Writing Book #8

As I was negotiating my newest book- I added some travel and a higher price. At this point I figured I had nothing to lose and you never know unless you ask.

 

I got the higher price without so much as blink and while I did not get exactly the trip I asked for, I did get a trip. They would have never offered it unless I had asked and so my suggestion to you new and seasoned writers is do not be afraid. The worst they can say is “no”. Think through it first and do not ask for the moon. You will have a gut feeling if the timing is right, but if it is – go for it. I am really glad I did.

 

Slush Pile

I went to a workshop yesterday called the slush pile. Each participant printed one page on an overhead and a local publisher critiqued it. They were all anonymous. Thank God!

I was so nervous and when mine hit the screen, I tried so hard to pretend that it was not mine. I made notes as he talked and did not look down on the page. I was terrified.

Needless to say he shredded it, but in the end I was thrilled. FINALLY some criticism that I could work with and all of it made sense. I intend to begin rewrites immediately. I realized that there is so much I don’t know and I need to keep learning.

When I read a good book, I just read it. I never thought about tag lines and flow. Now- for better or worse- I am becoming highly attuned it. I am looking for elements that make a great story.

The main areas- I am too wordy (who would have guessed) and I need to work on the flow a lot more. I need to SHOW rather than TELL.

 

Proof

This is the blog post for the first submission. I thought about everyone’s comments and concerns and let us just work on this for 2 weeks and see how we do. I just read through it and loved it. I do not want to give anything away right now though.

 

While we are doing our critiques let us ge to know each other by posting comments. I will begin.

 

My name is John Peragine. I have been writing full time for almost two years and it has been a hell of a ride. Before that I was a child protective services worker and not a day goes by that I don’t say” Why didnt I leave sooner?”

I have written and  had published 7 books ( some are on the shelves some are in various stages of print) I have written articles for a number of magazines and do other freelance jobs daily.

I am also a classical musician and play the flute/piccolo in the Western Piedmont Symphony (North Carolina). I am happily married and have two daughters 11 and 14.

So that’s me. I wanted to start this group after having some mixed results in some that I have attended. (see my previous blog notes.) I am very excited about this, and Sarah has started us off with a winner. So use the the guidelines and post your critiques.

Amendment Writer’s Group

There was a suggestion that if you post your material online even on a blog that some publishers will not accept the work. SO, instead I will need people to send me their email addresses. I will collect submissions and then email the submissions to everyone in the group. The critiques can still take place on the blog however- I will start a new topic with the name of the submission and each person in the group can still use comments to add their critiques. Again if you would like to send a corrected copy of a work I will send that copy to the author. I would like submissions this week so we can get started. I have a short story ready to go.

 

Thanks!

 

John

Twitter Critique Group

This post is for those interested in the Twitter Writer’s Group. I have posted the information about the format below. As soon as we have submissions I will post them to get this kicked off. If you have questions, please email me at drjohnnd@hotmail or twitter me at Drjohnnd. If this group grows I may limit the amount, as we will not have time to do good critiques. (I would say 10-12 maximum) For now, I will post everyone’s submission since there is only a few of us. Please post critiques over the next week. BE HONEST. This will not work if you are worried about hurting people’s feelings. It is the only way we can grow and expand as writers.

Twitter Writing Critique Group

John Peragine, Group Facilitator

MEETING TIME: Submissions and critiques will be collected and posted on Fridays every week.

Welcome to the Twitter Writing Critique Group! This critique meets online utilizing Twitter, and a central blog. http://drjohnnd.blogspot.com Each member will send submissions and critiques that will be posted every Friday. The facilitator will be responsible for delivering posting submissions and monitoring critiques to make sure that they abide by the guidelines. We are here to help each other develop in our writing. This is an "open" critique group, but is only appropriate for people who write regularly, are seriously interested in improving their writing, and are willing and able to create and receive comprehensive written critiques. For this to succeed, and to maintain our identity as a coherent group, it is essential that this be a "one for all, all for one" group, sharing equally among ourselves. To that end, we offer the following guidelines.

GENERAL

Critique Group members write and critique any sort of fiction, whether short stories or novels. Each member has the same goal: to improve our own writing and to help our fellow members improve theirs. We are honest in our critiques and completely supportive of each other as we nurture our writing talents. Members should be familiar with the basic narrative elements of plot, character and setting and how to interrelate them.

Members are expected to participate regularly (although we're not fanatic about this), attack their own writing actively, and take the time to do thoughtful, helpful written critiques of other members' work, according to a set format. Being in this group takes time. It will not feel good to writers who prefer to give or receive, "That was nice," feedback. This is a critique GROUP; the idea is for works to be critiqued by the group. If you submit a work and don't participate for several months, we may prioritize other material submitted after yours for a weekly critique.

SUBMISSIONS

If you've ever looked at professional critique services, you will know that the members of this group are providing a valuable service for free. At the same time your fellow members are working on their own writing (and research), their jobs, their families, etc. They may also belong to more than one critique/writers group. In recognition of this, your submissions should make it as easy as possible for the members to read and critique your work. Submissions should be made in standard presentation format: they should be created as a txt.doc, or txt format. Pdf format is too hard to reformat. If you know there is a major problem in the text, uneven tense usage for example, you should correct that before submission, even if it means waiting another week. The facilitator cannot make changes once the submission has been posted.

Members ARE NOT to send out submissions to other members directly. This is extremely self-centered and disrespectful of the other group members.

For new members, we ask that you submit either a short story or the first ten pages of a novel or novel chapter. We have found that most of the problems you have will show up in this length of a submission. After that we will accept longer submissions; depending upon the number of submissions we have, we may decide to allot two or more weeks for critiquing longer works.

Your work will be posted on a blog. This is for members to read. All critiques should be sent as “comments” to that blog. You may also write shorter comments on Twitter at #writercritique. Picking and choosing who you want to critique your work is against the principles of the group. All the members of the group are expected to write critiques. These should be done throughout the follow week. New submissions will be posted on Friday. Limiting your submissions to those with the most favorable (or least unfavorable) critiques is defeating the whole purpose of the group. Of course you are free to ignore parts or all of any individual critique, though if you are serious about your writing and eventually publishing it you should do so most judiciously. Remember, these are critiques, not just proof-readings, Works not submitted to ALL members WILL NOT be included in the posts that week.

As uncomfortable as it may be for some, you WILL have to read critiques from the members posted publically! Again, this is to be fair to the WHOLE group. You will have a chance to respond to these critiques. Exchanging of written critiques without an oral report is discouraged, except in cases where a member was not at a meeting to present a critique and both the author and the critique agree on this.

It is often best to give yourself some time before plunging back into revising your submission. However, you should apply the feedback you received to your next submission. If the critiques said ((I'll use myself(John) as an example) you should use real punctuation instead of hyphens, look over the punctuation in your next work before submitting it. Again, it will be discourteous to the members if they keep seeing the same problem over and over again.

CRITIQUING

The CRITIQUER actually receives the most benefit. It is easier to see both good and bad parts in other people's writing than in your own. Looking for problems in others' writing trains us to see it in our own writing. Again, part of the fairness required in a group of this sort is remembering that we will all be critiqued at some time!

A good critique will show the author what the work looks like through the eyes of a "good reader". Yes, the eyes of a reader, not another author!. Although you may offer a suggestion or two in your critique, it is not your job to correct the problems or to rewrite the submission as "if it was me writing it".

WRITTEN REPORT. This is a 1-2 page comment that is posted on the blog under the work submitted. In the written report you might note "Too many POV changes" but you don't have to list all of them; maybe just a couple of examples to help the author see what you mean. We use the following six sections for all reviews:

1. PLOT SUMMARY: Just a couple of sentences to give the author an idea of the main thrust of the story as the reviewer saw it.

2. GENERAL EVALUATION OF THE FOUR MAJOR WRITING COMPONENTS (1-2 paragraphs each)

A. Plot B. Characters C. Setting/Milieu D. Ideas/ Themes/ Symbolism

3. THINGS THAT WORKED WELL. There may be several or (again worse case) none. Most of these should be noted on the manuscript; again you only need to give a few illustrative examples Ex.: I really like your settings. I could easily envision walking up to the haunted castle after our car broke down!"

4. THINGS THAT DIDN'T WORK WELL. Same as #3 Ex. "Lots of anachronisms. Like cavemen with cell phones!"

5. WHAT MIGHT HAPPEN NEXT? If you are critiquing the beginning or middle of a story or novel, take a guess at the rest of the plot. This is not to be accurate, but to give the author an idea of what clues and story direction he/she has put in the reader's mind so far.

6. OVERALL EVALUATION. Did this story work for you? Were you interested? Did you want to read more, or was this enough, and what made you feel that way? If you picked this up off a shelf at the store and read this section, would you buy it? In hardback or wait for the paperback? Would you suggest your library get this book,?

Corrected Copy This is optional. If you would like to make corrections on the text and send m to the facilitator or scan them if you are handwriting them to the facilitator, then the facilitator will forward those corrections via email to the writer. This is optional, but all of the comments should also be mentioned in the “comment” post online. The point of a corrected copy is to point out areas in a more efficient way that writing comments alone cannot achieve.

Questions about this group should be submitted to John Peragine at Drjohnnd@hotmail.com.

Writer’s Critique Group

I have tried out a writer’s group, and I think it will be good, however it is so long between sessions and they do not even meet every month. That reduces it to less than 10 times in a year. This just not seem to be the most efficient group, as my writing would never get finished if I dragged it out waiting for critiques.

I belong to a couple of the greatest networking sites on the planet- Facebook and Twitter. I am sending out the call to fiction writers, that are dedicated to their craft and to a writer’s group. It does not have to be large, in fact a cap of 10 members would be best.

I envision exchanging each others work (small chunks) every week. Each member looks at the work and writes a short critique of it and maybe on online chat for oral critiques. These would need to be brief because every writer’s time is valuable.

I have some guidelines from a group I am in now that would be helpful to use. I want this to be honest, professional and fast paced. I would love to see Sci-Fi or fantasy, but at this point any fiction genre would work. 

Send me a comment here, on twitter or email me at Drjohnnd@hotmail.com if you are interested.

Memories all Alone in the Workshop

This morning I went to a Memoir workshop. I was ready with pen , paper, an open mind and a willingness to learn. What I learned in the first half an hour are these obvious truths-“memoirs are mostly written by women” and “ publishing is a hassle, you are better off going to a vanity press and paying to print your book.”

I was still willing to have an open mind. The majority of the rest of the class was a sales pitch for the facilitators’. We were given a prompt and were asked to write using “I remember…” We then had the chance to read what we had written.

There is always that one person- that dominant person that will suck the very life out of class. By the time it was mine turn, I had one minute. I had written about my childhood in Florida and times I went with my parents to go clam digging. I spoke quickly and that was that.

I did meet some nice people there and had some interesting conversations about what they were interested in writing their memoirs about.

I did get some tips such as creating a theme throughout the memoir, use chapter headings that followed along with the general theme. The other bit advice I will pass on is that you must continue writing long enough for your writing to improve. Don’t give up- just write.