Wednesday Words: We Are People

Hiya!

So, yes, I'm still reading American Gods, but I just read a blog that sparked a thought in me, so I have actual words on this Wednesday.

So, we writers who are privy (or were forced by the times) to social networking do these things called contests to try to nab an agent for our WIPs. They're very innovative and creative contests, and many of the hosts call on mentors or judges to help the writers along.

Key word in that sentence: HELP.

I've been a victim of this, and the writer of the blog post I'd read actually was crushed by this: there are times when one or two of the judges/mentors *gasp* criticize more than critique what they read.

Key words there: criticize, critique. People forget that there is a difference.

Now 95% of the judges/mentors will be really helpful and give you constructive feedback. Some of it might sting, but you learn from it and make your work better to either try another contest or query an agent/publisher. The other 5% can just be plain out mean. They don't take the time to say, "Hm, this might be just a BIT too harsh. Let me rephrase this."

"Well, if you want to be a writer, you need to grow a thick/tough/adamantium/whatever skin."

That's just lazy and selfish to fall back on. Yes, we have to let some of the critiques roll off our back, but we shouldn't have to bear the brunt of the criticism, especially when it was your job to help a writer who just wants to make it, not beat their self-esteem into a bloody pulp.

Writers aren't robots. We're not androids. Writers are PEOPLE with these things called EMOTIONS and FEELINGS.

Before you put out what you think is a witty or snarky "critique" or even comments you think the writer deserves because you didn't like what they submitted, and they need to know that point blank, remember what it was like when you first started putting your work out there and how crappy you felt when someone was a total douche because they felt they could be.

Okay? Cool.

Falling for Fiction Query Critique

Hi guys!

On Monday, my query was hanging out with Jessica at Falling for Fiction getting critiqued! *eep* Stop by to see what she said. :) Spoiler alert: Still working on my query. lol

http://falling4fiction.blogspot.com/2013/09/query-critique-debra-mckellan.html

HAPPY 2 YEAR ANNIVERSARY TO IWSG!!

I really hoped to do this at home so I wouldn't have to HTML lol. Forgot to.

Today is the first Wednesday of the month, which means writer-bloggers all across the world come together to post their deepest writing insecurities, and for the past 2 years it has been all thanks for the Ninja, the Guru, the Guitar Hero Alex J. Cavanaugh! =D

Today I thought I would share a lot of things because I had a lot on my mind about writing in regards to editing & proofreading. For instance, the editing/proofreading business I started up. It's always been very low in clientele, which is because I'm not very good at advertising. At the same time, I only started up the business because other people told me to. Do I like editing/proofreading for money? It's nice, but I like to do it more for fun. So will I continue trying to push myself to advertise? Not particularly sure. We'll see what happens.

On the other side of writing, being on the receiving end of critiques. I've always hated hearing bad stuff about my work or things that confused people, but I had to learn that most people were trying to help me make my work better. So having the pleasure of helping someone else out and seeing them make the same mistakes I made when I decided to take the step in wanting to publish, it made me both sad I didn't have anyone when I first sent my story out to contests that I had no one to look over my work but me (because honestly my family doesn't really care and Delaware is bigger on nature and contemporary stuff) and glad that having that experience, I had a chance to try to steer the person in the right direction, despite the excuses they made for why everything they wrote was necessary (That's exactly how I was).

The moral of the story is, lol, to know what you want to do when it comes to your writing goals, build on it, and do your best!

I keep forgetting to thank the co-hosts! Chemist Ken, SL Hennessy, Michelle Wallace, and Joylene Nowell Butler. Thank you!

Friday Freeday: Revising a Query.

(It's crazy that Friday is already here. Just Wednesday, I was grumbling that the next day would only be Thursday. Time is so odd.)

Last night I finally finished my latest revision on Save the Queen, and the next step will be to collect some beta readers and query agents. Because the latest revision of my query needs more work, I thought I would go ahead and post what I had posted to my AQC SpecFickers and do a "live" correction blog. (Long post ahead.)

Here is what I started with, which is already too long (316 words).

When Ghuli turned seventeen, everyone she knew and loved died, but she doesn’t remember them. She doesn’t even remember being seventeen.

As far as she knows, she is the sole heir to the throne of a race massacred by the metal army the world calls the Contagion. Her parents sent her away to be protected by watchmen before their home was destroyed. The Contagion scours the world, destroys villages, and kills thousands searching for her. Raised by a team of handmaids and watchmen who keep her out of the army’s reach, Ghuli grows up as carefree as possible, swinging from willow trees and learning fairytales from lands near and far.

But the army beings to find her. The first attack took the life of her commanding watchman. The next forced her to flee for safety on another continent. Ghuli tries to dream of the fairytales that once soothed her to sleep but dreams instead of a relic, one she needs to find so she can remember. Searching for it isn’t as easy as it seems, especially once she meets the power behind the army, a wraith who remembers everything she doesn’t, who says everyone died because she and Ghuli killed them. They were princesses and could have been queens, but Ghuli betrayed the one person she promised to protect and must be punished.

As Ghuli runs from this new threat, she meets…herself, the piece of her that remembers everything. Ghuli’s consciousness lurches through time to help protect her body until it can reach the relic and piece herself back together. Once made whole, Ghuli can stop the wraith before the Contagion leaves nowhere else for her to hide.

SAVE THE QUEEN is a YA fantasy complete at 103,000 words. As a lover of RPG video games, I strove to create on in prose form. Thank you for your consideration. I look forward to hearing from you.

So the critiques I received on it were: interesting, but not as a hook, and to start with what Ghuli does remember, cut the word count, make Ghuli active, not passive, change the order of the details even though it's not the story's sequence, my big issue: clarification, and to nix that RPG note.

I really do thank my AQC people, too, because they've helped me do better and to grow a thicker skin. I'm very protective over this piece specifically, so I always felt like a mama bear listening to her cub be criticized. lol

So now, let me see what I come up with based on the notes I received. I can say that even with the addition of detail I added in my last revision, I shaved 1,000 words. Like a boss.

*live revision of my query*

As far as Ghuli knows, she is the sole heir to the throne of a race massacred by the metal army the world calls the Contagion. She will learn her home was destroyed once before.

Raised by a team of handmaids and watchmen who keep her from the army’s reach, Ghuli grows up swinging from willow trees and learning fairytales from lands near and far, but the ever present Contagion scours the world, destroys villages, and kills thousands searching for her. Sometimes it finds her. Forced to flee for safety, Ghuli tries to dream of the fairytales that once soothed her to sleep. She dreams instead of dark places and abandoned castles, of ghosts and worlds she’s never seen.

At least, she doesn’t remember seeing them. She meets a wraith who controls the Contagion and seeks to punish Ghuli for betraying her in a time Ghuli can’t recall. She runs from this new threat and into her consciousness, lurching through time to help protect her body until she can reach a relic hidden among a land forgotten by most. The relic will not only mend Ghuli but show her what it was that destroyed her home the first time around. Once made whole, Ghuli can stop the wraith before the Contagion leaves nowhere else for her to hide.

SAVE THE QUEEN is a YA fantasy complete at 102,000 words. Thank you for your consideration. I look forward to hearing from you.

241 words. I think I like this one, but is there ever a query that you say, "YES! This is it!" or do you just close your eyes and push it off the cliff?

A PSA from AQC (almost): Editing & Critiquing

Now that work has slowed down (because I made it), I can focus on a topic near and dear to my heart: editing and critiquing! This was the topic for the AQC chat last night, but I had Easter play rehearsal, and then my friend wanted my sister and I to come over and watch wrestling (which instead, we talked for 5 hours lol), so I was only able to peek in for a second, then skidaddle for a late and yummy dinner my cousin made.

I believe, though, that the topic was for editing and critiquing the work of others, and how to go about doing it. As I've just acquired my partner from The Matchelor (I'm so excited/anxious/nervous!) at Falling for Fiction, I felt the topic kismet!

Now, why are editing and critiquing so near and dear to my heart? I don't know. (Shoot me, right?) It just happened one day in my Dramatic Structure class, where we had to write, then sit in these tiny groups and read what each other wrote, then discuss the good and the bad. Then, sometimes, EVERYONE had to read it. Workshops still kind of make me cringe, because having more than 3 people read my stuff made me feel extremely naked, and I sometimes run through the house in fear of being seen even when no one's home if I left my towel in my room! But there was something about looking at someone else's work and seeing the little grammatical errors, the continuity, repetition (the rambling *points at self*), and being able to correct it and/or steer the writer in a better direction that made me feel powerful. Can hardly do it to my own work to save my life, but that's what others are for!

Now, a few do's and don'ts that I imagine the AQ-Crew went over last night.

DO: Be honest and specific. "I liked it." "I didn't like it." Those aren't good enough. What didn't you like about it? What did you like the most? What worked in his story? If you hated it, why?

And if you did hate it: DON'T be mean. I'm going to be honest: I'm a blunt person. My friends say I'm mean, and one calls me a jerk. lol Once, after a classmate wrote a short story 15 pages past the allowed limit and past the allowed margins by an entire inch, and the story was terrible, I let my emotions (it made me fairly angry) known in my written critique, and he looked at me sideways for a long time the following day. Don't be that girl. You want people to like you even if you're sort of judging them after what you've read. lol Instead of doing what I did, take it as an opportunity to help the writer better their work. You can be honest without killing someone's dream (I really hope I didn't kill his dreams).

DO: Open up your imagination to where the writer is going. I read a lot of different genres, and last year I decided to pick up my first hard fantasy to read. I was nervous, because I couldn't even finish The Fellowship of the Ring, and the book seemed to be about the same thickness. But I opened my mind to it, and I was plunged into a great world and story that I didn't want to end! (It was The Enduring Flame Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory.) It might be hard to read historical fiction if you love science fiction or steampunk when you like romance, but always try something once. Hey, you might even get inspired (it helped me find my pen name).

And with that, DON'T try to make the writer be you. I didn't mean for this to be anecdote theatre, but I once tried to get my friend to read a young adult flash fiction I wrote, and she sent me a short story she wrote. I lived a sheltered suburban life up and down the Eastern Shore; she grew up in a colorful town an hour from Miami. We had some issues with the way we saw the world. lol I had a rather steamy scene that she wanted even steamier, and the children in her story spoke as though they were horny teenagers. Our environments and life experiences shaped our characters and their circumstances. Since neither of us lived in each other's shoes, when the time came to say what we should change, those experiences and circumstances were the first things we said needed to, and we both said, "No." Again, keep an open mind. We all come from different walks of life, so take that into account.

Also, DON'T be so rigid with the technical stuff. If the writer wanted an English teacher, they would've asked for one. Some typos are accidental; some comma placements are purposeful. I think we all learned the basics, and then we decided the world was our oyster. Perhaps that run-on sentence was supposed to be a run-on. I like to start sentences with And, But, So. It means something different for everyone.

Finally, because I have to leave work soon, DO take into account you are holding someone's baby. They slaved for a long time and struggled with letting the baby-sitter take it away for the weekend. Don't take it for granted. Care for it the way you want yours to be cared for, and build a relationship and friendship with the person, so that you know there will always be someone in your corner when you're above to give up your baby.

:)