Had to shoo all the cats out of my lap today. Too hot! It’s like having a heated muff on your legs. Bring on the Fall weather, please.

To all you other new writers, and maybe some with a little burnishing around the edges, I’ll share my latest lesson learned. Actually, it’s something I’ve encountered fairly often and it can be very frustrating for a writer.

I’ve recently sent some material in to someone in the industry, but beforehand, I wanted to polish it as much as possible. To truly do a thorough job, you must have other people(preferably a mix of writers and readers) look over your work. The reason I say let some non-writers read it is because writers tend to look at it with a very different eye.

Sometimes you just want to have someone read it for readings sake. I sent a few chapters to a book club that did not know who had written the material. It was an excellent litmus test!

The good things that can come out of critiques are:

1) Typos you missed even though you’ve read it 80 times

2) They pointed out an odd phrasing you forgot to go back and take another look at

3) Simple suggestions that could add a punch to your scene

4) Though time consuming, you may also find that you have to go back and change a great deal in your manuscript because you have a reoccurring problem.  This is still a good thing!

Now on to the negatives:

1) Be careful not to let anyone change your voice or writing style. It’s your creative right to be…well, creative. If you want your candle to drool, then do it! Some non-writers will be very technical and not realize it’s okay to have some fragments etc. if it helps the read.

2) Not everyone is going to like your stuff no matter how good it is. There are some great books out there that I’ve never read because I’m just not interested in the genre.

3) And this is the biggie. If you have 10 people critique your manuscript, you will probably get 10 different opinions back! You CAN NOT please everyone, so unless you hear a criticism from several people, be wary of rushing in and tearing up your work. Take each critique and really think about the validity of their arguments.

Overall, having people you trust look at you work is generally very helpful. You may not agree with everything they say, but you almost always get something good out of it.   

Just take a deep breath, get your coffee brewing, and get to polishing your work! It will be worth it in the long run.

With love and murder,

Suza