Handling a Critique or Edit

hey FFFers - sorry for the long space inbewteen posts. I was cast in a show with our local summer theatre and that took up pretty much all of my brain space. :)

Rachel Joy asked about writing in first person. I will be having a guest blogger teach about that. She's great with first person. So, while I'm waiting to get her stuff, let's talk about how we handle being critiqued or edited.

It's not easy being critiqued. We love our stories, our characters, our words. It can feel like a personal attack when someone tells us it's not good enough or needs to be changes. As an author and a freelance editor, I see both sides. So, let's take a look.

Friends and family members are not the best ones to lean on for critique. As a reader, sure, you can run stuff past them, but for a real critique or edit, you need someone in the business. And you need to check them out thoroughly. Anyone can say they're an editor (that goes for agents, too.) On my website, I have recommendations from clients and anyone can contact these people to talk to them.

We have to find a balance of sticking up for our work and not holding on to it too tightly. When I suggest changes, I always give a reason and/or an example. Then the author can try both ways and see what works the best.

When you get an edit, I recommend reading through all the notes and then setting it aside for at least a day - a week is better - and then read it again with fresh eyes.

Please do not argue or get snarky with your editor. Most editors are reasonable people and if you are contracted with a publishing house, they are always willing to talk things out. If you can justify not making some changes, an editor will listen. But if you argue too much, you'll become known as an author who is not easy to work with. Editors know each other and they communicate. It's not as big a world as you may think.

When authors come to me, I tell them they don't have to make my changes. But my goal is to help make their manuscript the best it can be so their chances of getting picked up by a publishing house will be higher. Even if they choose to self publish, they still want their story to be the best it can be or the people who buy the book will not give it a good review on amazon. I don't know about you all, but I read people's reviews on amazon when I'm not sure about a book or item.

So, let's talk. Have you had an experience with an editor or critique group? How was it? How did you handle it?

And one more thing: the Greater Philadelphia Christian Writer's Conference is August 10-13 this year and there's still time to register. The Teens Write day is Thursday, the 11th and we're going ALL DAY this year! It's going to be exhausting, but I think it's going to be great. Hope to see you there!

The Dreaded Editing Process

hi everyone - hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving. I got some requests to talk about the editing process. This is a great topic because we all want our manuscripts to be the best they can be before sending it out to a publishing house. The less work an editor has to do, the higher our chances of getting picked up.

I will be using the book, Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Browne and King. I recommend buying this book to keep in your library so you can refer to it often. You can find it on amazon.com.

Writing and editing are two different skills. You actually use different sides of the brain for them. I've heard it called the Critic and the Creative. The Critic is stronger than the Creative, most of the time. And the older you get, the stronger it gets, unless you work to rev up the Creative. The Critic settles down when you are sleeping or doing something that doesn't require concentration, like taking a shower, running the vacuum cleaner or washing the dishes. Do you ever notice you get good ideas when doing things like that?

So, it's best not to edit while you are writing. At least, that's what I've been taught. But I find it almost impossible to do that until I'm down to the wire and simply HAVE to get something finished. Then I bust through, get it down and play with it when I'm done.

We focus on fantasy here, but the editing process is the same no matter the genre.

Chapter One of the book is called "Show and Tell." You may have heard it another way - "Show, Don't Tell." There are times, of course, when you simply need to tell something, but the reader would rather be shown. Here's an example:

Verilla was mad. (telling)

How would you change this to show the reader Verilla is mad? Would it look different if Verilla was a man?

Do you have anything in your WIP that you need help with showing instead of telling? Share it with us, and we'll work on it together. Have fun!