So maybe you played with our online critique party last week and we gave you advice about how to proceed, what we thought, what we liked, didn't like....
Or maybe your critique partner red-lined your work until it's unrecognizable in its current form.
Or it could be that your critique group said that while your writing is beautiful, ten pages of telling is really better than Melatonin to put you to sleep... (guilty, first book ever!!!)
And now you've had the allowed 24 hours of pouting, whining, thinking, grumping...
And you're back to work.
The first book I got revisions on, I panicked. I thought "Can they take the contract back? Are they firing me? IS IT OVER SO SOON???"
Which is hysterical newbie stuff because I write and revise all the time now and I don't blink an eye, nor do I lose any sleep over it. And my 50th book releases in 8 weeks and will go out to thousands of readers through the Harlequin Reader's Service in three weeks... which means I've revised a lot of work in nine years!
And you know why I don't panic, darlings?
Because the story always comes out better!!! Sometimes we're so entrenched in our own 'vision' that we fail to see where that outlook becomes monocular.
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| A MOST INCONVENIENT LOVE My newest indie book and first long historical, edited by Beth Jamison, Jamison Editing |
Fresh eyes help.
Fresh eyes in an editor's chair aren't just targeted toward the book's well-roundedness, but also toward sales. Trust them to understand who the customer is for that particular line of books and how to reach them. I have taken so much new knowledge away from every editor I've worked with, from Penguin/Random House (Waterbrook) bestselling award-winning series, Amazon's Waterfall (best-selling series) Love Inspired (bestsellers and award winners) Guideposts (crazy hot-selling mystery series "Mysteries of Martha's Vineyard" 2017-19) Harper Collins, Summerside Press, Jamison Editing (for my indie work) and several others who've helped shape stories.
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| Wishing Bridge Stories From Amazon's Waterfall press, Faith Black Ross, editor |
So when you have people critique your work, take a little time. Step back. See what they're saying.
Sometimes something will jump right out at you and you'll have an aha! moment.
Sometimes you need to think things through and see how you would re-write to fix certain elements.
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| Her Secret Daughter, Love Inspired Books, Christy Award Finalist, Melissa Endlich, Editor |
I re-write all the time.
I love it. Because my first draft and second draft (done together daily) are the "getting words on paper" drafts... but then that's where the creativity begins in my house. How to parse, and simplify and plant foreshadows and thoughts and I am STILL KICKING myself for what I see as a glaring mistake in a book because I forgot to go back and foreshadow something... and two hundred and fifty pages later, that little foreshadow would have supported the point I was making.
OOPS.
Don't be afraid of the rewriting process. We all face it, do it daily, and move on... It's part of the gig.
Wishing you all well!!!!
And hoping those tips pay off in making you a better, stronger, faster writer.
Citius. Altius. Fortius.
(I was a track-and-field and cross-country mom. And a soccer mom. And a tennis mom.)
Faster. Higher. Stronger.
Go for the gold and polish until your work shines.
You both deserve it.
Love this post! Critiquing is so helpful to catch the things you don't see in your own writings, or to point out things that could be better, or to be a support line when you need it. Thank you to all the critiquing people!!
ReplyDeleteSally, you're welcome. Our pleasure! And I agree, it can open our eyes to little things, like when your eyes fill in the blanks of words... even when the word isn't even there! Our brains are amazing things.
DeleteAnd sometimes what's in our head about a character, setting or plot doesn't translate to the reader on the page. And that's crucial to a well-written story.
Ruthy, this may be your best advice ever, on a par with the 24-hour whining period and then getting back in the game. I like being edited and/or working with a critique partner because I honestly don't WANT to put less than my best work out there. I just finished my first set of galley proofs ever, another small milestone, and I found stuff I didn't want to go out to the world at large. If it helps me tell the story better, I am there.
ReplyDeleteI didn't "play" last week because the issues I'm dealing with right now are bigger than a single paragraph (researching and plotting the third book in "Western Dreams," getting ready for the "Westward Hope" book launch and trying to market my Contemporary Christmas Romance). But I hope to enter something when it comes around again. Such fun! And thanks to the Seekers for giving time to exercises like this one.
Kathy Bailey
Still your Kaybee in New Hampshire
Kathy, aw, thank you! :) What a nice thing to say.
DeleteAnd I agree, putting out our best should always be the goal and the more practice we get, the easier it is... and more likely.
And you know we'll open the critique box again, but in the meantime you're in a different leg of this race and we're so happy for you!
Ruthy, I love this advice. Good editors are worth their weight in gold, and I've been blessed with the best! Sometimes seeing all the feedback can be intimidating (and scary). But if you dig deeply and look at WHY they've asked you to change something--figure out the problem, then it makes changes much easier.
ReplyDeleteI am in total agreement. I was absolutely scared to death the first time. But that's kind of good because I learned that I can actually turn a story on its heel and re-do it... and it's still a great story and perfect for the publisher!
DeleteSometimes it's not about our writing...
But our target.
Great thoughts, Missy!
I know receiving fresh, savvy perspective makes so much difference to my writing. And though it can be humbling, being receptive to helpful criticism is so worth the price. Thanks for that reminder today. :0)
ReplyDeleteSamantha, I am in full agreement. And I don't always like that first look, but then once I think about it, I realize I can go deeper... or sideways and make things better understood by readers. Therefore avoiding the need to sell an explanatory CD with my books, explaining what I really wanted to say. :)
DeleteSIGH........
Thanks for giving the opportunity to have work critiqued. It's amazing what can happen when a fresh pair of eyes look at it. Blessings to each of you for your kindness! Lee-Ann
ReplyDeleteLee-Ann, I agree, and thank you for your sweet words!
DeleteLee-Ann, that's so true. We get to where we can almost quote our work verbatim! So it really helped to have someone objective look at it.
DeleteRuthy, this is the truth.
ReplyDeleteI remember my first revision letter...Ouch! I was in a bit of a funk. That editor really thought THAT needed to be changed??? And there was so much that needed to be taken out and written over!
Then Debby Giusti somehow saw my hurt feelings in my Seekerville comment that day. When she said every author gets those revision letters, I felt much better. And then when I saw how much better my story was after I worked through that list...well, let's just say I was a convert.
In fact, these days the editor's revisions are my favorite part of the process. Outside eyes are worth their weight in gold!
Kaybee said it! "...I honestly don't WANT to put less than my best work out there."
Amen, Sister!
Exactly. And what I think is really good isn't always getting the message across in the best fashion. So this keeps me from preaching... from getting on my own favorite soapbox......and usually from being a jerk.
DeleteThat last is NOT guaranteed. :)
Glad I offered a boost at the right time, Jan! How sad if you had let that revision stop you. The world wouldn't have your wonderful stories!
DeleteSo proud of all of your accomplishments, Ruthy! You are such an inspiration! :)
ReplyDeleteAw, thank you, Beth!!! I love working with you. You're solid and that means a lot to me as an author.
DeleteThanks!!!!!
DeleteI am definitely guilty of having to stew over editing advice for a day or two before allowing my brain to agree with it. I have noticed it is getting easier, though, so maybe I am learning. As soon as I get this sinus infection cleared up, it's back to edits again. But I need to able to think in a straight line first.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on your upcoming release!
Oh, those sinus things are awful. Praying for your full and quick recovery, Amy!!!!
DeleteAnd it does get easier.
Hooray!
I'm sorry you're sick, Amy! Sinus infections knock me out.
DeleteRuthy, such sound advice.
ReplyDeleteAnd to anybody who entered the Love Inspired contest and didn't get the response they'd hoped for, that happened to me, too. And I ended up selling to them anyway. I entered the Killer Voices contest and got kicked out at the third round. But I considered my editor's comments and suggestions, took her encouragement to heart, and got right back to work on my story. There was a bit more back and forth between me and my (future) editor, but eventually I did get THE CALL and my 'loser' entry became my first Love Inspired Suspense. My fifth LIS will be out in August! Really, it ain't over til it's over. And man, did I rewrite and rewrite and rewrite. Like Ruthy is saying, that's not a bad sign. It's part of the gig. It means you're a writer!! :-)
Jenna, thank you for sharing that!! I know it will encourage someone.
DeleteYou know, I sold to LI after two sets of revisions. So it can happen!
Yes, Missy! And from the outside it can appear as though an author's path to publication was smooth and straight. Ha! DOUBLE ha! :-)
DeleteAmen to that, Jenna.
DeleteHi Ruth:
ReplyDeleteWow! Your 50th Book!
And I've been there for the whole ride starting with reviewing "Winter's End" -- as a gem in a new Ruth subgenre called "Romantic Realism" (or something like that). What I heard that day, (probably in February 2010) was a new voice in romance 'recklessly' delving into topics like hospice, death, disease and dying, which were destined to move on to unwed motherhood in the 1940's, breast cancer as conflicts affecting both hero and heroine long before they even met, and probably a few more topics that I've repressed from my memory. :)
Here's what I wrote in my review:
“Winter’s End” is written in such a realistically relentless cadence that I felt like I was reading something by Eugene O’Neil, Tennessee Williams, or Arthur Miller. Even after reading ninety percent of "Winter's End" the book could still have belonged to three different genres. With a happy ending, it would be a romance. Add an unrequited love and a suicide and it would be classic romanticism ala "The Sorrows of Young Werther”, "La Dame aux Camélias" or the movie “Elvira Madigan”. And with a inconclusive ending it would be a modern realistic novel like the “Good Soldier”. Hard. Sad. Depressing."
Is it any wonder back in 2010 that Ruth was headed to the five star stratosphere with 50 books? (This all with lots of fuel still in the writing rocket!)
Speaking of 50…(and I'm not talking about anyone's age):
I'd love to be the first to order an autographed print copy of that 50th book! (whichever book that turns out to be), "To a faithful fellow traveler along the way: Book Fifty" would make a nice inscription. :)
BTW: I must say, I really loved, loved, loved "A Most Inconvenient Love" because it is like a new Ruth all over again. So many surprises coming so often that I had to look twice to be sure Ruth was really the author!
Here's the start of my review that I think explains my initial reaction to this new 'Ruth' book!!!
"If love had nothing to do with it, theirs would make a great marriage of convenience. But love and luck do count and both are running in the wrong direction for Seb Ward and Rachel Eichas.
Surprises keep popping up without warning and then disappearing-- sometimes just as quickly!"
***
The above gets right to the point of Ruth's post today when she wrote:
"I re-write all the time.
"I love it. Because my first draft and second draft (done together daily) are the "getting words on paper" drafts... but then that's where the creativity begins in my house. How to parse, and simplify and plant foreshadows and thoughts and I am STILL KICKING myself for what I see as a glaring mistake in a book because I forgot to go back and foreshadow something... and two hundred and fifty pages later, that little foreshadow would have supported the point I was making."
Great quote Ruth. James Patterson, who sells more fiction than anyone, loves to revise too. In fact he says he rewrites everything five to seven times after it was good enough to be published in the first place. These extra re-writes are designed to pack in more reader delights in order to sell maximum books. No blockhead* is James Patterson**.
I know that this is a long comment but it has no calories…just nutrition. :)
Vince
*"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money". Samuel Johnson
**Keep asking questions the reader just has to have answered and then answer them sooner than the reader expected. Delight the reader.
Oh, Vince, thank you! And I will send you that book when it comes, in a large print edition so you can read it and the inscription. You have been here for the full ride... and what a ride it's been.
DeleteI'm so glad you loved "A Most Inconvenient Love". I can't wait to start the next book of that historical series (well, it is started, but other books/contracts interrupted me) because I love going into that historical voice. I was hoping it would work for people, that they'd love that different cadence so you made my day, Vince. :)
And I've never forgotten advice you gave me about one of my short historicals, about giving the town a name (it had been nameless until the end of the book) and I went back and did that.
Because you were right.
Now if I could go back in that ONE OTHER BOOK.... :)
Vince, I like your ** footnote about reader delight!
DeleteHi Ruth:
DeleteWhen I read your comment below this morning,
"Now if I could go back in that ONE OTHER BOOK.... :)"
It came out in my mind's autofill as 'OTHER WOMAN'! Can you be loyal to two books at the same time? Might there be a problem of 'attention deficit'? Can a book feel verklempt? Should we consider 'word association' when we write a popular phrase?
Jenna, TRUTH!!!!
ReplyDeleteYes, yes, yes!
And those long rejections I got were just part of the biz... and then the revision letters...
And through it all we learn and BONUS!!! We get paid while learning!
:)
You cannot beat that!!!!
Ruthy, you are so right!!!
DeleteRuthy, congrats on writing and publishing 50 books! You're a writing machine...so, so talented! Couldn't happen to a nicer person! Not only are you nice, but you have an amazing work ethic. That's why you succeed and excel!
ReplyDeleteWhat Debby said. You are an inspiration, Ruthy.
DeleteSo true, Debby!
DeleteOh, gosh... you guys. Don't get me ver klempt.
DeleteI am so blessed to be doing exactly what I always dreamed of doing. How many folks can say that???? Sighing in happiness....
Hi Ruth:
Delete"The best cure for verklempt is happy dancing."
I will add a general comment here. Though criticism can be difficult to take at first (you may feel like you have no talent or feel like giving up when you get your first critiques), your hide will toughen up. :) It gets easier as you go.
ReplyDeleteTotal agreement. It is not a cupcakes-and-cream job... sometimes it's a heart handed over on a plate job... but as long as we remember it is a job and a calling... we go for it!
DeleteHi Debby:
Delete"Though criticism can be difficult to take at first…your hide will toughen up. :) It gets easier as you go."
Yes, scar tissue seems to have that effect and they do say that 'we grow stronger at our broken places,' indeed, 'what doesn't kill us, makes us stronger'; but actually, a good cry can wash away all those clichés. The problem with criticism is that it has a bad taste and an even worse reputation. It's not criticism per se that we need. It's help. It's light on the path. It's enlightenment. It's a share of the wisdom. Peace.
Vince, you're right about it being help. It's just sometimes tough to accept that help at first when we hand over our shiny new baby to someone. LOL
DeleteMissy, it is never permissible to critique a new born. Even praise can be tricky. Even I know that!
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