{"id":145,"date":"2014-01-21T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-01-21T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/blog\/2014\/01\/21\/tactical-tuesday-advice-for-self-editing_21\/"},"modified":"2015-11-25T12:22:16","modified_gmt":"2015-11-25T19:22:16","slug":"tactical-tuesday-advice-for-self-editing_21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/tactical-tuesday-advice-for-self-editing_21\/","title":{"rendered":"Tactical Tuesday: Advice for Self-Editing"},"content":{"rendered":"
\nA myth exists
\nthat an author toils alone when he is taking words and forming them into
\nsentences that make paragraphs, that turn into pages, which become scenes, and
\nthen morph into chapters that become a novel.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nThe
\ntruth: an author who works alone, who doesn\u2019t seek out an objective voice, who
\ndoesn\u2019t have to steel against the criticism of others, is a writer who is soon out
\nof touch with the market, with fans, and with the reality of the condition of his
\nwork.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nI was
\nreminded of this recently when I submitted to my critique groups after a long
\nhiatus from submissions. Yes, I knew the draft I sent was the first, but I did
\nbelieve I\u2019d caught the essence of the story. The characters were alive to me.
\nTheir story vivid.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nI sent
\nthe chapters off with dreams of receiving accolades for my prose from my
\ntrusted writing pals. I imagined reviews such as \u201cperfect, ready to print, and
\nthis work couldn\u2019t get any better.\u201d<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nI\u2019ll
\npause here to give you time to get a grip and stop laughing.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nEven I
\nknew my dreams were not grounded in reality. I\u2019m the author. I should think
\nthat my writing is where it needs to be. My characters need to become my best
\nfriends so that I know everything about them. My story should, in the very
\nleast, be formed inside my head.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nThe job
\nof critique partners is to shake the author from the land of dreams and cause her
\nto focus on the problems they find. In that regard, my critique pals did not
\nfail.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nYes, I
\ndid receive some glowing feedback, but my critique partners would frighten me
\nif they sent back a manuscript absent lines, filled with red and blue along with
\nbubbled comments explaining why I need to delete or add or change portions of
\nthe manuscript, even a lengthy summary at the end of the document telling me
\nwhat does and does not work. For the most part, I learned what I already knew
\ndeep down: I\u2019d brought on too many characters at one time (a major flaw I work
\nhard to overcome with my partners\u2019 help). I\u2019d used words that didn\u2019t fit the
\ndescription. Horror of horrors, I\u2019d used telling rather than showing. My
\nheroine was not grounded and at times not likable (no one wants an unlikable
\nheroine), and overall, the chapters need lots of work.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nAfter
\nthe first few minutes of staring opened mouthed at the comments, I smiled. Now,
\nfully grounded, I could dig in and put the mess in order.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nCriticism
\nhurts, but a lack of criticism can destroy a career.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nIf an
\nauthor toils alone, dismissing the critique process, he fails to taken into
\naccount that his own subjectivity might preclude him from publication. Before
\ncritique, I thought the heroine in my novel was completely likable, a sweet
\nindividual, who\u2019d suffered some loss. For my critique partners, she had moved
\non too quickly from her loss, was a little unstable at times, and she just didn\u2019t
\ncome across as the nice gal I wanted to depict, and once those flaws were
\npointed out to me, they glared from the page. Egad!<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nIf I
\ndidn\u2019t have critique partners to point that out, I shudder to think how my
\ncharacter\u2019s life would have turned out.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nAn
\nauthor does not want their first major criticism to come via an editor\u2019s desk,
\nprovided after review of a submission. Joining with a critique partner or
\ncritique group can eliminate some of that criticism, and in the very least, it
\ncan help the author learn to accept criticism in a constructive way.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\nHappy
\nediting.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A myth exists that an author toils alone when he is taking words and forming them into sentences that make paragraphs, that turn into pages, which become scenes, and then morph into chapters that become a novel. The truth: an author who works alone, who doesn\u2019t seek out an objective voice, who doesn\u2019t have to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[504],"tags":[117,118,119,92,120],"class_list":["post-145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editing-writing-advice","tag-criticism","tag-critique-groups","tag-critique-partners","tag-editing-helps","tag-edits"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}