The Importance of Getting A LOT of Critiques

WOOOO!!!! Last Friday's post was my 200th post on this blog! I'm so happy. I loved blogging, and even more, I love this community.

We all know that, in writing, getting critique partners and beta readers to read over your work is almost crucial to get a great, polished book. But I don't think we realize just how truly important it is.

This will be part of my long-forgotten "Myth-Busting Writerly Quotes." The Quote to be Myth-Busted is "We must get critique partners," and I am proving it, but Mining it to get more out of it than what we think we know.

Take, for example (again) JK Rowling's The Casual Vacancy. Now look at it's book cover.

The front (I do not own this picture)

The back cover, taken from this website:
http://www.hypable.com/2012/09/24/casual-vacancy-leaks/

Now, many of us know that the book's cover was sort of met with disappointment. You can read my reaction over here.

And just maybe a month or two ago, I got the greatest idea of how this book cover could have been INCREDIBLE. You see the back cover image above? See the silhouette of the town of Pagford? And now look at the front cover, and the box and the x. Now replace the two images; flip the town for the check box. (You really need to sort of imagine it because the picture for the back cover was the best I could find, and it still isn't good. Image it upright, crisp and clear, lusciously black like the check box. Then mentally switch the images.)

If you are like me, you'll be stunned. I was. I was almost tearing my hair out because I kept thinking, "This book cover could have been STUNNING if someone just saw this very simple, but easily overlooked 'fix'!" I seriously think that the book cover would have been incredible if the town was on its front cover instead of the back; it would have fit the tone and story of the book so much better because, at its heart, this book isn't about the election - it's about the town and its people.

What this teaches us is this:

Get new and FRESH eyes to look over your work.

It took me, someone who bought the book on the day it came out, many months to come up with the blinding realization that this book cover could have been so much better (I still like the cover, but it could have been more incredible!).

Fresh eyes will find a way to fix parts of your novel in ways you might never have imagined. True, you can rely on yourself to do this, but can you truly distance yourself away from your work? Raw, unbiased, harsh, distanced critiques are what will turn your writing into something fantastic.

There are so many possibilities, so many ways to fix whatever problem you are facing in your novel. And if you can't find a way to fix it, maybe it's time you get fresh eyes on it: give it to someone who never read your book, tell them NOTHING about the problem (really, don't even hint at it), and let them come to you with their unbiased, casual suggestions. 

It will be like the way sometimes you can't think of a word, and if you tell someone else the meaning of the word, somehow they suddenly can't think of the word either; but then maybe someone else says it out of the blue and BANG! You found the word. You just need fresh eyes.

So go, go with fresh eyes into your writing!

This quote, "We must get critique partners," has officially been Mined because sometimes, we need fresh critique partners.

How important are fresh eyes for you? Any stories about how someone 'magically' fixed a problem in your writing that you puzzled over for days?

3 Methods to Getting that AWESOME Breakthrough

YES! YES YES YES YES YES!!!!!

There was this HUGE problem at the end of my book that I felt would leave people feeling angry/surprised. So now, I just had a major breakthrough. I've been thinking about this for sooooo long, literally, about ways to fix this problem. I threw in a bunch of character motivation, added in a lot of stuff, and now, in two easy mini-scenes and in one fell swoop, it will be fixed :) This is the problem that had been annoying me for a long time, and now it is gone.

I had been just thinking and thinking and thinking about it, and today, I finally went down the right path. I finally actually seriously thought about a good literary device I could use to fix this problem, and I thought of a device I never considered, and I laughed. I raised my hands up from my desk and cheered.

This was great. It was amazing, actually, because it all depends on that one little moment where you finally know what you've been missing all along. Everything just clicks into place.

There are many methods of getting a breakthrough, and yes, you can (for lack of a better word) force yourself to get a breakthrough. There will be a more thorough investigation into this later on, with sources from this one creativity book, but here is the gist:

(Briefly) HOW TO GET A BREAKTHROUGH

1. Keep thinking about it over and over and over. And then over again. If you keep working at it, and keep thinking about ways to fix it, you will get that breakthrough. This is what happened to me above.

2. Keep thinking about it TONS, and then just don't think about it anymore. Forget about it. And then, in a flash, the answer will come to you. This is what happens why you suddenly remember the name of the song that had been stuck in your head for a long time.

3. Don't think about anything at all. This generally applies to actual manuscript ideas and premises. That flash of, "I'd love to write about this!"



There it is :) A more thorough analysis of the methods will come later, but I just wanted to write this because I was excited about my breakthrough :)

The Secret to Getting a Breakthrough will come soon!

How do/did you get your amazing breakthroughs? Was it a flash of inspiration that made you all happy?

Oohh, biggy question:

How did it feel to find that idea you would LOVE to write?

Did Your Revision Make Your Book Sucky?

Disclaimer: This is the post that I wrote yesterday. I meant to combine it with my 'Winners' post but it got too long, and I feel like this is an important post, so here it is right now :) KEEP IN MIND, I wrote this yesterday, and right after major revisions!


This was going to be a "Secrets" post, but I'm way too exhausted to devote the proper brain power to do it. Subscribe so you know when the "Secrets" posts will come :)

I just came back from 1.5 hours of solid revising, so if this blog post is a bit dreary or mean, well... too bad. Just joking. Kind of.

Do you know the revisions that I'm talking about? Where you change one scene in the beginning, and that dominoes into EVERY OTHER PLACE IN THE BOOK. And then you do basically a whole reading to get rid of all those references and you change up the dialogue and all that stuff!

I had to literally re-characterize the antagonist in my book. It was exhausting. And you know what the worst part is? I don't know if my revisions helped. I made my antagonist more caring, and that just sucks, because readers might actually like the antagonist now. And not as in 'respect,' but as in 'ooh, I hope nothing bad happens to her.' And that's not good. Kind of like how I felt about the Queen in Snow White and the Huntsman (go check it out. The Queen was one of the best developed antagonists in films (films) I've seen, second to Anakin Skywalker. He's the epitome of awesome antagonists). But this recharacterization was necessary to my story.

And so, here I am, all worried and anxious.

How can I tell if my revisions didn't make my book sucky?

The answer is that you can feel it. Honestly, I've been shying away from this recharacterization. I KNEW my antagonist was caring, but I didn't want to add it in due to storytelling purposes. But now (I hope) I feel that my revisions will help. I was being true to the story and true to what I felt.

Be true to your story.

Stephen King said that in revisions, you have to take out anything that isn't your story. Well, for me, it was adding stuff ;)

You have to develop your story and tell it how it was meant to be! If you KEEP coming back to it, KEEP reading over what you did, your revision might suck. That means you have that nudge in the back of your head or that gut feeling. Of course, wait a day or two before you consider it; all revisions make writers antsy. Let it simmer and then see if they were good changes. If you revise based on feedback without understanding where the critiques are coming from, your revisions will ring false, they will be phony, and you will not be true to your story.

And that, above all, is poison to your book. Every false revision you make tears apart your book, and that's how I feel about my book right now. But I'll do a reread tomorrow, see if my revisions make sense and how I feel about it. (See last paragraph to know how this turned out). Because if I revise with my brain fried like it is right now, I will do nothing but harm my story.

Wish me luck!

Edit from today: I have now decided to take a break from the chapter that caused me trouble. That means like a day, for me. I just came back from doing some line-editing on other parts of my book, and I feel SOO much better! Also, today in the shower, I was frustrated over the revision I talked about. And the reason was: my revision was not good enough. I solved the problem in the shower just thinking and thinking (and thinking) over it, and I have the plans for the new revisions all in my head. My previous revisions sucked. I'mna give it a few days so I don't do what I call, 'Panic Writing.' Panic Writing is the death of your book, so do NOT write if you feel frustrated or angry with your book. It just makes your revisions sucky.

Wish me luck in my new revisions! Eep! I feel SOO much better now! Contrast to today morning and last night, I actually am starting to like my book again, and I have hope in it :)

What revisions do you shy away from? Do you hate revisions? How do YOU know if your revision worked or not?