Trying to understand what was wrong with my work, I picked up a couple of books by my favorite authors, Janet Evanovich and Sue Grafton and read a few chapters to see what it was that attracted me to their writing. Shortly thereafter, I re-read my work in progress. I was horrified. Compared to those writers, my writing was awful.
I have since learned that it isn’t recommended to compare your work with published authors, especially when you have only been writing for a few months. There is always a learning curve. Once I realized that, I calmed down. Of course I couldn’t write like my heroes. Not yet, anyway! I’m hoping time, writing classes and a critique group will help me sort out the problems with my writing.
Something else that is ill advised for a new writer is to show your work to family and friends, especially if you want an honest critique. Naturally, that is the first thing I did. You know they all loved it. It was hard to believe I was that good, especially after I reread my two chapters. I tried to think only about the parts I felt were successful and ignore the rest but it wasn’t working very well. Though there were areas in my work that I loved, a lot of it just didn’t flow. I knew something was wrong but couldn’t figure out what. An online workshop nailed one of the problems for me. Back Story!
My characters are dear to me. So, naturally, I wanted my readers to know all about them and their interesting lives right away. Boring. Readers want to get into the story as quickly as possible. They crave action. When I read a story with too much description in the beginning, I start turning pages. Description, blah, blah, blah. What happens next?
There are many great articles that discuss grabbing your readers’ interest at the beginning, and then gradually inserting the background as you go. I read them. They helped. Online groups have been awesome. So many writers are willing to share the secrets of their craft. One group, in particular, Sisters in Crime, has afforded me invaluable opportunities to discuss my work. I had the idea that a writer should intuitively know how to write. Kind and caring people slowly disabused me of that idea. Writing is a craft to be learned.
Of course, my first drafts still have to be condensed, condensed, condensed, and condensed some more. The good news is that, as I write that first draft with all the extra baggage, it seems to help me set the scene in my mind. I’d like to tell you that my writing improved from that point on. Not a bit of it. I absorbed all that wonderful advice about getting into the story and dispensing with the long descriptions, and went in the opposite direction, cutting out practically all the description. What I’m working on now is balance. Balance between character description, scene setting and action. I’ve just started my fifth chapter. Someone recently asked me how long I thought it would take to write this book. My naïve response, “At least a year.” Oh yeah, at least a year, maybe, for the first draft. Let’s just say that I am not concerned with learning how to write a query letter any time soon.
April 25, 2010 at 7:17 pm |
This is all true. Thanks for being so honest and informative. My problem is I might know the concept, but be blind when reading my own writing. I have to have someone else point out stuff that doesn’t work. Maybe after they point out something, like Kathy Lay did for me yesterday at Agent Editor Day in Arlington, I will notice it on my own. She told me my dialogue in a couple of places was robotic or stiff and not like real passions would sound like.
April 21, 2011 at 12:24 am |
Margo, this is all so true. I, too, have wrestled with backstory, with too much description, not enough description, all the things that keep me editing, editing, editing.
Have you had the experience of someone asking how much longer it’s going to take to finish your book and you know they’re asking the question like they would about a cake in the oven? Some folks seem to think it’s all about finishing the MS and not about getting it right. I try like the dickens to explain that it’s a matter of learning a craft, especially for a first novel– and that doesn’t happen overnight, at least not for me. Somewhere along the line, people have gotten the impression that you sit down at the computer for a couple of months and out pops a book (hello James Patterson). Not for this writer.