I posted the first chapter of my psychothriller WIP for criting the night before last. It's gotten a few bites so far, but I'm hoping for a few more before the thread dies off. I've been given some useful insight; less tell, more show, less, err, "padded up fluff" (that one hurt a little). And then there are some chunks that make absolutely no sense to me...
One thing that's really bothering me, though, is having been told that I need to cut out more description. I have always thought that, if anything, I write tightly. But apparently not. I am very tough on my own writing (or so I thought)... I edit constantly, always looking to improve and tighten the prose. And one of my pet peeves is excessive description- "the blue car rumbled over the slightly steep hill, crushing fragile white daisies under the worn tread of its tires as it went".
So I'm left looking at the opening scene of my WIP and feeling a little lost. I loved that scene. Hell, I still do! It wouldn't win any prizes, no, I don't expect any of my writing would... but I loved it. I thought it was tight and powerful, just enough to suck the reader in. And reading it again, I still feel that way- but it's hard not to wonder exactly what's wrong with my eyes, as others seem to find so much fault in it.
Blah. Crits usually don't bother me... I can take and apply suggestions and information and go back to writing. But this is putting a bit of hesitation in me. I've been very excited about the progression of the story (really looking forward to writing one of the climatic moments, as it's a strong one for my MC, who is a little bumbling most of the time) over the past few days, and now there's a big WHY BOTHER?! sign blinking in my brain.
Someone smack me. :(
I'm moving blogs
16 years ago
3 Comments:
*smack*
If the comments don't make immediate sense to you, print them out, stick them in a folder marked "notes for second draft," and forget about them until you've finished the first draft. Then pull them out and decide if you want to use them.
It's your novel. You don't need to use someone's suggestion just because it's offered to you.
Now get back to work.
Whoohoo! Beatings, right in my own blog! :D
Thanks so much. I have gone back to that thread and read over it a few times, and some of them do make a lot of sense. And in my work last night I stalled a bit trying to edit while writing (that may be why I got next to nothing done).
I think it will be a lot easier to plow through this draft and then cry over how bad it is later. Until then, I'll keep the red pen in the truck- or, er, at least in my hip pocket.
Thanks for commenting! :) You've been very helpful.
Hey Jenifer,
When you mentioned loving stories or parts of stories which don't work for someone else... that reminded me of one of my own stories. I'd written it in first person POV but the critiques said that that choice didn't do anything for the story. And I think they have a point.
I was crushed like a butterfly on the Autobahn.
I also didn't look forward to replacing all the I's with he's. That seemed... wrong somehow. But then I thought of rewriting the story completely to include those changes.
It's a short story, I know how it goes. So why not start afresh? Rather than replacing anything, start with a blank screen and retell the story, except from a different POV. Make it distinct from its parent, and yet still keep the original so that I can draw on it if the second story doesn't work.
I don't know if you want to try this, but it might be a way to incorporate critiques that work for you, without having too much of the original story in mind.
Hope this helps!
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