(Merry Christmas, Happy New Year! You Are Reading A Throwback blog from 2011) We spend a lot of time here at My Book Therapy and in the writing industry talking …
What Happens When You Receive A Critique You Don’t Like?
Merry Christmas!
I don’t know if you’ve had time to work on your bestseller during this busy season, but I’m back with my two favorite editors with tips on navigating the sometime murky waters of critique/craft partners.
(AAT) What do you do when you receive a critique and it’s not what you want to see, read or hear?
(EM) Well, as far as you putting your feelings aside and your no longer sensitive? Twenty-three years into this and that has not happened yet. I’m still sensitive when it comes to my writing, no matter how hard I try. Anytime I receive suggestions, it has a sharp edge to it. Even though it’s not true, in my own mind, it feels like I’ve failed. One thing I‘ve learned for me, is I need to process. I’ve learned to tell my critique partners, I accept that, I think that’s a valuable comment. I’m going to have to go home and play with it and see how I feel about it. I can’t just immediately jump up and down and say “Oh goodie, you’ve made it better.” I have to say “thank you for the work you’ve done” and I have to go home and process. That’s the way it works for me personally because it always feels like I’ve failed.
(AAT) Beth, what about you?
What Is The Best Place To Find Craft/Critique Partners?
Are you busy working through MBTWRIMO?
Pretty soon you will have a first draft. Where will you go from there? Where do you find someone who can understand writing and all the necessary components to make a great story?
We’ve tackled that question today.
I’m back with my absolute favorite editors, Edie Melson and Beth K. Vogt.
If you would like to watch this question and answer session, click here.
If it’s easier for you to read, read on!
Where do you find craft/critique partners and what’s the difference?
Story Blocking
Story blocking is key to giving readers a sense of time and place in a scene. Just where are the characters in relationship to each other and what are they doing?
Ever read a book where you know the protagonist went into the kitchen to talk to her mother but you never “see” what they are doing while talking, or where they are standing in relationship to each other?
Is the mother cooking? Is the protagonist sitting at the kitchen table or leaning against the counter? Does she fiddle with a napkin holder as the conversation goes on?
Maybe the characters are just walking through the woods or sitting on a beach. Do they reach for a low swinging branch? Scoop up a handful of sand and let it slip through their fingers?
Show the reader where the characters are in relationship to one another and any movements.
Now, we don’t want them jumping all over the place like Mexican jumping beans. But they aren’t card board either, all stiff and standing in place as they talk.
If the protagonist is sitting on the sofa talking to her husband, then you only need one or two movements to make the “setting” clear.
What exactly is blocking?
Blocking is a theatre term that refers to the precise movement and positioning of actors on a stage in order to facilitate the performance of a play, ballet, film or opera. — wikipedia.org.
Readers need to see and know where your characters are on you book stage.