Vinny has never really been interested in my writing, but he still manages to ask me a few times a week when I'm going to be done. Last night we were watching a movie and he reached over to my desk and grabbed one of my composition notebooks. This particular one had notes for a very raw version of Eleven. Now don't get me wrong, I'd love it if he'd read TFI or even TiC. But something about him looking at something so unediting and well…bad… that really got to me. Needless to say I grabbed it out of his hand after five straight minutes of him keeping it from me.
He asked me what had gotten into me. I didn't really have an answer for him at the time. But thinking back, I realize why I did that. Yes, I want him to read TFI, because it's done. Because I'm ready for my baby to go out into the world. If I still had reservations about someone reading it, it wouldn't be ready. But Eleven is still an infant. I can't just dress it in a suit and tie, strap a briefcase to its wrist and turn it loose on the world. Blimey!
As a new thing for the blog, I'm going to be doing book reviews. It will be a combination of ARCs, newly published and some older books. I decided to start this off with Storm Thief by Chris Wooding, a British author. Many of you may have not heard of him. This is a book I bought a few years ago and read. I recently read it again and decided to review it.
I have to admit that I'm a sucker for a good cover. I'm really biased when it comes to the cover. For example, I have an aversion to any book that has those drawn neutral colored wooded/mountain scenes with the hero and his maiden/sword/horse/a dragon. You know what I'm talking about. But I saw the cover of Storm Thief and loved it. Then I read the inside cover (hardcover also a plus).
"Anything can happen…at any time.
Rail and Moa are thieves in a city of chaos. For as long as anyone can remember, Orokos has been lashed by probability storms – violent tempests that change whatever they touch. When a probability storm hits, streets are rearranged, children are turned to glass, rivers break from their banks, and life suddenly becomes death. Nothing is stable. Everyone is vulnerable.
Rail has struggled with the effects of one such storm for years; when he was hit, he lost the ability to breathe freely. Moa has also seen her share of struggle – as the daughter of dead rebels, as an outcast, as a criminal…."
And it goes on from there. I was hooked. I took it home and read it immediately. I liked it enough to read it twice. I'll probably read it again.
First of all, this is one of those books I read and thought, "Damn, why didn't I think of that?" For example, early on we are introduced to the Mozgas, one of the byproducts of a probability storm. They are humanlike, but they are out of sync with time. They can move super fast, but in an instant be going so slowly that they seem to be at a standstill. Cool, right? I certainly think so. The concepts in this book are way cool, including probability storms themselves.
As the story goes, it's easy to follow. It's pretty straightforward. You won't be getting lost. It follows Rail and Moa and a golem named Vago as they run from the city guards and Revenants, manta-ray like spirits who kill people with a touch. (Think the Final Fantasy: Spirits Within minus the lameness.)
I hated the villains, felt sympathy for the good guys…the only problem for me was that I cared about Vago way more than Rail and Moa. It was hard for me to connect with them. By the end, Vago was definitely my favorite.
The story is great, the character connection is lacking when it comes to Rail and Moa, but Vago makes up for it.
I really recommend it for anyone who likes fantasy, even if it is YA.
I'm alive! Yes, that's right. I am, in fact, not dead. Had you going there, didn't I? Consider it my March/April/part of May Fool's joke.
But seriously, it's been hectic. Other than keeping up with the 2YN stuff, I have done almost no writing at all. Shocked? Me too. But just because I haven't written anything doesn't mean that I haven't been working! No dears, I've gotten some great ideas. It's been crazy over here with trying to get ready to move again. Sigh. What can you do, though?
I've also been rather out of touch with JM and Vic. L
I looked back at my last query version yesterday, and…yikes. This is why you should always leave what you write to sit and ferment before you drink it. I mean, do you want grape juice or wine? That's what it comes down to. If you pop the cork and send out your query/ms/short a week after you've "finished" it, your dinner guests are getting the grape juice. I'm not saying you should let it age for twelve years. But give it enough time. Set it aside and let it sit. Forget about it. Work on something else. Then come back to it. I promise, you'll see the difference.
Biggest Problem: Chapter 28 needed to be completely rewritten.
Favorite line: Must I really choose just one?
Daily WTF: How did I manage to write an entire chapter that didn't really advance the plot? And how did I not wrap up the biggest subplot in the novel? Beats me.
I'd like to announce that TFI is D.O.N.E! I'm still waiting to hear back from Vic and one other person, but J.M. has the rewrite in her inbox. After six years, I'm ready to wash my hands of this. I'll be sad to see it go, but I plan on moving on to other things very, very shortly. Besides, it's time for TFI to get out and see the world…or at least an agent's inbox.
On the other side of that, J.M. recently agreed to critique an erotica novel. This novel was 133,163 words long. Bugger and blast! 562 pages of bloomin' erotica! J.M. spent two full days straight critting this novel for this chick. The whole time, she was telling me how drawn out it was, but that she wanted to finish it for this person, because that's just how J.M. is. After being tortured by redundant shagging scenes and slogging through a manuscript that's 4/5 dialogue, she reaches the end. Which, she's happy to say, was kinda cool. Overall, it was a dog's dinner.
She sent the crit to the writer, and gets this response. "Don't mind the bluntness in the least, but I'm going to take the "It's too loooong! with a huge grain of salt. It probably IS too long, but I figure if it's accepted my publisher will take a knife to it."
Seriously? You stupid wanker! You really think any agent is going to take a 133k erotica seriously? What agent is going to look at that query and say, "Hmm. A hundred and thirty-three thousand word erotica. Of course I'll take a look at it! I didn't have anything else planned for the next month, so I'll sit here and do the writer's job for them." She's daft, that one.
Sorry sweetheart, but you need to get a grip. You're bloody barmy! It makes me so mad that I'm going British all over the place. Someone was nice enough to slug through your doorstop of a manuscript, and you have the bleedin' audacity to throw all of their time out the window by saying you're not going to change it, because that's the agent/publisher's job? Editing your manuscript is a DIY kind of thing. Don't try to pawn it off on someone who has better things to do with their time.
Agents have clients. Clients are their lifeblood. Successful clients are the ones who pay the agent's rent at the end of the month. You are just some silly bird who wastes three minutes of the agent's time while they read your query, get to the length, laugh, and form reject your stupid arse. At least they might get a kick out of the attempt. If you get anything other than a form rejection, I'll eat my shorts.
I've given myself a deadline for editing. If I'm not done by March 31, I'm not allowed to go Frisbee Golfing this year. If that doesn't get my ass into gear, nothing will.
Since I'm being so strict about this deadline, I've asked some fellow writers over at Forward Motion to take a look. Got the first one back today, and after reading through the six pages of critique, it was obvious that they just didn't get it. Last time, I talked about the importance of a critique partner. Now, I want to talk about the anatomy of a bad critique.
I'll start off by admitting that reading the critique in question made me mad.
Some of the points brought up were valid, and I plan on addressing.
Example 1 : There are times on each of the missions where both the first and last name of a character are used independently, thus causing confusion. This is a legitimate point.
Example 2 : There is a point where Jana takes off her uniform and bathes in the lagoon. For some reason, I have her unzipping her uniform, doing something, zipping it back up, and then getting in the water and unzipping it to take it off and bathe. Redundant. This is a legitimate point.
Some of the points made it clear that they had no idea what was going on.
Example 3: "Why couldn't they use the drug to stop them?" (This is the actual question she asked, pertaining to a situation in the novel about the terrorists unleashing a biochemical toxin). Seriously? She really asked that? Maybe because it was concentrated stuff, and it was a SURPRISE ATTACK! The medicine she's talking about must be injected, but the toxin's kill rate is a matter of minutes. Not to mention, it's an experimental treatment that when used on Jana made her extremely sick.
Example 4: "Characters are not military enough." This is another example of blatant misunderstanding of the text. There is a very real reason why the characters, military, and government are the way they are. It tells you why.
So what's the difference? A helpful critique will touch on both the positive and negative aspects. Gushing over the good parts shouldn't be so much for the author's ego than to show them what it is they're doing right, what's working for them. The bad comments should be paid attention to if and only if the reviewer's remarks make it clear that they get what's going on, or if it is like the first two Examples.
To compare, I'll use one of J.M.'s comments.
Good Critique: If I were a little girl, and I saw someone holding a gun at my daddy, I'd be scared. The child shows too much indifference. Sure, it helps the plot, but you're missing another chance for more conflict. Kids aren't stupid. They sense tension, it makes them uneasy, and they cry. Even if she didn't know that Jana wanted to hurt her daddy, she would still squirm in her arms, cry, grabby-hand at her daddy, etc. She'd be nervous because her daddy was unnerved and anxious. (This is a legitimate point.)
Bad Critique: "At some point, the sun set and they turned on the artificial lights" Odd for some reason I thought they weren't on a planet. (Note: It is clear they're not on a planet, because it says so in the sentence before it. The station is orbiting the planet like a satellite, so they have night and day to a degree, even if it is only through the windows of the station.)
Biggest Problem: The most common mistakes were missing words. Little ones, like "of" and "she". (J.M. helped me find most of them, because my brain was fried at the time.)
Favorite line:He looked skeptical. "It sounds childish."
"Oh, it is," she grinned broadly.
Daily WTF: The entire letter from Aeronth to Jana, and the horrendous last chapter. Both have been fixed.
This week was something. I haven't done an update on my editing progress in a while. J.M. has been a God send. Not only has she really helped to find the little things that my eyes skip over (but after looking at something for six years, it's bound to happen), she's also really put a fire under my ass to get this done.
I want to talk about the importance of having a partner.
First of all, it's important to have a writing partner that reminds you of a parent, in a good way. They need to be someone who is interested in what you're doing. If the other person is passionate about your work, not only will it help you, but it'll make the work fun for them. It will also give you much better feedback than someone who is so-so about your work. If they don't love it, they won't be able to help.
Second, your critique preferences should match. Make sure each of you know what the other is looking for. This isn't just about the depth of the crit, but also the timeframe for it. Some of us want to get feedback as soon as the same day, while others are happy with once a week, or even once every two weeks! Before committing to a partnership, make sure to discuss these things.
My third point goes back to the parent thing. A partner should be able to look at your work and say, "Okay, I really like this concept, but…" While we may think that all we want as writers is to hear how great everything is, it's immeasurably important that we get the negative things with it. Telling someone their work is perfect when it could use a serious overhaul is damaging to both of you. Not only does it give them a false sense, but it will eventually lead to mistrust. They will eventually see the flaws in their work, and doubt your ability to work on their novel.
Keep an open line of communication. Don't just talk about your novels. Talk about life, get to know each other if you don't already. Be friends with your writing partner. J.M. has been wonderful for this. I'm the type of writer that will see something that doesn't work and will have it revised in five minutes. She's been great about looking at something I sent out of the blue and giving her feedback on it.
You and your partner should complement each other. I'm not talking about back-patting and cigars here. I'm talking strengths and weaknesses in your writing. If you find your descriptions are bland but your dialog would make Elmore Leonard jealous, look for someone whose descriptions make you feel like you're watching a movie but whose dialog makes a first grader cringe. This is a little extreme, but you get the idea.
Honesty. If it sucks, your partner needs to be able to tell you. J.M. loved TFI. She loved it so much she couldn't sleep that night because she couldn't stop reading. She loved it so much she didn't want to stop reading it long enough to write the comment e-mails. She cancelled a doctor's appointment for it. Then she got to the end. And told me that when she got to the last chapter, it would have been thrown it across the room if it wasn't her desktop PC she'd be tossing. I love her for that.
Don't take it personally when someone trashes an aspect of your work, especially when they've enjoyed the rest of it. If all your partner does is point out that everything sucks, it may be time to sever ties and find someone more suited to you. Writing partners are like any agent or reader…they're people. Not everyone likes the same things. I have a friend who adored A Separate Peace. If I had the choice of reading that again and cleaning the animal cages of every zoo from New York to Miami, I'd be putting on some rubber boots.
This was a long entry, but it's also an important topic. It's important to find someone to confide it, cry over rejections with, someone to support you and enjoy your writing.
Today on Nathan's blog he asked the question, "Do you own your characters or do your characters own you?"
I thought it was a great question, so I wanted to put my two cents in. Every writer handles their story a different way--we all have different ways of writing. Whether it's outlining or jumping right in, writing chronologically or skipping around, it's our way.
Anyone who knows a writer also knows that if you ask them about a character, they'll go on for hours if you don't shut them up. To us, the characters are alive. While this may make us borderline schizophrenic, it's also a good sign. I know that if I met someone and introduced myself as Jana Darren, they could ask me any question about myself, and I would have an answer for them without having to think about it. Jana is a three dimensional character, which is why I can do that.
Now, to answer Nathan's question.
I like to think of my characters as the Board of Directors for a company, and I'm the CEO. They can tell me what's needed and what direction we should take, but it is ultimately my decision. If I were to slack off and not do my job as CEO, I would get replaced and the company would collapse. That is, letting your characters take control the story and allowing them to take it in any direction they want is asking for a Chapter 11.
Every writer needs to find the delicate balance between the plot and the characters. You have to be there to make the decisions, keep a happy medium between the two.
If successful, you can say hello to Fortune 500 status.
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