July Goals

I fear this month wasn’t as successful as May…

June Goals

1. Finish collecting and giving critiques. This should be easy. I love beta reading.

Still in the middle of this, although there isn’t much I can do to get critiques done faster. I forget sometimes that most people don’t read 10K a day.

2. Start posting more at the Spamfiles. I think having more posts will attract more readers. Could it be that other people don’t find spam as amusing as I do?

Got this one done. I’m still disappointed that I don’t have more followers, though.

3. Add 20K more words to my rewrite. Usually first draft writing is easy for me, but I’ve been feeling a little bit of the writer’s block lately. I hope I can do it.

Kind of a failure. Because it’s a rewrite, there are still some things from the old version that I can use, so I’ve been working on that. But I could have done more if I hadn’t gotten distracted by a shiny new project. Darn your shininess!

Not as successful maybe, but not bad. I should’ve done more with number 3. On the other hand, I got a bunch of stuff done that wasn’t on my list, like aforementioned new project (something like twenty K there, so pretty good), and switching over to the new blog. I’d give my final grade as a B. An actual B, too, not a scaled B. Not bad.

Okay, now for July (I can’t believe the year is half over already!)

July Goals

1. Finish going over suggestions from previous readers for COLLAPSE. Maybe try to find more critique partners. I’ve got some good feedback, but I don’t know if four is enough (especially when I don’t have them all back yet).

2. Be more present in social media. Mostly I want to leave more comments, respond to every one I receive, and return the favor.

3. Add 20K more to New Project and finish combining the new and the old versions.

I wonder if it’s too ambitious or not ambitious enough.

Anyway, what are your plans for July, for writing or otherwise? Anyone doing anything fun?

WIP It Good

It’s time for the WIP It Goodblogfest hosted by DL Hammond and Elise Fallson, which means it’s a special Friday post.

Hi everyone from the bloghop! If you’re looking to swap beta reads/critiques and don’t detest first person present tense, I’m here.

WIP Title: COLLAPSE

Word Count (projected/actual so far): 90,000/90,000

Genre: YA Dystopian/apocalyptic

How long have you been working on it?: A little over a year.

Elevator Pitch (if you came across an agent in an elevator ride, what couple of lines would you use to summarize your book): The world is ending. Society is crumbling. Cassidy, however, isn’t going anywhere any time soon.

Brief Synopsis (250 words or less): World temperatures are sky-rocketing and society is on shaky last legs. Cassidy is witnessing it all firsthand. But she isn’t the type to let a little thing like the end of the world do her in. Of course, the life she once knew is gone, replaced with something vastly different from high school and a boring suburban life. Bullies used to be a problem for her. Now she’s slightly more worried about being gunned down by people she once called “neighbor”, and whether or not her brother will die from an asthma attack because they can’t get to a doctor. Her father says keeping the family safe at the expense of everyone else is the right thing to do and she believes him…except for the one niggle of doubt when she sees the people gasping their last breaths in triple digit temperatures. It may be a question of who breaks first, her or the heat.

Are you looking for a Critique Partner?: Yes!

Are you looking for a Beta Reader?: Also yes!

Happy Holidays!

For me that means Christmas. For you, whatever you celebrate. Have a happy and safe holiday and please remember not to drink and drive.

As always, I’m going to post something special for Christmas and I figured, why not now? I’m not going to be around on the 25^th, so I don’t expect you to be either. I figured I might as well leave this up until etymology Thursday and not have to come up with a new post. It’s called efficiency laziness. No, wait, I was right the first time.

Anyway, here’s the Seven Deadly Sins (Of Writing). As always, click to embiggen.

Fact Check Fail

Critiquer Flaming

“Die for not understanding my vision!”

Sales Envy

Review Padding

Word Abuse

Solitaire

Advance Greed

“Five hundred dollars? For giving you the privilege of publishing my work I should be getting five hundred thousand dollars!”

 

PS. This is my 500^th post :D. I think it’s pretty well representative of the whole.

Not Helpful When Critiquing

Yes, critiquing has been on my brain recently. Who knows why? Anyway, enjoy my stick figures, then get back out in the August sun.

“If you plotted things out beforehand, you wouldn't be having this trouble.”

“I don’t get it.”

“This draft isn’t any better than the one before it.”

“It took you a whole month to write this?”

“Oh, I remember. I read a book like this by Dean Koontz.”

Righteous Fury. Remember?

Vive le Copy-and-Paste!

Tips for Being a Good Critique Recipient

Of course there’s another side to it. If you want people to help you, there are rules you need to follow, too.

1. Be polite.

            This is part of the golden rule of be kind to others and treat them as you would like yourself to be treated. You want readers to be attentive to your work and responsive, right? Well, it’s a lot harder to ignore a polite inquiry than it is a note attacking them for not getting your characters.

2. Don’t overload.

            They’re busy with their own lives just like you’re busy with yours. You don’t want to send them your whole book and wonder why they haven’t responded. Pick a schedule that they can keep up with and you can work with. This might be something like thirty pages per day or a hundred a week or even just thirty a week. Their own work has to come first, and I’ve heard some people have these “children” they have to take care of.

3. Be patient.

            Again, they’re busy. It’s not just readers who should stick to schedules. You might be anxious to hear what they thought of your chapters, but don’t give them a nudge unless the deadline has passed.

4. Reciprocate.

            If your beta readers ever ask for your help, the considerate thing to do is to give it. They took the time to read your work and you should carve out time in your schedule to do the same. Critiquing is a two way street.

5. And follow the same guidelines when you do.

            It’s no good to agree to beta read and then ask for three times as much time or to refuse to give the detailed responses you asked for. Basically, when it’s your turn to beta read, you follow the guidelines I gave last week, too.

And those are my tips for being a good critiquee. Anything to add?

Tips for Helpful Beta Reading

I have to say, I really enjoy beta reading. It’s like being allowed to read books for free. But if you want to help someone’s book along its path to publication, there are a few tips you can follow.

1. Make notes.

            Making notes as you read along is great because the writer can see just where you got hung up. The note function in Word is really helpful for this, or if you have a paper copy you can just put it in the column. As a kind of bonus tip, be sure to note grammatical errors and not just correct them. The writer probably won’t be copy-and-pasting it in, so they’ll need to know to fix them in the main document.

2. Be specific.

            I feel this is of the utmost importance. It drives me nuts when I hear “this isn’t working” and there’s no follow up on that. True, it can be difficult to describe some things, but if part of the story doesn’t make sense to you, try explaining what would make sense so the writer has something to springboard off of. I know it would have helped me a lot if, instead of just saying she didn’t like it, a beta reader had told me that it took too long for the relevance of a certain scene to become apparent.

3. Be kind.

            This is the golden rule for all of life, not just beta reading. Obviously you should tell the truth and point out when something doesn’t make sense. It’s what betas and crit partners are for. But it’s a lot easier to take criticism when it’s tempered with encouragement. Be kind. Tell when you love something as well as when you hate it.

4. Be prompt.

            You could also call this “set up a schedule for responses”. Let the writer know when you’ll have the pages read by. If you need more time, ask for it, but don’t disappear without keeping up your end. It’s very frustrating, and it also means the writer won’t be there for you when youneed beta reading.

5. Respond.

            After sending your notes and thoughts, the writer may have some follow up questions and it would be great if you could answer them. For example, after receiving notes which were confused about a particular detail, a writer might want to know if a particular character trait/world-building element/plot point wasn’t clear, and if an explanation would work or if it could wait.

That’s all for now. Anything to add? Do you have any tips for beta reading/critiquing?

Thick Skin

There’s a lot of talk about “growing a thick skin” when you receive critiques. They can be scathing, and you want to be tough enough to weather the burns. But I—gasp—disagree.

I don’t think you have to be tough when you receive a critique. Maybe it’s just because I’m an emotional, over-sensitive person, but it bothers me to be critiqued. When I received a crit recently, it upset me. But I know that didn’t necessarily mean it was wrong. In fact, the more I thought about it, the more I agreed with it, and I’m grateful my CP was so thorough.

But it still upset me.

There’s nothing wrong with that. I really don’t think people can help how they feel about anything. I’m not saying threaten to gouge out your eyes because someone moved a comma or didn’t like a character. Keep things in perspective and remember, people can still choose how to react. And that’s where the real challenge comes in. Being sad/angry/whatever and still knowing not to start up a Facebook page burning your critiquer.

“Grow a thick skin” isn’t helpful for someone who doesn’t have one and has no concept on how to grow one. Instead, I recommend, “Don’t let your emotions have full control over your actions.” A bit wordy, but valid nonetheless. Feel, but remember there are other sections to your brain with things like logic, reason and thought for the future. Use those.

Control yourself and you don’t need a thick skin.