The Value of Feedback

I think every author that wants to have success with his or her work will have to get feedback at some point. In the face of the many drafts it can take to get a real, publishable winner, everyone needs a little help.

Some people go to their friends for advice, and inevitably get flowery words of kindness that don't really help improve anything. Others look up professional editors, forking over the cash for it. There are writer's workshops as well, but it's tough to get much on more than a piece of your work. What we really need is a fellow writer who's willing to give honest feedback from start to finish.

So, across the internet, there are many places where we can ask for this (my personal favorite being the Absolute Write forums). But the funny thing is, it's just as important the other way too--if you need this help, so do the rest of us. Offering to look through and give someone an honest, thorough opinion is a great way to make friends in the writing community.

One of my fellow authors, Kat Mellon, just made a blog post on some of the best ways to band together with other writers. It's packed full of great information. She gives at least six valuable tips--all I have is this one, but it's definitely my favorite way of interacting with other writers.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have quite a few projects to go read and comment on.

Public Beta

Also known as Advanced Reading Copies, except they're PDF files and anyone can see them. Yes, I've decided to release Parts 1 and 2 of The Third Face to everyone.

First Week of the Year

Vacations are weird.

I'm sure most people had at least a little one somewhere around New Year's. For me, the vacation was a couple days off work and not writing any drabbles for a couple of weeks starting around Christmas.

You probably noticed that I haven't blogged so much lately, either. There's an element of vacation to that, too, but the fact is that I've just been plain busy. I find that the only way I can get anything done at all on a day off from work is by having a million deadlines and way too much to do. Otherwise, I subconsciously write the day off as one where I can be lazy, and end up doing nothing!

So this week, I organized my To-Do List, which I hadn't used in quite a while. It consists of some of the writing goals I mentioned in my last entry, a handful of free online learning courses, and some commitments I've made to communities (such as keeping up the Facebook group).

I may be a little behind on this blog and my drabbles, but as for beta reading I'm swamping myself halfway to Hell already. Even though I'm just getting started on Duth Olec's Slubes for my second pass, I went over to Absolute Write and started talks with four or five different people about how I can start beta reading their novels. They range from an in-progress story to a 130,000 word epic, but I'm excited about all of them. Needless to say, just getting started on that has really kept me busy by itself.

Review: Elemental Sacrifices - The Gathering

Have you ever wanted to read a book about a mute kid with poison for spit? How about an army of monsters made out of sand? Or maybe a vegetarian girl with a hair obsession and a lifetime of combat training?

Well, you probably haven't really given it much thought. But if, upon considering it just now, you said yes, you'd probably like to know more--and even if you said no, well, maybe I can convince you anyway.

Elemental Sacrifices: The Gathering follows an ancient-magical-orb-turned-girl named Chloe. Along with her snotty sister, she sets off to escape monsters and angry villagers alike, to see a boy so thoroughly attractive that even I (a straight male) find him sexy, and, of course, to find the secrets of her own origins.

The journey is punctuated with vivid, stunning battles with various fiends, as well as with genuine, hilarious dialogue among the amazingly strong cast of characters that this deep world has to offer. Reading it is not just interesting or suspenseful, but truly fun.

Excited yet? I definitely am! I'm not sure where the author is in the production of it, but I'm sure she can do a lot more with a little support for her work--it goes a long way, to say the least.

Overdrive

Well, I was supposed to return to writing related stuff probably a week or two ago, but now I'm actually going to do so. Seriously!

I have tomorrow off, and with the rest of my family off on vacation all weekend, I have freedom AND caffeine money. So even if writing takes a back seat to other stuff, I have many hours of productivity ahead!

That means it's time to consider asking about more Beta Reading work. After all, I'm almost done with the current one (a great manuscript that I'll probably review here soon) and, well, I could use something new to help keep me occupied throughout this long weekend here.

Okay, I'm sure you'd like to hear about my own writing. I've basically been waiting to find out about what Tiger Tales will do with The Third Face. I don't even know how long it'll be before information comes back, so until then, revising that again is basically out of the question. Nor am I prepared to look at the sequel that's clearly bound to follow that. Instead, I'm looking backwards, to the lives of Ian and his friends, who are legendary by the time of The Third Face.

Seth, Ian's best friend, has discovered the method to travel to another world. Ian and his crush Lynn are invited to join him on his trip to the primitive society, but Seth refuses to reveal how he knows about it. Ian will have to trust his friend despite his destructiveness, and reveal his horrible secret at the same time. Stay tuned for more about Redhand: Adventures With My Dead Best Friend!

Going for the Juggler

I hadn't really mentioned this before, but there's a reason I've been revising so furiously. On February 25th, the Tiger Tales literary contest is closing. Everyone is waiting on one key factor: will they start accepting novels this year?

They haven't had any reason to yet, but with two or three other novels already being submitted, chances have never been so good. I've been complaining year after year that short stories just aren't my thing, but this time that might not keep me out of the running.

As you've probably guessed, I'm entering the contest with my novel, The Third Face, and have decided to bring it through one more revision before I get there. It's hard to estimate how much editing there really is to do; it was originally about 80 pages long, and it's grown to over 100 before I've made it halfway through. I can't tell you the exact statistics, though, as they keep changing.

The fact is that even though I take whatever chance I can get to covertly revise during school hours, I've still spent a good four hours of my evening each day since the 25th of January, and I'm still worried about whether I'll finish on time. There's definitely a lot to do.

Alongside that, I am still doing the same beta reading that I mentioned a couple entries back. I'll admit that it's not a huge amount of work in its own right, but my tendency not to give it priority has made it really slow. I'm surprised the author isn't getting really impatient with me--she has every right to be. Still, she's politely followed up about it, making me suddenly aware of my mistake.

I suppose it would help if I was able to say no when a close friend plopped a half-finished manuscript down in front of me. This isn't a really big deal, since I told him he isn't getting any feedback until he finishes it. But it does make yet another manuscript I have some hand in revising at this very moment.

Look how long this blog entry is running. And I haven't even gone outside my writing life here. For your sake, I won't go into everything else, but I will tell you that there's a ton more for me to worry about these days. It's a wonder I haven't died. I can't believe I was able to put aside some time today to write this blog entry. There are actually plenty more blog entries way overdue for me to write... when I have time.

"Beta Reading"

So I'm a writer. Naturally, that means my friends are writers too, right?

Well, okay, it's not that simple, by any means. But I do talk to lots of writers on a daily basis. Besides the fact that being social is just fun, it helps me sort of team up for better writing. The more people that look at something, the better.

Of course, as stated in the first post of this blog, things can't always be about me. So about a week ago, I, too, volunteered my services to look at someone else's work, to critique and review it. I put myself out there on the Absolute Write forums (amazing place by the way) as what they call a "Beta Reader."

Within a matter of hours, someone had sent me a message in response. She knew that her story was definitely not something I'd normally read. But she sent it to me anyway because she was confident in the results. How can I say no to that kind of guts? Even though I wasn't sure what to expect, I accepted anyway. Turns out it was at least half-romance. My worst subject. Only the tension and suspense that are in the story keep me reading more.

In fact, where I failed to make comments on the document for a stretch, I can't seem to make myself go back and find things to comment on. I just can't reread it. It wasn't till the end when I had all my comments done and I was giving a more general review that I had any confidence at all in my ability to help. My comments on that document are basically useless, but I sent them anyway. Still, I think my review was very helpful in contrast.

It was a long and hard process, but really, it only took me one week to receive, read, comment, review, and finally send everything back. It was 64,000 words long, almost three times the length of my own novel's first draft. That's crazy. I didn't really think it was possible to do that. On the other hand, it was such tiring work that I hope I don't get my next assignment for a few more days.

Here's an idea of how hard it was. Over the last week, if you haven't talked to me, you missed me moaning and groaning about this project and how I didn't want to do it. I didn't mind homework or any of that other stuff because it gave me an excuse not to work on it. I'm not quite the complainer I used to be, but really the fact that I didn't think of anything else as a problem during that time probably says a lot.

I'm probably being really longwinded and dramatic about this. I just want people to understand how hard it actually is to do this. If you are asking someone to give you feedback on your work (like I currently am, actually), then realize that it's no small favor. Same goes for agents and editors and anyone else who has to read it. This is not "Oh hey this book looks cool I'm going to read it and it will be great" time. Forgive me for using the phrase, but it's serious business.