Critique Groups

Critique groups are a very simple and fun way to get feedback on your manuscript. They can be in-person groups where you meet face to face, or on-line groups where you send e-mails back-and-forth. For the most part, critique groups will be people that you’ve met (either on-line or in-person). They are people with whom you will probably exchange several chapters or even manuscripts over the years.

If you stick with one critique group for long enough, they become like a family. They see you and your novel at its worst. They know you. When your book is published and you are writing your page of thanks yous, these are the people that get all the inside jokes and secret codes. (For my group, there will be a mention of bananas and possibly chickens and an extra thanks for keeping me safe from the alien-ninjas.)

The downside to critique groups is that if it isn’t the right fit for you or your story, you’ll be miserable and your story will not be helped. It is tricky finding the right balance of people and the right meshing of personalities. Don’t be afraid to leave a group if it isn’t helping you.

Finding the right critique group is like finding the perfect pair of shoes—only better because shoes don’t help make your novel awesome and make you laugh.

The best advice for a critique group:

1.      Help the others in your group. In critiquing their works, you’ll learn how to make yours better—guarantee. And as a group, you’ll grow together.

2.      Get to know the others in your group. As you exchange stories, you’ll be able to understand their feedback as you get to know the people giving it. You’ll grow comfortable with their critiquing style and ways of phrasing things. Everyone is different and in order to get the most from your critiques, knowing the critiquer is important.
Tune in  on Friday for tips on using writing websites for an editing source.

Cat Editing

My cat helped me with my novel a few weeks ago. This was the line he fixed: Worry tightened inside him. What if it wa/////////////////////////       sdddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddy7uuuuuu776ts his house?

Can you imagine how horrendous that line was before he edited it?

In order to make your book the best it can possibly be, you’ll need someone to help. Not that you aren’t awesome and can’t improve it on your own, but sometimes editing requires an extra pair of eyes and an extra brain. (I never would have thought to use a t between the 6 and s—my cat is a genius).

Where can you get good feedback?

(Sorry guys, my cat isn’t starting an editing service anytime soon).

Help can be found in critique groups. Or in writing websites. Or professional editors. There are pros and cons to each area. I’ll dedicate a blog entry to each of them. I’ll talk about how to find them, what to look out for, and how to have the best experience.

So stay tuned for more.

Happy Writing

Oh I See

I’ve heard it said that you should vary your sentence structures. When I first heard that advice, I thought, “Oh I do that.”

Not so much.

Word has a handy feature that lets you change the color of your words. If you want to see how varied your sentence structure is color all of one particular structured sentence blue and another red and another green.

Once it’s done, it’s a fast way to determine if your story is balanced. For example, if you see three pages of solid blue, maybe change it up.

Changing the color of the sentences can also be very helpful to see other patterns in your writing. Try highlighting all of the dialog one color, all of the descriptions another color, and all of the action another color. Change the color of every sentence that starts with she or every sentence with an m-dash or that trails off.

By using colors, you can visualize areas of weakness (and strength) in your writing.

Happy writing!

You Already Said That . . .

I tend to overuse words. A lot. I have my favorites and they just happen. As writers we need to be wary of this. Some words you need to use a word ton. Like the and a. Others not so much. As I recently blogged about, I had serious issues with the word eyes in my latest work in progress. Three hundred and fifty uses of the word eyes in an 80,000 novel is a bit much.

You can google lists of overused words in fiction, but you should also pay attention to your own word usage. You may pick up a word and use it constantly that isn’t on one of the lists.

Usually, I start my own list of words to seek and destroy. Do this and create a new list often. I tend to have word trends or words of the month. A few months ago, the word was fool. In my novel, everyone was a fool and calling each other fools. Another time, it was almost fell. My characters were slipping and sliding and almost falling all over the place.

As you are editing your novel, pay attention to the words you use. If you are uncertain if a word is being used too often, use the find all function of your document. Seeing them all highlight can make a difference.

Happy writing!

I Didn’t Mean to Say That!

Ah editing. It is one of life’s necessities when you are a writer. I recently went on an editing frenzy and ended up cutting over 2000 words of Bonded. I’d discovered I had used the word eyes over 350 times. Yes, my characters all have eyes and they all use their eyes to do stuff, like looking, but that’s just overkill. (Perhaps that shall be the topic of another post).

Today’s post is about seeing what you say and not what you mean. Writers are great at writing awesome sentences, but sometimes, what you see in your head and what your reader sees are two entirely different things.

Here’s an example from my editing adventures:

Her fingernails scrambled against the stones, trying to escape.

What I meant was that she (the owner of the fingernails) was trying to escape. But now that I look at what I actually said the only thing I can think is, “Why are the fingernails trying to escape?” This isn’t a zombie novel. Nor is it a sci-fi-your-fingernails-have-become-alive . . . though that might make a good horror story. Imagine waking up in the middle of a dark night to find your fingernails escaping or worse, seeking revenge on you for biting them . . .

Anyhow . . .

The moral of the story: When editing, make sure you see what you say and not what you mean.

Reading It Out Loud

Here’s a little tip I got from the writing conference last week. Reading your novel out loud helps you find errors.

I’ve heard this one before (like a million times), but I never did it. I didn’t need to read my novels out loud. I thought it was a waste of air. Plus, I read pretty fast in my head. Speaking the words takes so long.

But that’s sort of the point. Yes, most people can zip through page after page in their head, but an interesting thing happens when we do. Silent reading means the words go straight from our eyes to our brain. And our brain does some handy little subconscious editing.

For example, when reading silently, we automatically understand words that are missing lettrs. Or our brains will adjust if words up end backwards. We even add words that have been out. While these samples are silly, in works you are familiar with (such as your novel) you will end up doing at least one of these things.

Reading out loud, that’s different. Now it must go from your eyes to your brain and to your mouth. If what you are seeing and what you are saying doesn’t match up, you will catch yourself.

           Also, in reading out loud, you will catch little rhymes and alliterations that you didn’t mean to say. These unintended phrases can be a mouthful (or a brainful) and your epic fantasy novel will end up sounding like Dr. Seuss.

On a side note, now that I’ve started reading my novel out loud, my cat is completely convinced I’ve lost my mind. He meows and tilts his head as if to ask, “Why are you talking?” And of course, he automatically assumes I’m talking to him. Poor kitty. What am I trying to say to him? Why am I talking and not giving him love or food (which is pretty much the same thing in his eyes)?

Do you read your novel out loud? Does your cat think you are crazy?

Happy writing!