It’s Not What You’re Doing Right, It’s What You’re Doing Wrong

I haven’t been doing this writing gig very long but the one thing I do know is that my writing has expanded well beyond what I ever thought it could.  It’s exciting for me to see how far I have come as a beginner writer and to see how far I CAN go.  And it’s all because of the critiques on my work, most especially by my insightful critique partner. 

Any friend, family member or neighbor can tell you how great your story and writing is.  Heck, I tell myself how brilliant I am all the time but that will never make you a better writer.  Every writer needs someone in the “biz” to honestly tell them what they are doing WRONG.  Fellow writers are perfect for that.  Sure most of us writers are not professional editors but we are professional readers so we know what draws us in and turns us off.  Plus, we take the knowledge passed on by our forefathers or what we like to call “published authors” and practice on each other.  Like playing doctor as a child, it’s more fun when you get to be the doctor. *raises a brow with smile*

Finding the RIGHT critique partner or group can take time but I’ve figured out the perfect formula.  A solid honest critique will give you:

   a tiny pat on the head

+ a swift kick in the pants

- cynicism

÷ the overall gist

-------------------------------------

= Effective Critique

Recently I won a critique from Chimera Critiques.  A group of gals who offer a free critique, once a month, on your first chapter or query.  On their website you can read a sample of their style critique and I was impressed with what they had to say.  For me, it’s a contest, what do I have to lose?  

My critique was fantastic!  They were RIGHT ON THE MONEY about what I needed to strengthen and where I fell short.  Their comments were not only insightful but thought provoking enough for me to figure out a way to fix my shortcomings.  They gave an acceptable amount of “good boy” pat on the head comments but focused on where I needed work WITHOUT being condescending.  They even tried to help me problem solve in a few areas.  I have had A LOT of people critique my work and from everything I’ve received, these ladies are the IDEAL critique.  Just like my formula above: a pinch of praise, a “smathering” of tough love and rounded teaspoon of well done. 

[DEFINITION:  smathering – a southern term for “a lot.”  More than a dollop but less than a cup.]

You know what they say: “It takes a village to raise a child.”  Well it also takes a village to raise a writer.  I haven’t done this on my own that is for sure.  And I’m not going to get to the finish line without my blogging community at my back.  Thanks to you all!  Every blog/post of writer advice, I’ve probably deciphered, dissected or devoured at some point in time.   But hey, aren't we are all in it together?

A Little Rough This Week

I'm on vacation in Tennessee this week. No blogging for me because my sweet baby girl Cinnamon died last night. Faithful dog for 17 1/2 years. I'll be back to my regular summer posting next week.

When should we be contradictory?

Last week I read a post, not one I follow and I didn’t agree with person’s opinion.  It’s not like they said something that offended me, I simply disagreed with their example.  I wanted to politely comment and give my reasons why but I didn’t.   

Why not?

I didn’t want to come off arrogant.  Because I AM NOT, but you don’t know me and my comment could have been misconstrued that way.

I didn’t want to be the one person in the group that didn’t gush with praise for the brilliance in the examples.

I didn’t want to be the one person in the group to point out the flaws in their example.  It was a “show don’t tell” post and I counted five tells in their show.  Plus there were several descriptions of other things in their “show example” that were irrelevant descriptions thus slowing down the scene.  Nice descriptive shows but their irrelevance pulled me away from the importance of the scene.

So I ask you, when should we be contradictory?  I’m not talking about Negative Ninnies, just making points to the contrary in a unkind way.  I’m of the Southern Polite Sensibilities; “If you can’t say something nice, keep your mouth shut.”  (or that’s my version of it) Most of the time I agree with that statement because being unnecessarily contradictive makes you sound like a miserable person all together.  When I am asked my opinion, I’m politely honest even if I disagree, keeping my thoughts to a sentence or two.  

This particular post did not ask my opinion and what I had to say would have been lengthy to explain my reasoning.  I felt pretty passionate about my thoughts and opinions and wanted to share them but I didn’t.  In the end I asked myself what was the point.  If I don’t find this information/blog to further my writing, simply don’t follow.  The End.

But it doesn’t end there because it bugs me I couldn’t wouldn’t speak my thoughts.  I don’t want to be the person who always agrees but I don’t want contrary either.

What would you do?

Just Putting It Out There

So many insecurities come from being unpublished.  It’s more so for me because I’ve never even queried a book, thankfully.  When I learned from all of you that the first book never gets published, I was crushed.  “Seriously?”  And thank god you guys were right!  My first book, though it has a great concept, SUCKS!  It has so much suckage, I’ve renamed it VACUUM by Dana Elmendorf. 

Then I started book two but halfway through I bailed it like a bad prom date for my current WIP.  Book two’s outline is written so thoroughly that I just need to drop in a “he said” and “she said” it will be finished.  But alas, the shiny new idea won out and I love love love my current WIP.  I love it so much I think I’m going to marry it.  And I’m so close to the finish line I can almost smell my gold medal.  Because every finished book needs something shiny to commemorate the hard work and there aren’t enough sparkly vampires in Forks to pass around.

This weekend I wrote like a marathon runner (or maybe half marathon) and put down 7423K words of pure goodness.  Now I’m 13,500K away from reaching my 85,000 goal, which I suspect I’ll surpass just trying to get the entire story out.  (To be whittled down later.)  “Pure goodness” I call it because you know how it is, one minute you’re a genius and then two months later when you look back at your work, you realize “genius” might be a euphoric state instead of an actuality.

But before you discount your genius, you roll around in it a while.  You think “If I finish my book before SCBWI conference, I can take copies of my MS and pass them out to all the Agents there who will adore my work and beg for representation on the spot.”  (Hell, they might even duel in the conference convention center right there.  Who knows?)  Then you read THE ROAD by Cormac McCarthy (while high on Genius) and you think “I could write a Pulitzer some day.”  (Hold on, I’m LMAO.  And I think I peed my pants.)

But wait a minute, who am I to dismiss myself so quickly?  Aren’t there enough people out there in life putting us down, keeping us in check and we’re dismissing ourselves too?  

I’m done with that.  No more, “keep it real Dana.”

Now I’m not going stand here and say “I will be awarded the Pulitzer some day.” because that’s not really a goal of mine (but it would be sweet, just sayin’.)  BUT (big but here. better here than in your jeans) “I will be published.” You probably won’t read on the SCBWI news headlines about a sword fight that broke out over one writer’s manuscript.  But if I don’t allow myself to dream about the possibilities of being published, what am I doing here? 

I believe in karma and the power of the positive working with the universe (The Secret or not).  This close to the end of my book, one that I love but my critique buddy has not yet cleaned up for me, I’m going work to get this baby published. 

I’m just putting it out there.