February 22, 2010

During the past year I’ve done more novel critiques than usual. Some have been so-so, some were very good, and a few have already sold.

What made the difference between the “very good” stories and the manuscripts that sold? In my opinion, it was the overall strength of the novels.

Often the “very good” book manuscript was strong except for just one area. Maybe there was no felt emotional connection with the main character, or all the dialogue voices sounded like the author’s voice. Perhaps the one weak area was lack of suspense despite beautiful prose, or poorly researched historical facts, or terrible mechanics.

Oops!

Often when I mentioned the trouble I saw, the writer emailed me back and said, “I knew that was a problem. I guess I was hoping you wouldn’t notice.” It’s better to listen to your gut feeling and assume if you know there’s a problem, others will see it too.

“Hoping an editor won’t notice” isn’t a solid marketing plan. Even if they had the time (which they don’t), editors aren’t in the business of fixing the story for you or teaching you how to write. That’s up to you-but what can you do?

Back to School

“Unless you’re working with an expert instructor, you need to be designing your own writing improvement program,” says James Scott Bell in The Art of War for Writers. “Work out a systematic plan to overcome your weak areas by setting up self-study programs.”

We all hope our novel’s strengths will over-ride the weaknesses, but you want your novel to be healthy overall, not just mostly healthy with one or two weak areas. If your physique were great except for flabby underarms, you would target that flapping fat with exercises and a program designed specifically for upper arms. In the same way, if your novel is weak in one or two areas, you need a specific exercise program to strengthen that area.

Make a Plan

For example, if your problem is dialogue that all sounds like the same flat voice, you might need a self-study program called “Creating Distinctive Voices.” Your study question might be: How can I create distinctive voices for each character, so distinctive that I can tell who’s speaking without any identification?

Here’s one plan, and you can adapt it for any area you want to improve:

1. Make a list of novels where you remember the characters coming through in their dialogue as distinctive. (accent, regional speech, slang, choppy vs. languid speech, hip vs. old-fashioned, formal vs. grammatically incorrect, straightforward vs. flowery speech, etc.)
2. Choose several of these novels and re-read them specifically for the dialogue. Keep your study question in mind as you read. Underline passages that do the job and then write a few scenes where you try to accomplish the same thing through dialogue. Don’t copy their words, but try to copy the technique used.
3. Buy some books on the particular writing problem you have and study them. There are good writing books available on every area of craft you can imagine. You don’t have to re-invent the wheel, nor do you have to submit stories that are weak in one or two areas.

In today’s economy, your stories need to be the cream that rises to the top. Ensuring that your novel is strong in every area is one way to do that.

7 Comments »

1. 

   Here’s a suggestion for the extra diligent:

   I just finished James Scott Bell’s Plot and Structure, and at the end he recommended taking six books of the type you like to write and doing scene cards for each one. If you do it the way he recommends, it will take about 8 to 12 weeks, but he says it will put a writer way ahead of where they would be if they were learning by trial and error.

   (Also recommend being a part of a good critique group. Mine has helped me identify problem areas which I tend to be blind to.)

   Comment by Beth Mac — February 22, 2010 @ 8:22 am

2. 

   Wow, Beth, that WOULD be for the extra diligent! But think what you’d learn firsthand about plotting a successful novel OF THE TYPE YOU WANT TO WRITE. I have Bell’s book–I think I’ll dig it out and read about this technique myself. Yes, 8-12 weeks is a long time, but if it saves you years of a slow learning curve, it’s not so long!

   Comment by Kristi Holl — February 22, 2010 @ 10:30 am

3. 

   I am having a real hard time finding a critique group in my area. It’s one of my goals for this year.
   Also, what are scene cards?

   Comment by Yvette — February 22, 2010 @ 10:01 pm

4. 

   Keep trying on the critique group. The right group can really be an encouragement and a help.

   Scene cards are small note cards. On each card, you put a scene (setting, conflict, characters, goal, etc. of that scene.) You can try out various plot sequences by moving the scene cards around. And when you put the info on the cards, you can see where you’re missing things, like having a scene without conflict in it.

   Comment by Kristi Holl — February 23, 2010 @ 8:10 am

5. 

   Thanks! I think I will try that technique.

   Comment by Yvette — February 23, 2010 @ 9:12 pm

6. 

   Great post. I made that mistake with my first novel. It was good, but deep down I knew it wasn’t good enough, but I didn’t know how to fix it. I sent it out and got a full round of “This is really great, but…” rejections. I’m now finishing the revision of my second novel before I send it out and trying to make sure I don’t make that same mistake again. I agree with you, from everything I’ve heard at conferences, etc., books need to be much more close to perfect when they’re submitted. Thanks again.

   Comment by Samantha Clark — February 26, 2010 @ 11:54 am

7. 

   Samantha, thank you for sharing your experience. I appreciate it! We all do this at first. I still find it hard to know the right time to get a critique. Too early in the process confuses me, since I’m not sure MYSELF what I’m trying to say yet. But too late in the process and you waste months of revising chapters that need to be tossed!

   Comment by Kristi Holl — February 27, 2010 @ 7:30 am

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL

Leave a comment

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website