I’ve been talking a lot about criticism lately—both of the solicited and unsolicited variety—and I may have given the impression I’m against critique groups. I am anything but. Good critique groups are the easiest (and cheapest) way for newbies to learn the nuts and bolts of the craft and keep those cringe-making first drafts from gumming up agents’ and publishers’ desks. Skilled writers, too, can benefit from group feedback before they send that story or novel off into the unforgiving marketplace. I’ve read that even Amy Tan still runs her work...
Sunday, 30 May 2010
Sunday, 23 May 2010
BEWARE THE AUTHORITY OF IGNORANCE
Posted on 10:31 by Unknown
I’ve had a lot of great responses to last week’s post about dealing with less-than-helpful criticism from beta readers and critique groups. I think my favorite was a Steinbeck quote offered by freelance editor (and great blogger) Victoria Mixon: "I am never shy about it when a professional is doing the reading. But God save me from amateurs. They don't know what they are reading but it is much more serious than that. They immediately start rewriting. I never knew this to fail. It is invariable. They have the authority of ignorance, something you...
Monday, 17 May 2010
I'm a Top Tweeter!
Posted on 10:59 by Unknown
Hey, this blog made the Writers Digest Best Tweets for Writers this week! I think I have Sierra Godfrey to thank for this. Check Sierra's Google Roundup on Fridays. Thanks Sierra! And many thanks to Jane Friedman of Writers Digest. She "watches Twitter so you don’t have t...
Sunday, 16 May 2010
Should You Give an Agent an Exclusive Read?
Posted on 13:54 by Unknown
Sometime during your query process, you’ll get a request for a partial or full manuscript (yay!) But this time it comes with a request for an exclusive read (not so yay.) It happened to me about a year ago. I really wanted to work with the agent, but it would have been impossible to grant her a truly exclusive read. Like most writers seriously seeking publication, I had a bunch of outstanding queries, as well as a couple of partials and fulls lingering on various agency desks. I’d never been fond of the idea of exclusives. They’ve always looked...
Monday, 10 May 2010
More Advice on Bad Advice
Posted on 19:25 by Unknown
Catherine Ryan Hyde has posted two of her great articles--re-published from prestigious magazines--on the subject of dealing with bad critiques. A must-read for anybody who's ever had to deal with the sort of less-than-helpful writing advice I mention below. Check out her wonderful bl...
Sunday, 9 May 2010
Bad Advice to Ignore from Your Critique Group
Posted on 17:33 by Unknown
Finding a beta reader or critique group is essential to any writer’s development. We can’t write in a vacuum. Nobody ever learned to be a good writer holed up in an attic with no one to review his work but the cat. (Cats can be so cruel.) Rachelle Gardner ran a guest post by Becky Levine in April with useful advice on how to choose a critique group by assessing your own stage of writing development.There are lots of places to look for groups—bookstores and libraries if you want an in-person experience, or writers' forums and genre organizations...
Sunday, 2 May 2010
Does Depression Make You a Better Writer?
Posted on 15:12 by Unknown
Great writers tend to be depressives. From Plato, who was reported to suffer from “melancholic disease,” to recent suicide David Foster Wallace, writing and depression seem inexorably linked. In Nancy Andreasen’s famous study of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, 80% of writers surveyed met the formal diagnostic criteria for depression.Until recently, nobody knew the reason for this. But new research is giving us fresh data on the anatomy and purpose of depression. In an article in the NY Times Magazine in February, Jonah Lehrer gave a fascinating...
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