Facebook groups

The Writers' Group on Facebook looked interesting but with hindsight I should have taken more notice of the sub-heading : Bring your inner monsters and let them run amok.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/memberswritersgroup/

At least they'd got the apostrophe in the right place in the group name and there were lots of members listed so I decided to give it a go. Wow. I posted the cover for Magican's Bride - the one I did - and what a reception I got! So bad I went out and bought a cover, the first paid cover I've ever had. Now that too is getting a drubbing! If anyone is feeling brave, take a look and see what's going on. Some days it is poetry that gets the rotten tomatoes, sometimes its other things. I'm hoping they're as keen to express liking as they are to be nasty so I keep on glancing at the site. There's a lot of traffic and things whizz through pretty fast. I suspect, though I haven't been around long enough to find out, that it is a small few who contribute so energetically. It is usually that way.

I should say that I am part of several other groups, all of which are quieter, more sedate and generally nicer in tone. Sometimes groups can be cliquey and some just run out of steam after a few months. They're always interesting, and as someone once said, you get out what you put in. Or was it the other around? Anyway, contributing is the key, so I'll keep on with my little comments and see what happens.

Re-Writing

The weather is not nice today - it is warm and damp. Go out for a walk and unless you stroll around at the slowest pace possible, you come home damp and sweaty. What we need is a breeze and sunshine and according to the local forecast, we're not going to get it, so I may as well resign myself to a day for working on the novel.

At the moment I have two versions of it. One is slightly longer than the other, but I don't know which is the "better" version. Ever been in this situation? Careless of me, I know. I should be more careful in saving and labelling my work. It means I will have to run  through the two versions side by side to check for changes and or differences.

This time I'm going through to improve the writing. This may sound silly, but an agent told me some time ago now that he liked the story, the setting, the period but was less enamoured with my writing, Not that it was bad - it was confident and clear, but it just didn't make him love it. Well, it has taken me a long time, but now I can finally see what he was getting at. I can see where I can snap two sentences down into one, and make it more graceful at the same time. It takes a while (or it has with me!) before this critical faculty develops, but I'm happy to say I'm there at last. It's a re-writing task in a way. Not changing the storyline, but maybe tweaking it a little for more impact, more conflict, more clarity.

So, I'd better get on with it. Wish me luck!

Accepting criticism

"Any writer who dismisses the negative but laps up the positive had better be ready for the negative reviews of her book which will come.
I have had books published. Some of them have won awards. Some of the ones that have won awards have had yuckity reviews. Some of those reviews I (try to) ignore because I don't value the opinion of the giver, BUT if someone says something positive and negative, how on earth could I justify believing the good but not the bad?? If I value someone's opinion I cannot only value it when it suits me. That doesn't mean I have to kow-tow to it but it does mean I should not dismiss it out of hand as this writer seemed to, and to dismiss it so disrespectfully. For a start, the critique opinion seeks to give you the best chance of publication, about which there are no certainties."
This morning Nicola Morgan's blog here has an interesting piece about accepting criticism even if it criticises something in your book, and commenting on the people who willfully ignore advice they don't like. I nodded my head as I read through it, because I know how difficult it can be to admit that I'm wrong and someone else is right when we're talking about my work. It took me time with a couple of critique groups to learn that there was usually a point to what critiquers were saying, even if they weren't always 100% right in their comments. (but often, they were 100% right!)


Some people don't accept any criticism, and can be quite sharp when refuting it. Which is a shame, because if someone has taken the time to read and think about a piece of work, then their comments should at least be considered honestly. Critiquers are readers, after all, and if they are puzzled by something, then you can be sure other readers will be. There's no point in saying 'oh but that's because of x' - the critiquer doesn't have the author's detailed knowledge of the story any  more than the average reader, and if he or she hasn't got it, then x hasn't come through on the page. If it hasn't,  then  an author should know what to do!

Critiquing

France is no more than a fond memory now. From my bed I could look out on this secluded patio, and in two strides I could be out there in the baking hot sunshine.
Back at home, I have finally caught up. E-mails are under control, crit group duties completed, bills all paid, store cupboard stocked up, all that miserable washing and ironing out of the way. The biggest bugbear of holidays for me is the laundry work on returning home.

Best of all, I seem to have got back into the writing routine. My latest is called Victorian Beauty, and I had to do a swift re-vamp of my heroine, who had got out-of-control-nosy over the hero. Critters complained they didn't like her any more, and at first I couldn't see it, until Mirella explained how it would only take a little reworking, a sentence or two, to make the whole thing take on a different slant - and then Mel would be acceptable.
I saw the light, and did as Mirella suggested. Even I like Mel better now! Just goes to show how easy it is to change a character's motivation, or make their actions believeable. But until my crit partners told the truth, I'd thought everything was fine with the story as it was. So the thought of the day is: be truthful, kind and constructive when critiquing someone's work. They need to know when it doesn't work, but don't need battering over the head about it!