Linda Nelson

Now that we are three weeks into September I have noticed how I have not been posting as much as of late. I have decided to try and actively change this. And, thanks to Kait and her ROW80 Challenge, I believe I’m ready to get my butt into gear and stick with her posting schedule. My focus this year will be on writing discipline.

So, now that I have you all here I have to tell you about a newbie writer who recently attended their first critique session. I heard how she was not fully prepared for what she was about to walk into. Supposedly this session turned out to be a horrific experience for her. What a shame, critique sessions are meant to be a writer’s tool. The feedback one gets from such a group is priceless.

Maybe some people think that just because they are college graduates the first book they write will be perfect.

I don’t know about that unless you are some kind of genius who has the imagination of a schizophrenic. The writing process just does not happen that way.

We all think our stories are great when they are coming straight out of the box. Pride can get in our way in the beginning. The best writers have replaced their pride with a deeper understanding as to how great stories are created.

You may call it collaboration when a critique group is used, but when you bounce a story idea off someone else’s mind and they tell you what they understand your story to say is two different things.

I saw this with Along Came Neil. This book took part in my first critique session. One chapter, mind you, can change the whole course of your story. Just one chapter is all it takes to rid yourself of anything that comes across as back story, or that unnecessary prologue. – who reads prologues anymore anyway?

So to that newbie writer – my heart plays that sad, sad song for you 😦 , but what are you going to do about your manuscript? Do you give up that easily? Why did what they say hurt so much? Could they possibly be onto something?

If I were you, I wouldn’t give up. Listen to what they said. Critique groups are there to try and give you a view of your story from a reader’s angle. Use it as for what it is, your very first review. If you reacted to the critique group that way, how will you take your first one star rating? Believe me, we all get them at one time or another.

Which leads us to another topic for a future date: Revisions and editing…

ROW80 Check-In:

Revisions – for the past two months I have been working on Revisions of all my previously published works. I’m kind of on a roll with only one book left to go.

Since Along Came Neil came out during the beginning of July I decided to revise the whole series, which does have its benefits, like fixing proofing errors, and story gaps. This is a good thing. By starting at the beginning of the series, this helped me make sure that the story remained on track, right to the end. Along Came Neil brought a lot of closure to the story. I can either continue the series or let it end. I feel confident that I did achieve a decent ending. Now all I can do is wait for my readers to tell me what they think about the story.

In the meantime, I moved on to my fantasy series. I actually had no choice but to go over the story once again if I’m to start working on the next book in this series. I don’t keep a time line. (I should – shouldn’t I?)

So by doing a revision of the fantasy series I am not only raising the quality of the story but I am regaining where I was at with the story.

I have about thirteen chapters left to go. Maybe I will be done by this weekend so I can start coming up with my next plot.

So while I regroup my fantasy series I hope, even if you have had a terrible critique group experience you will keep your Manuscript Marching Onward. The parade only stops if you stop marching.

Stop by and cheer on the progress of other ROW 80 writers by following the Linky Link, or better yet, come join us!

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Beta Relationships (wordencounters.wordpress.com)
Critiques: How to survive them and how to give them (kalirogers.com)

What a day we had yesterday at the Bow, NH RWA
meeting. It was our first meeting of the year. The meetings run from September to June, if your interested.

Yesterday there was a deep discussion over the changes taking place between the National levels and the chapter levels. But, not to worry, it is all good changes that seems to be creating a bit of havoc in some of the chapters. I’m sure it will work itself out. I’m not going to go into detail. For those who need to know more you can contact your local chapter for more information.

After lunch the best part of the meeting took place. It was our speaker Hannah Bowman. She gave us a workshop on Plots, Structures, and Pushing your Characters.

It was a great workshop.

I will only highlight some of her points here. You can look for her at the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Conference which I hear is coming up soon.

Hannah uses a check mark approach for mapping out conflict and climax within a story. You can use this approach while either creating your plot outline or with a finished manuscript where you give it a go over to see if there is enough rise and fall of conflict in your story. The check mark can be used with multiple character development in the way of a graph. Use colored pencils and you will see how your characters rise and fall at different places within your story.

I saw what my goal would be too. That would be to have all the characters begin at the same point and have them all end at the same point. This may seem to indicate that closure of the story has happened. If they don’t end at the same point you may be looking at a cliffhanger.

Some readers like cliff hangers and then there are others who are completely turned off by cliff hangers. Personally – I like both.

Next week
is the Monadnock Writers’ Group in Peterborough, NH. They hold their meeting downstairs in the Peterborough Library. This meeting is open to the public and they will have a speaker as well. So if you are in the area come on by. The meeting starts around 9:45 am. I like to get there early so I can meet and greet.

ROW80 Check-In:

I haven’t been to active with my checkins as of late. I really need to get my butt back into action and disicipline my self to make these posts on Sundays and Wednesdays.

So for the past week I have been slogging. I let the internet distract me from finishing up the revisions and edits of Witch Book. That is the last book I need to go over before I begin working on my next fantasy book to go with my Orgarlan Saga.

I think the Teen Contemporary series has come to an end. Or so it seems.

But you never know, something might happen with either my son or daughter to spark a new Contemporary idea to take hold. See, kids do have their uses when they are older, they just don’t know it. (lol)