need to be willing accept feedback objectively, and a reader must be prepared to tell you about its problems without fear of upsetting you.

A good manuscript assessment service might be the perfect solution, but they’re costly, and you’ll need to do your research first; there’s little point in paying for someone who specialises in literary works if you write fantasy.

A cheaper and more versatile option is other writers

There are plenty of online critique groups (Critters, Authonomy), and Yahoo Groups is particularly useful for setting up your own (or finding one already established.)

If you’ve got the choice, a face-to-face group specifically formed to review each other’s manuscripts works extremely well.

For example, the Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild (CSFG) runs a novel critique group for its members each year, which has the added benefit of providing feedback from people writing in the same genre.

Each month is devoted to critiquing a single novel, and all members of the critique group read it and meet afterward to provide face-to-face feedback followed by a written report.

Thing to consider

Regardless of the format or how you obtain your feedback, there are some things to consider when committing your manuscript to scrutiny.

Firstly, find out what genre and sub-genre each person prefers, their level of writing/editing experience, and their professional qualifications (if any).

The answers may influence the weight of any particular critique, but don’t take it as a hard rule – some people are naturally better at critiquing than others, while writing skills don’t necessarily add up to insight or knowledge.

It’s also easy to forget that people will critique your work based on what they would do. Their preferences and experience will play into their review no matter how good they are at writing or critiquing.

It’s also good to know if someone’s qualifications give them technical insight into your story.

For example, a historian might pick up on historical inaccuracies, a doctor would know a lot about current and/or historical treatments, and an astronomer will have a solid understanding of how the universe works.

Even if you disagree with the responses, assume that if several people say the same thing (even in different ways), more than likely there’s a problem.

That doesn’t mean their suggestions will solve it – only that you might need to do something about it.

Put your ego aside and give it some serious consideration – they’re trying to improve your story, not criticise you.

In fact, you may already have suspicions about your story (what’s not working), and quite likely they’ll be confirmed.

It’s good to hear it from someone else though. It means you’re on the right track.

Figure out what you want out of it

One of the most effective things you can do when putting your story ‘out there’ is to provide a list of questions you want answered.

Start with the general impressions:

  • What did you like and dislike the most? Why?
  • What were the strongest and weakest parts of the story? Why?
  • Did you care about what happened to the characters?
  • Does the plot hold together well?
  • Were there any inconsistencies?

After that, ask for more specific details:

  • key chapters
  • plot points
  • emotional impact
  • character motivations – anything you suspect isn’t working as well as it could.

Also, consider what isn’t said: if your novel is working, it should generate an emotional response.

  • Did people react the way you’d hoped?
  • Did they ask questions about your world and your characters because they were genuinely curious (or because they couldn’t figure something out)?
  • Were they passionate about the beginning, but had little to say about the end?

Listen to what your readers have to say and don’t say, and ask yourself if their feedback can improve your story.

Even an overwhelmingly positive response can generate fresh ideas

If you feel overwhelmed afterward, try writing another novel and revisiting the first when you’ve got some emotional distance. Better yet, write two – and then get more feedback. You can only improve.

However, if you can transport critical readers into your story and have them show genuine enthusiasm for the whole thing, you’ve probably written your final draft. Give it some polish and find an agent.

By Chris Andrews

Read more about the Craft of Writing, or for a bit of a laugh try Pitching to an Agent or Editor – The Cretin’s Guide.

Top 10 ways to Successfully Pitch to an Agent or Editor – The Cretin’s Guide

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1. Arrive late.

It’s what a movie star would do after all – and the best way to achieve success is to model yourself on the successful people who’ve come before you. Agents and editors need to learn to respect ‘the talent’, and you’ve got plenty of it. As punctuality smacks at desperation, never pander to their schedules.

2. Tell them you’re on a mission from God!

In fact, let them know exactly what God said to you, word for word. How could they possibly deny you after that? Jake and Elwood Blues would be proud. If they aren’t convinced, drop hints that Satan might get involved.

3. Dress and act like one of your characters.

Editors and agents see a lot of people, so make sure they never forget you. The more eccentric you act, the better. In fact, take a replica of an item from your story into the pitch and show your expertise by delving into the item’s significance.

4. Tell them how much better you are than…

JK Rowling, Stephanie Meyer, Stieg Larsson or whoever else your story is derivative of. Preferably dump on those authors too, making sure you highlight exactly why they’re so crappy and why you’re so good. By making successful writers look bad you’ll come across as a genius.

5. Invite your friends along to act out a scene from your manuscript.

Make sure there’s plenty of action too – preferably involving real sword fights, firearms or explosions. Bonus points are awarded if you can claim to have made the explosives yourself.

6. Begin with the words…

“I would like to propose to you…” Editors and agents love word-play and will have never heard that one. Other great choices might include: “I know a good hitman…” and “I’ll consider having sex with you if…”

7. Preparation will make you sound dry and boring, so don’t do it.

Be spontaneous instead. Show them just how well you know your story by relating every single detail to them, and for additional kudos points or to get over the potential problem of nerves, have a few drinks before arriving – six or eight should do it.

8. Make sure they start reading straight away.

Print out your entire manuscript for them to take home, but tell them to start reading straight away – you’ll wait. That way you’re sure to hook them and you can start counting your millions almost immediately. As they get engrossed in your story the brilliance of your prose will also make them forget about any other pitches that day, effectively eliminating your competition.

9. Threats are a little old-school, but still effective.

They’ve worked for the Mafia for generations after all, so why shouldn’t they work for you too? Get creative and scare the crap out of them so they’ll sign you up on the spot. For best results bring along a body-builder friend in a dark suit and sunnies.

10. Lecture them about their industry.

You need to prove you know more about it than they do. In fact, tell them you could easily do their job if you just had more time, but you’re being generous by giving them the work instead. Make sure they know just how lucky they are.

Do you have a tip worthy of the list? Let me know by posting it in the comments.

If you’re after some ‘more serious’ articles on writing, check out The Craft.

Outlining a novel? What’s a pantser to do?

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I’m a pantser – I like to start with an idea, concept, character, situation, whatever, and see where it leads.

Writing a novel for me is an exploration. Plotters do the opposite – they discover everything they can before they write, or at least enough to be happy to write.

Quite often I won’t have a clue what a story’s about or where its going until I’ve written it, which is fine in its way, but really makes it hard to edit without an ingrained knowledge of story structure.

The best solution I’ve found is that with a bit of pre-thinking, I can generate the key points I’d like to hit while writing, so my story comes out with all the right elements in the right place.

I won’t necessarily stick to whatever ‘pre-writing points’ I generate, but if I know them in advance I can change them as needed.

So, if you’re a pantser, study up on story structure. Even if you don’t sit down and prepare before writing something, it helps to know what your story’s going to need.

Check out my Story Structure Diagram for the basics.

Meet Ian McHugh – Award-Winning Speculative Fiction Writer

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Profile image of Ian McHugh deep in thought.
Ian McHugh

Ian generously moderated the CSFG novel critique group this year, offering invaluable advice to each participant. Here’s what he had to say about the experience and his writing.

Q: You began running the CSFG Novel Critique Group this year. As you have your own novel in development, how are you applying this experience to your work?

I think the big lessons I’ve taken from this year’s crit circle are (1) the importance of giving the novel good structural bones and (2) the importance of fully developing characters, including their motivations, pressure points, relationships and mannerisms.

While plotting hasn’t been a weakness of any of this year’s manuscripts in terms of plot holes or internal inconsistency, the need for plots to build tension and offer some surprises has been a recurrent theme.

Going hand-in-hand with this is the need for major characters to be both active and instrumental in confronting the problems of the plot, and for a sufficient level of sadism towards one’s characters – you have to hurt them because you love them.

Q: Your critiques suggest your core strength as a writer comes from your intuitive understanding of character. How does this affect the way you offer feedback, particularly in regard to conceptual-based (ideas/plot driven) stories?

Funny you should say that. I like to think that in my short stories I generally create distinctive characters who drive the story, although I wouldn’t go so far as to call it my core strength.

In my first novel, I’ve found that I’ve struggled a bit to sustain that distinctiveness and roundedness across a larger cast of characters and staying with them for so much longer.

I’ve also tended to let my created world, in wanting it to be a character itself, overwhelm the human characters at times.

So I think, rather, that my focus on characters in critiques reflects the focus of my own struggles, rather than my strengths.

Q:Your credentials as a short story writer are well-established after winning the Writers of the Future Contest. What are/were your greatest challenges in writing a novel compared with a short story, and what would you do differently next time?

Sustaining the story for so much longer and over a broader canvas. Next time I’ll write – am writing – a shorter, simpler novel.

Q: Character is story, but story needs structure. How do you approach the structural needs of a novel-length story?

Haphazardly, at the first attempt, and with a rising sense of panic.

I’ve got a lot of value out of the structural stuff we’ve done in the CSFG novel writing group this year, for both long and short form stories – particularly understanding structural archetypes and having planning tools to map character wants/needs/actions/suffering to the story’s plot.

I think a couple of other factors are really important too: (1) knowing how much you can chew before you bite, and (2) having confidence in what you know about your story.

I didn’t do either of these first time through.

Q: Do you intend to run the novel critique group next year, and do you intend to submit your own novel? If so, what would you be looking to get out of it?

I think I’ll run it if I have a novel ready to submit for it – or at least am far enough progressed that I can finish the manuscript to a deadline next year.

If I put in a novel, then I’ll be hoping for some signposts to a better second draft.

I think the novel critiquing group is a really valuable part of what CSFG offers to its members so I think keeping that going is an end in itself. I was happy to support that this year without putting up a novel of my own.

That said, if I don’t have a novel ready next year, I’ll pass the baton and focus on my own writing.

Q: If you could give any advice to an aspiring novelist, what would it be?

I’d offer one piece of advice that I did follow and one that I failed to.

The first is: learn the art of storytelling by writing short stories first. Ray Bradbury said this, and I thoroughly agree.

I think short stories give a writer enormous scope to experiment with and learn how to handle different characters, worlds, plots and styles.

Stephen Dedman once said to me that you can learn 12 times as much if you write 12 short stories in a year as if you write one novel, and I think he’s right.

I think that even if a writer’s first novel is a success and easy to write, the next one or the one after that may not be.

If you’ve given yourself the best possible grounding in short stories first, you’ll have more tools available to write yourself out of trouble. (And also, you can use short stories as world-building and character-building tools for a novel idea, while at the same time creating a marketable product that will hopefully give you some sort of record of publication to mention to publishers once the novel is written.)

The second thing, that I failed to abide by, is: don’t underestimate how big a leap it is from short stories to novels.

While you’ll learn a lot from short stories, there’s still more to learn in taking the step up to writing novels. Learning what it is before you leap in can save a lot of heartache.

Ian McHugh is a 2006 graduate of the Clarion West writers’ workshop. His first success as a speculative fiction writer was winning the short story contest at the 2004 Australian national SF convention. Since then he has sold stories to professional and semi-pro magazines, webzines and anthologies in Australia and internationally. His stories have won grand prize in the Writers of the Future contest, been shortlisted four times at Australia’s Aurealis Awards (winning Best Fantasy Short Story in 2010) and appeared in the Locus annual Recommended Reading List. Links to most of Ian’s past publications can be found (free) on his website. His first short story collection, tentatively titled Angel Dust, will be published by Ticonderoga Publications in 2014.

Check out the Difinitive Rules of Magic which were ‘created’ at the Novel Writing Group in which Ian plays a huge part, or read some interviews from of the other Novel Critique Group members.

How to write short stories editors find irresistible

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I remember the first big epic fantasy saga I ever read. It was the Riftwar Saga: Magician, Silverthorn and A Darkness at Sethanon by Raymond E Feist. I read it over and over (and not just because I was broke at the time and couldn’t afford to buy new books).

After that, I sought out as many epic fantasies as I could, often staying up half the night while trying to get in just one more chapter.

Eventually I came to a point where they were all beginning to seem a little too similar, and I found myself getting bored with them.

From that point it was a rare epic fantasy that could draw me in, although a few still did, but the majority became ‘just another fantasy’.

I guess I developed ‘movie critic’ syndrome.

I knew the field so well that I became more interested in the stories at the edge of the field – the alternatives, the differences, the fresh ideas.

When I found something new that really worked for me, I’d pass the book to my friends who also read fantasy, but was often surprised when they didn’t like it.

It took me years to work out why. The reason is the key to writing a short story an editor will love: short story editors are (usually) very widely read.

They love the form and read everything they can. They really know their stuff.

By the time they’ve graduated to editing short stories, they’ve probably been reading them for years and are likely to be accomplished short story writers themselves.

Sending them something tired will dramatically increase your chances of rejection.

So how do you make them want your short story?

Give them something fresh. Something new. Something vibrant.

Use your brilliant idea to grab an editor by the collar and shake them awake. Twist a tired concept into something completely fresh and pique their curiosity right from the start.

There’s little room for ‘Hollywood’ in short stories – doing the same thing over and over won’t cut it.

Short stories are about exploring ideas through your characters and treading new ground. You need to entice the jaded editor who’s seen it all by giving them something they haven’t seen.

Do that and you’ll find your strike-rate increase dramatically.

Ethan Ellenberg Literary Agency Seeks Fantasy and Science Fiction

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If you’ve got a sci-fi or fantasy novel ready to go, then you might be in luck. The Ethan Ellengerg Literary Agency has put out a notice requesting novels in those genres.

While I don’t personally know anything about them beyond what’s on their website, I did check them out on Editors and Predators, and they came up as ‘recommended’.

It’s pretty rare to see a literary agent calling for submissions. They might be worth a shot.

The full details are on their website.

Good luck.

David Beveridge – On Getting and Giving Good Crit

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Q. What was the most & least valuable pieces of advice you took away from your critique?

Most valuable advice: the feedback itself. Least valuable: there’s never enough of it; and without denigrating any of the critiques not everyone is a fan of my genre.

Writing is a lonely occupation and one where it is all too easy to become persuaded of one’s own brilliance (unfortunately too often) or seized by doubts (not often enough, or at least not in a rational way: paranoid schizophrenia being all too present). More seriously, the input confirmed some of my own doubts and has given me a lot to chew on. Particularly in regard to characterisation; and the treatment of both antagonist and protagonists (Note to self: the child Lara to become Cloda’s twin and be fleshed out so that she provides a contrast with Cloda’s darker nature – but she’ll still be killed off).

More broadly it reinforced some of my own directions / doubts. (Note: some noted the use of US spellings, this is deliberate. Given the relative size of US vs Oz markets.)

Q. What changes, if any, do you plan to make to your novel following the feedback you received?

First priority: ponder and tease out the central theme; and implicit in that is the need to flesh out the main characters, especially the protagonists. They’re not going to be any less bloody-minded but need more colour.

Second, restructure Alia’s Gift to give the sub-plots more substance, especially the contrast between ‘Time Past’ (currently called Interludes) and ‘Time Present’ (main story). As presented they are ‘back’ and ‘main’ stories. They need to be better balanced, both contributing to the end-game for Alia’s Gift; noting that this is part of a larger series as well as a stand-alone novel.

I felt the group was uncomfortable with the lack of a single primary POV character to carry the story.  That doesn’t suit me. (And this isn’t just Alia’s story). Rather than focusing on say Alia, Cloda or Isla, I favour the braided multi-plot / multiple character approach of Peter F. Hamilton’s Night’s Dawn and Void trilogies. Primaries can change as the story proceeds. This will require an expansion and clarification of the Interludes into interwoven and indeed parallel (and relevant) ‘Time Past’ strands.

Third, simplify the language: but not too much. For example: ‘Asaz could become ‘the Assassins’ but the use of Gaelic (Slainte etc) is a differentiator I don’t want to lose. Likewise the similarities as well as differences from ours built into this universe. (One critter noted the use of the term ‘Machiavellian’. The Prince’s Florence is also part of this parallel universe).

Q. Having both given and received novel critiques, what do you wish you’d known when the group started compared with what you know now?

It might be useful to have critters post some brief summary of their relative experience, interests and expectations in advance of a first meeting. I know that one should be able to crit outside one’s own reading preferences. But occasionally a lack of familiarity in the particular genre can grate (but the flipside of course is that differing perspectives can have a value all of their own).

Q. What advice would you give to anyone considering joining a similar group?

Join one as soon as you have a reasonably coherent work for critique; but even if you don’t the experience of critting someone else’s work is also very useful. And when on the receiving end be prepared to give careful consideration to what’s said, even when it may be quite unpalatable. You can expect input ranging from sound and measured advice through to quite gratuitous and occasionally smart-arse commentary; but it’s all grist for the mill. Suck it in and move on.

Q: What are your future plans both for the novel you submitted and other novels ‘in the works’?

Keep going or Age quod agis as the Latin tag has it! First priority will be the manifest problems in ‘Gift’ but I also need to fill in the outline of the grand story; and of course the character templates.

Q: This is your third trip through the novel critique group with Alia’s Gift, so it’s clear you see value in the process. In what format do you prefer to receive feedback (ie, verbal, written report, in-line critique etc) and why?

All of the above. Verbal is good but needs to be complemented by good round-the-table discussion. It’s best backed up by written reports which allow time for reflection (it’s really quite difficult to note-take and retain several verbal crits – I tend to jot key points for amplification / rebuttal). Best is a combination of verbal, backed up by written notes and revision-marked text. I see all these formats as a valuable ‘set’ of which I should say this final interview is a fresh and useful part.

Q: What early advice did you listen to that you believe improved your story, and what advice would you reconsider taking if you could go back in time with the experience you have now?

I think writers tend to reflect (and be limited by) their personal experience and reading preference.  In my case this has involved academic (Honours / Masters and an abortive PhD attempt) and work-experience (engineer planning, military strategy and policy papers, later on Cabinet submissions and Ministerial briefing). Combined with a preference for multi-plot tech-oriented scifi (Peter F Hamilton, David Weber et al), this takes me down the track of grand (sometimes grandiose) space opera with a delight for world-building. It also makes me too prone to omniscient narration rather than character exposition.

The first crit exposed too much tendency to info dump and more focus on the global picture than individual characters. This was much ramped back in the second run but not by enough. The third has reconfirmed a tendency to inject back- at the expense of the main story. It has made me more aware of my strengths as well as manifest weaknesses. The trick now is too make use of it; noting that it’s after all my story, written to suit me. Getting published will require compromise between what I like and what some agent, editor or publicist can sell.

Finally let me record my thanks for your inputs and appreciation of your time. You are all talented writers.

Cat on a toilet with a mess of toilet paper.David brings varied life experience to his writing (not all of which is helpful). Now living in the genteel semi-poverty of self-funded retirement, he was born in Scotland, lived in India, Germany, England and Cymru before settling in Australia; and has worked as a Merchant Navy purser, Army combat engineer and APS policy wonk. 

He shares life with a long-suffering wife (what do you mean you don’t expect to get published this year? And can we talk about the garden! House needs painting!) and an (often) malevolent black cat with unionist proclivities (Listen up! Cats got rights!! This is my bloody chair!  Feed me now or else!) 

Read more interviews…

Leife Shallcross – On Getting and Giving Good Crit

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Q. What was the most & least valuable pieces of advice you took away from your critique?

Leife Shallcross at the beach
Leife Shallcross

One of the most useful things from the crit session was the feedback that reflected my own doubts about where the weaknesses in the story lay.This was (extremely usefully) coupled with some great suggestions about where I could take it to address some of these weaknesses.I especially valued the comments that picked up on things about my characters that I could extend and use to make the story more compelling.

It’s given me a much needed dose of motivation to work through those things and some really useful direction about how I might go about that.

As my story is essentially a novel-length rendition of a well-known fairy tale, some of the feedback I received was that I need to make the very well-trodden path of its plot take a few more interesting and surprising twists and turns to keep it fresh.

However, some of the (er, more light-hearted!) suggestions were for fairly major deviations that wouldn’t really sit well with where I wanted to take the tale. They gave me laugh though!

One thing I did find interesting (and I’m not really sure if it’s actually a problem) is that while I envision my main readership for this type of story would be female, the crit group that month was all male (except me!).

So if there’s any girlies out there who feel like reading a 107K version of Beauty and the Beast…

Q. You’re on the tail end of this year’s crit group. What have you learned from giving critiques that has helped you on the receiving end?

Hmm… It was good knowing what sorts of things the others picked up on. That gave me a bit of a sense of what I could expect.

I’ve usually given a couple of pages of notes, then sent back an electronic copy of the manuscript with more detailed comments throughout.

A couple of people have done this for me, too, and it been very valuable. But now I still have to wade through it all!

The pages of notes have been great, though. They have given me a real sense of what direction to take for giving it the next coat of polish.

Q. What changes, if any, do you plan to make to your novel following the feedback you received?

That’s a really interesting question. I’ve been thinking a lot about that.

It’s all about the characters, really.

There were a couple of points on which the feedback was fairly consistent, and those points were probably the things I’d earmarked as potentially needing work.

Then there were some really interesting comments that really struck a chord for me – you know, that moment, when you think ‘Oh, yes!’.

Those were about increasing the role one of the characters plays, and about roughening up a couple of the other characters.

My protagonist, especially, is going to get a bit darker, I think.

It’s the changes that I will make coming out of those suggestions that I think will carry the other stuff with it, the ho hum sort of stuff I knew needed to tweak, but didn’t know how.

Q. Having both given and received novel critiques, what do you wish you’d known when the group started compared with what you know now?

Ha. That’s easy. Don’t drink your glass of red wine too quickly when it’s your turn. It makes it harder to focus!

Seriously, I think the main thing is – this being the first time I’ve participated in a novel crit group – that I feel much more confident in my ability to critically assess a story (including my own).

So, it’s not so much a wish I’d known, more like a ah, I’m glad I know that now.

Q. What advice would you give to anyone considering joining a similar group?

Do it. It’s an invaluable experience.

Why? Because:

  1. (obviously) You get to road test your novel & find out where it needs more work. You get to find out where the plot holes are, which characters were unconvincing, which characters rocked, where you’ve clunked the info dump, where your masterful description swept your readers away and where your amateurish use of parentheses ejected them firmly from the flow of the story. Basically, why fork out for a manuscript appraisal when you can get this kind of in-depth critiquing for the very reasonable price of a return crit?
  2. You get to find out where you are as a writer. What your strengths & weaknesses are, what stuff you need to work on, what your comfort zones are and where you need to challenge yourself to step out of them.
  3. As per my answer to Q 4, you also get to hone your story critiquing skills, which you can then apply to your own work.
  4. This last one is maybe not something people think about when considering joining a critiquing circle, but involvement in a community of writers is a big part of what makes this an invaluable experience. The guys in our crit group know stuff about stuff I’ve never even thought about. And it’s difficult to describe the great feeling you get when you finish a truly awesome manuscript and you imagine being able to see it in a bookshop somewhere and think ‘I knew that when it was just and RTF doc. I helped that get there.’ *Goosebumps*.

Regarding points 3 & 4 above – as you can see, you don’t even have to have a manuscript for others to critique to benefit from joining a crit circle. We’ve got a couple of members who are there just to give us ‘bonus crits’, presumably for similar reasons.

Q: What are your future plans both for the novel you submitted and other novels ‘in the works’?

Publication followed by the accumulation of enormous wealth, obviously.

Seriously, publication is absolutely the goal. Or, more accurately, having a manuscript that is so good that someone wants to publish it.

The idea of creating a story that someone else can lose themselves in makes me feel euphoric.

On the other hand, I’m fairly risk averse, and the idea of having something out there with my name on it that is substandard makes me want to crawl under the bedclothes and hide.

As I said, I’ve had some great feedback on the story I submitted to the group that is generating some good ideas (I can tell because they feel right), so my first goal is to work all that into a second draft.

I’ve got a couple of other novels (um, four) on the go in various stages of completion, so my second goal is to finish the first draft of the next one and submit that to next year’s crit group!

I have vague fantasies about trying to complete a new first draft each year, but that might require giving up work and renouncing my family, so maybe not. Maybe every two years.

Winds of Change Cover Image.
Winds of Change Cover Image.

Leife lives in Canberra with her husband and two children. She fits in her writing around looking after the kids, and almost full-time job in the public service, baking yummy treats and playing the fiddle (badly). She’s also struggling against a recent addiction to Pintrest. She’s been making up stories ever since she can remember. She is fascinated by fairy tales and folk tales and frequently steals weaves elements of these into her writing. Her first published story, ‘The tether of time’, appeared in Winds of Change in 2011. She has painted her house turquoise.

Follow Leife on Twiter @leioss or Follow Me on Pinterest

Read more interviews.

Writing Update

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Well, its about time I kept myself honest and posted about my writing ‘exploits’.

Angry Robot still has the submission I sent for the same novel. They’ve had it for over two and a half months now. Their website said to expect a wait of about three months, and possibly more depending on the number of submissions they received. It’s probably a good thing its taking a while – it’s given me time to tinker with it. Still, if they ask for it, I’ll send it in a heartbeat.

Other news includes work with the novel critique group – wer’re down to the last two novels. I’ve also written a new short story (yeah, pretty rare for me), and a new introduction for the mermaid novel. I’d like to get the mermaid novel into Terry Pratchett novel comp, but I’m running out of time to do that. I doubt I’ll be able to rewrite and polish it now.

Coming up is a new interview from the novel critique group – Leife Shallcross. Looks like it will be really interesting.

Alexa Shaw – On Getting and Giving Good Crit

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Photo of Alexa ShawQ. What did you hope to get out of your critique session?

As this is my first novel, I guess my initial reaction is to be reaffirmed in my own belief that I can write a half decent story.

Once that bit of self aggrandizement was past, what I wanted most was for people to be honest about how my story made them feel, where it should have made them feel, and where it could be improved.

Suggestions on how to improve it were also warmly welcomed.

Q: What were your plans prior to the critique – jump straight into the editing, or write something new and come back to the first book when you’ve allowed the feedback to distill?

I guess like all other aspiring professional writers I’d like my first novel to be picked up by a publisher or agent.

However, I’ve started an urban fantasy and want to keep running with that until I finish the first draft.

I guess that means I’ll let the feedback percolate a bit before jumping back into the tween novel.

Q. Asking for criticism can be tough, inspiring, soul-crushing and insightful, all at the same time. What did you take away from this experience that will be the most valuable to your novel?

Receiving the comments from the group really emphasised to me that the reading experience is a personal journey that is different for everyone – as evidenced by the wide range of, often opposing, comments.

But perhaps the most important insight I received from the experience was that characters are everything.

This is something I was already aware that I needed to work on, but its importance was made more evident by the feedback.

Q. When you begin working on the story again, how do you plan to tackle it and what changes would you make, if any?

While I was writing the story, I was aware, but not willing to acknowledge I guess, that the character I’d set up as the protagonist was somewhat  lacking. And that a secondary character was doing the doing of things. This was confirmed by the feedback.

The major change I will make will be to bring the secondary character in a lot earlier into the story and build her relationship with the current protagonist, then rearrange/rewrite the plot points to fit the new dynamics. (I also liked the ‘magic scabbard’ idea.)

Q. What advice would you give to an aspiring writer who was thinking of putting their own novel through a critique group?

Writing is an intensely personal activity.

Everything that ends up on the page (focussing on speculative fiction here) is a distillation of the ID of the writer – which in itself is a scary thing to contemplate.

It can be tough when people don’t automatically love what you write.

However, don’t take it personally. If the person or group critiquing your work is even semi-professional, any comments will be made with a view to helping the writer, not attacking them.

Growing up, Alexa Shaw cut her speculative fiction teeth on the likes of Asimov, Simak and Niven. She then discovered David Eddings and a new love affair was in the making – fantasy stories. More recent influences on her writing include fabulous authors such as Sherri Tepper, CJ Cherryh and Marion Zimmer Bradley, to name a few. An abiding love of science led her to undertake a PhD in that field, and she looks forwards to continuing to blend science and fantasy in her writing. Alexa lives with her family in Canberra, ACT.

Follow Alexa on twitter: https://twitter.com/alexa_au 

Started the rewrite

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Mermaid image, found on http://cooldesktopbackgroundsx.com/I got my mermaid novel into rewrite mode this week after taking a couple of months off to let the feedback settle and get a bit of distance from it.

Reading through the notes was far more difficult than I thought it would be, not because they were bad notes or anything – just the opposite, but because:

a) it’s time consuming
b) criticism, no matter how well intended, is tough.

The first thing I did was acknowledge that being a mermaid story, it should probably start in the ocean. So I rewrote the first chapter – or more accurately, pushed the first chapter back and wrote an entirely new introduction.

Unfortunately, it didn’t work for me.

There isn’t much conflict that goes on in the water, and what there is I’m considering cutting back on. Almost the entire story is set on land. I could certainly introduce some more conflict (probably between the mermaids), but that creates an entirely new set of plot issues.

So that leaves me with two options – write some sort of ‘Indiana Jones’ style teaser, or go with what I have and try to make it better.

The Indiana Jones option has some appeal if I can find something suitable – something that introduces the main character (including her strengths and weaknesses), sets the tone of the story, and generally catapaults the reader into the action without otherwise being important to what happens next.

The current beginning is set on the beach and introduces the main character’s major internal conflict which leads into the main story. I works, but it could be better.

Any thoughts?

Make your story both intellectually and emotionally stimulating!

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There are two sides of a story, but they’ll usually fall toward one side or another, some more strongly than others. On one side are stories with a stronger intellectual pull, and on the other, stories with a stronger an emotional pull.

Different genres generally lean toward one of these categories, but the best stories, no matter their genre, do both.

Take Hard Science Fiction for example. Hard SF is likely to feature complex science and ‘big ideas’, and would therefore be more likely to draw readers looking for a high concept, original story.

Murder Mystery readers would fall into the same category, but for different reasons; there’s a mystery to be solved and that’s what works for them. Its the intellectual pull that draws them in.

On the other side of the fence are the readers looking for emotional content. The obvious example is the Romance novel.

Romance readers already know how the story’s going to end, yet romances sell better than anything else.

Why? Its the emotional rollercoaster.  Fantasy readers would also sit here – it’s a hero they want, and it’s a hero they get. Usually.

For readers looking for emotional content, how it happens is more important than what happens. You can almost be certain the ‘dark lord’ is going to lose in the end or the romance will work out.

So how do you make this work for you?

Do both. Throw in a high concept and blend it with emotional content.

Don’t believe me? Here’s some examples:

Harry Potter – Orphan Boy must defeat Dark Lord – standard fantasy tropes. Throw in a mystery or three, exceptionally clever plotting, and then make the boy the object of almost everyone’s ire – whalah! Bestselling series.

How about Dune? Hard SF revolving around the ecology of the planet Dune and the byproduct of giant sand worms which more or less grant supernatural powers. Throw in a couple of romances and a hero that must rise up and defeat an empire – whalah! One of the biggest-selling SF novels of all time.

Titanic (the James Cameron movie). A ship hits an iceberg and sinks. Its inevitable – history. A documentary would just show the facts – a tragedy. However, throw in a romance between two starcrossed lovers, book-end it with a search for treasure and show it from a survivor’s POV, and Shakespere couldn’t do much better.

How about The Hunger Games? Twenty-four kids from a distopian society get thrown into an arena to fight to the death – as high-concept as it gets. However, give them something to fight for – something even bigger than their lives – and suddenly you’ve got a story everyone wants to read. It’s about them, but it’s bigger. Its a love story. Its a story about defying the unjust authorities.

The Girl Who Played With Fire. It could easily be seen as a standard mystery, but it’s not. There’s something of a romance between the two protagonists, but that’s just part of it. They also have their own stories – one is unfairly put in goal while the other gets physically and emotionally abused -and suddenly you’ve got a story thats bigger than all the parts put together.

So how do you use this to your advantage?

Simple. Borrow from both sides of the equation. Make your story both emotionally and intellectually stimulating.

Read more on the craft of writing.

Robin Shortt – On Getting and Giving Good Crit

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Q. On joining the novel critique group, what did you hope to get out of it – both personally and professionally?

A. The ‘professional’ side of things is a bit abstract right now – I’ve hardly sold anything, certainly not a novel, and writing is more of a hobby than anything else.

I was pretty happy with how this novel had turned out, though, and I was hoping the crit group could give me an idea whether it was worth submitting to agents/publishers, and let me know which bits didn’t work and how I could improve it.

On a personal level, I just got a kick out of having people, whose own work I’d read and respected, read my stuff.

Reading their own works-in-progress was always going to be interesting. And of course, as with 2011, it was a fun group just to hang out with.

Q. ‘Helpful’ feedback can often hurt the ego, no matter how well intended. What feedback did you expect, how did it differ from the reality, and how did you feel about it afterward?

A. I’d skimmed through the novel a couple of times in the month between sending it to the crit group and the critique itself, and I’d seen quite a few weaknesses people might pick up on.

A lot of them (eg passivity of the main character, sloppy ending) did come up in the critique, but there were a few surprises.

For example, a couple of secondary characters I thought were a bit flat ended up being quite popular.

On the other hand, a lot of the group felt that another set of secondary characters I quite liked  were unnecessary to the story (which, in fairness, they were, but I liked them anyway).

Winds of Change Cover Image.
Winds of Change Cover Image.

Ego-bruising wasn’t really an issue – everyone was really nice during the critique, and I agreed with almost all the suggestions I received. They really did make the novel better, so I had no problem taking them on board.

There were a few suggested changes I disagreed with, but more often than not I made them anyway. After all, I’d written the novel for an audience of one (me) and the whole point of submitting it to the crit group was to broaden its potential appeal to the point where someone might consider publishing it. And that was always going to mean making changes I wasn’t 100 per cent keen on.

Q. Having experienced conflicting feedback, how do you work out what would be best for your book and how to apply it during the rewrite? Can you give us an example?

A. Fortunately there wasn’t much conflicting feedback, and during the crit session what conflicts there were were mostly ironed out and a consensus reached – which is what makes a crit session so awesome, a lot better than just having people send you their critiques individually.

ASIM issue 51 cover image.
ASIM issue 51 cover image.

As for the conflicting critiques that remained – if it was a choice between people liking what I had already and others proposing something new, I usually just went with what I had already (with a couple of tweaks) because I am really, really lazy.

In the case of the secondary characters from before, who some people liked and others thought were unnecessary, I’ve tried to split the difference by keeping them in there but giving them more stuff to do that influenced the plot.

Q. What do you think you’ll take from this experience and apply to the next novel you write?

A. The crit group was massively helpful for planning the next book I write. Mainly because it convinced me once and for all that all of that eight-point arc/Hero’s Journey stuff is popular because it really, actually works.

Quite a few of the criticisms were the result of me half-assedly bolting an arc on as an afterthought instead of building the story around it from the get-go, which I’ll be sure to do for the next book.

Q. If someone was anticipating their first novel being critqued and uncertain of what to expect, what would you say to them to help them make it a positive experience?

A. I think the important thing is to remember you’re not there to bask in praise and have an awesome time.

You’re there to make your novel better, and that means fixing what doesn’t work, and you only find out what doesn’t work by people telling you your novel (or part of it anyway) sucks.

That’s never any fun, but it’s necessary to get something out of the group. Besides, I don’t think heaps of praise ever made anyone write better (cf Lucas, George).

The other thing I would say is that (a bit paradoxically) it’s a lot easier to take criticism if you’re going in with a novel you really like.

If you’ve written something YOU would want to read, then the critique is just a matter of figuring out what to change so the size of your potential audience is greater than one.

But if you’ve written something purely to make money from, and you’re not happy with it as a novel, then when people lay into it you don’t even have ‘well I liked it’ to fall back on and the whole thing is pretty excruciating.

That’s what happened with the first novel I put in front of a crit group. I was a lot happier with this one so taking comments on board was much easier.

Robin Shortt lives in Canberra. His stories “Bonsai and “Babel” appeared in ASIM 51 and the CSFG anthology Winds of Change respectively.

Read more interviews.

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