Writing Tip #3: Never Too Early or Too Late for a Few Voices of Reason

I've been reading a lot of posts around writing forums lately about the value of receiving critique on your work from outside sources. The most common thread twining through all of them seems to be a variation on the following key points: that critique is not only a good idea but rather an essential one in the process of ensuring your work is at its best before considering it for publication, and that it's a good idea to get several opinions but also to keep in mind that opinion is subjective and to limit the corrections made to your work only to those things recommended by more than one or two of your readers.

And do I agree with all that?

Absolutely.

Further to that though, I want to address a question that I didn't notice anyone really focus on too much in their discussions: when during the writing process should a writer reasonably start seeking outside opinions on what they write and how they write it? My answer is that if you've got yourself at least somewhere around a page (give or take), then enlist test-readers to your heart's content. Or even after a paragraph, if you just don't feel like waiting that long. It's not so much a matter of how much you have - it's a matter of what you can get from running it by someone else.

Obviously, I can't speak for all (or even most) writers in this area since we've all got our preferences and our processes, but for me, for the debut novel I'm working on now I enlisted a friend as a beta reader after the first four or so pages were written. And I honestly can't say just how invaluable her critique was. 

At that point, I'd just decided on a radical personal change in my writing style - I'd struggled for years (and in vain) to emulate the authors I look up to, whose stories are often written in literary, almost poetic prose, and had finally come to the conclusion that their style just wasn't mine. Mine was more cut-and-dry conversational, with a more subtle bit of flair mixed in. With this change, and with a re-imagining of what my novel would now be portrayed as, getting my friend's honest feedback set me on the exact track I needed to solidify my personal writing voice with confidence, and charge ahead in writing it. The parts she liked and that worked as a clear narrative, I used to address the weaknesses and cliches she mentioned (which were also mentioned by the people I had read it after her). The result from that initial critique is that I'm the happiest and most confident with this project than I've been with anything I've written in my life, helping me to tailor it into something I can be proud of from the get-go.

Since then, I've had seven different people read each chapter I've written, and their advice when they have any to give hasn't ceased to be enlightening, calling on a consideration for things I may never have realized on my own. If I could give these guys salaries for this stuff, I would in a heartbeat!

Image courtesy of StuartMiles/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

So, today's writing tip in a nutshell... well, the above picture is pretty self-explanatory: SHARE. Whether you do it near the beginning of your work like I did, or near/at the end of it doesn't matter - what matters is that outside critique of your work can help you in ways that you can't even imagine if you haven't gotten any yet. Lending you positive affirmation in your strengths and methods for improving your weaknesses, proper critique will absolutely shape your work into the best of what you can deliver.

Have you had any experience, positive or negative, with receiving critique? What are your experiences with getting those outside opinions? Comment with your stories below!

~\\//~

Novel Word-Count as of Today: 20,900

Writing Tip #2: Invoking Your Writing Mojo

What's this? Two posts within days of each other?? Craziness. I wonder what's come over me. Maybe I'm coming down with something. That's gotta be it - I'll take my temperature and go lie down somewhere after I've posted this.

Speaking of crazy actually, the other day I was chatting with one of my fellow writing nerds that I meet with once a week, and we got on the topic of one's so-called "writing process". That's right, the mysterious super-top-secret techniques that all those annoyingly productive writers seem to have figured out, while all us sad sops off to the side wonder, "Why do they have it figured out and I don't?? What am I doing wrong??"

From what I've seen, the answer to that question is this: you need to unleash your inner weirdo - in other words, the eccentric but lovable crazy person that lives in all the fine folks that have that creative edge to their brain.

This is certainly no easy task, since everyone's inner crazy person has a different way of operating. An example? Well, you know Victor Hugo, the guy that wrote Les Misérables and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame? He wrote naked. The man had his valet hide all his clothes until the completion of both of the aforementioned novels, so that he would have no choice but to write since he couldn't leave the house. 

A little nuts? Yep, and we can only hope he invested in curtains for all his windows, for the sake of his neighbors. But effective? Heh, I'd say so, wouldn't you?

So today's writing tip in a nutshell: you must (while allowing still for personal and public safety, of course) unleash the inner eccentric! Try stuff out, see what works for you. It could end up being any of all sorts of combinations that could do the trick. Maybe hop on a subway or a city bus and ride it around town all day while you work on your laptop/tablet thingy; maybe spend the day in the park writing in between scaring pigeons and sitting upside down on a bench. For me, I usually end up with a giant bowl-sized mug of coffee or tea and pulling an all-nighter in front of my computer in my PJs, box of pizza open on my left, research and rough notes on my right, and a 10 hour recording of a rain storm playing over Youtube. I'm still working on perfecting the weirdo in me to get annoyingly productive like the rest of 'em, of course.

As everyone says, there's a fine line between genius and insanity. Well, go skate on it a bit - creativity awaits!

Image courtesy of StuartMiles/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Novel Word-Count for Today: 20,075

IT LIVES!!

Four months since my last post on here, huh?... Yikes. 

Right, so about that: I have a good reason, I swear! There are, in fact, several good reasons. And if you're here reading this, I'm going to go ahead and assume you're at least vaguely curious as to what those are. So.

Reasons!

Most of them can be summed up as the following: blah-blah-blah accelerated university course load, blah-blah-blah time consuming (though awesome) unpaid job, blah-blah-blah life being its usual (*cough*) charming self. Nothing original there, but four especially interesting months of voluntary psychosis ensued. 

But! The other (and best) reason! Writing awesomeness! Progress at last! So much solid progress that I can't seem to stop using exclamation points! This is a genuine concern!

Anyway, the progress: yesterday I surpassed my personal record of 17,300-ish words as the most I've ever written of an entirely original work of fiction (a distinction important to make, since I have in the past written a few rather lengthier pieces for fun on fanfiction.net - great place to practice technique by the way, for any that haven't given it a go). I'm now nearing 20,000 words after putting the finishing touches on chapter three of my budding (*knock on wood*) debut novel yesterday night.

Obviously, still a long way off from 

Image courtesy of Prakairoj/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

but FINALLY away from starting to, in some ways, switch out a chunk of the usual excitement for writing with something more along the lines of

Image courtesy of StuartMiles/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

which is pretty frickin' lovely. Especially since my renter's insurance really doesn't cover spontaneous-human-combustion damage. I don't think...

Also, in other recent news, a book review I wrote has been published in the journal of arts and literature I work for, so eureka! Publication number two! It may just be a review, but I'll take my victories where I can get 'em :)

And now that I've resurrected this little-blog-that-could, I'll get back to more regular postings, along with including a regular ongoing word count of my YA novel endeavor - partly wanting to get publicly dorkily excited over the fact that HOLY CRAP, I ACTUALLY AM GETTING SOMEWHERE (...did I mention it's been years since I've reached the end of a chapter 3 of anything?? - sad, but true, so... WOO-HOOOOOO!), but also hopefully as an incentive to keep on keeping on with my current writing roll.

So, current word count as of this afternoon: 19,675.

Mua-ha :D

And now back to work.

First Publication is Officially Out!!...It May Be Just Under 900 Words, But That Still Counts :)

This'll just be a short little update since the title pretty much says it all... but YAY!! First publishing credit! 

In brief, it is a short non-fiction piece titled "Coward", which I initially wrote for a class assignment, then submitted to an online magazine on a whim. The name of the publication is TWJ Magazine - I don't know very much about it, other than it's based in the U.S, and they seem to focus on the reflective and the moral-based for the most part, with room for both sweet and bittersweet. My piece is more-so toward the 'bittersweet' end of things, and hopefully can hold some value in its content, despite its brevity.

At any rate, below this is the link to view it. It seems to be free to access, so any who are curious to read it, feel free to give it a once-over and drop by here with any comments. Feedback welcome!

http://twjmag.com/fiction-nonfic-poetry/coward