When negative reviews are kind
This post is part of, and an extension of, one I wrote for the Happy Honkers blog about when kindness looks like unkindness. When you publish a book, it goes into the public arena for review. That’s part of the deal, and negative reviews are something all authors need to learn how to handle. When you ask someone for a review and they say it will be an honest review, that’s what you’ll get, and you have to be prepared for the results, whatever they are. If you aren’t willing to get negative reviews then don’t ask those whose review policy clearly states that they will publish such reviews – like me. I’m talking here only about comprehensive reviews written by professional reviewers i.e. those who know about writing. They’ve given you 1 or 2 stars and a review which includes all your writing faults. It’s a painful shock,…
A change of focus – going hermit for a bit
Sometimes I focus on publicity and sometimes more on writing. It depends where I’m up to with book production. If I’m writing a first draft, that’s all I do, apart from keeping the blog going, but I’ll use posts I’ve written previously. First drafts require all my focus. I write them only when I’m inspired and that puts me on a kind of creative high where I simply can’t do anything else unless I really have to—like make dinner or sleep. Rewriting is another area that takes a lot of focus, but I can also do other aspects of my job, like marketing or formatting, at the same time. It’s actually beneficial to have space between working on the restructuring because ideas and solutions come to me when I’m not thinking about it. Editing is the same in that respect. But, even so, when doing any of these things,…
Watch out for over-editing.
I’ve read a couple of books that I thought were over-edited. One had the feel of something the publisher might have asked for 10,000 words cut out of to suit the usual less than 100,000 words. It had big gaps in the plot & character growth as if chunks of the story had been taken out. Another one had the blandness of something worked over with every rule in the book in mind. There was nothing ‘wrong’ with the writing if you looked at it technically, but it had no pizzazz. I remember feeling that perhaps it lost its individuality in the push for perfection. In our efforts to make our writing the best it can be, we run the risk of losing the rawness or freshness of our original vision. After years of working on something, it’s easy to lose that spark under a pile of prunings. I know,…
Submission news & are demons finished?
My agent has finally sent email proposals to contacts at Allen & Unwin, HarperCollins and a letter submission to Harlequin Teen in New York . In the email telling me this, Debbie said, ‘Harlequin Teen looks like as good a possibility as any. It is very tough at the moment and demon stories seem to be out of fashion.’ Out of fashion! Sheesh, what a reason to be rejected. I replied to this by saying .. ‘It might be good to point out, if anyone gives you the chance, that the demons in my story are not based on a western idea of demons with heaven & hell & angel mythology, as other demon stories are. My demons are based on the eastern view of demons as a metaphor for negative emotions. To a reader, the world in the book looks quite different to the world in other demon books.’ Will any of the publishers get so far…
On dealing positively with feedback
Here’s the process I used to work positively with and apply my latest feedback.
Done it – again
I finished another edit and yes, the writing is a lot better. A lot! I sorted out a few problems with changes of POV and thanks to some blogging friends, particularly Jami Gold who happened to be writing about POV changes & head hopping at the time I was looking at just that, I now feel confident that what’s in there now isn’t going to red flag a publisher. Today, I’m printing out the ms and posting it to a writer friend to look over with a VERY critical eye. Expect some posts on handling criticism in the near future, and that give away for the ‘Light series’ is on it’s way too, amybe tomorrow or Saturday. If you can get me 100 friends on face book ( only 9 more needed) – they’re yours. Check out Jami’s blog, she writes some good stuff.