With the draft of one novel under my belt and a third of a second novel finished in half the time, I wonder now why I found writing a novel to be such an intimidating thing. Sure, it’s a long journey, but it’s completely doable if you simply write like a trained monkey every day (or, in my case, as close to every day as you can come).
What’s turning out to be harder than WRITING a novel is figuring out if that novel actually WORKS and then revising it to within an inch of its life. I’ve found two things to be very helpful in this process of writing and revising:
- Scribophile, the online writing group I joined at the beginning of this process, where I’ve met some great writers who also happen to be exceedingly kind in the amount of time and effort they have spent in reading and critiquing my drafts, and
- Brandon Sanderson, the well-known, award-winning fantasy and sci-fi author who has also been exceedingly kind in posting his creative writing lectures online for everyone to see.
These two resources have gone hand-in-hand for me, because one of the things that Brandon Sanderson has taught me is how to improve the critiques I give to other authors:
I think this video on how to critique the writing of others is very good. Some excerpts in case you don’t want to watch the whole thing:
- Be descriptive instead of prescriptive — in other words, explain to an author how you’re reacting to a certain scene and why, instead of telling the author how to fix that scene.
- Remember that you’re a test audience — part of what the author needs to know is how readers react to their writing, not how grammarians react. For example, you might be frustrated by a certain character — and that might be exactly what the writer wants! Instead of telling the writer to fix their character, just tell the writer how you’re feeling and why.
- Comment according to the context of the book — an epic fantasy novel is likely to have wizards and dragons and knights. A romance novel is likely to include a boy-meets-girl (or boy! depends on the story) and will include a lot of heavy petting. Arguing against these common tropes, such as saying a romance scene is a little “mushy,” probably isn’t that fair because it fits with the context of the type of story the author is telling.
- Focus more on content than on sloppy writing — in a previous course lecture, Sanderson tells his students that rough drafts are going to be sloppy, they’re going to have grammatical errors, they’re going to have diction issues. Don’t focus so much on that, he tells his students. Also, don’t try to change the author’s writing style. Instead, tell the author what the author needs to know about how the scene(s) actually read.
The Style of Critique I’ve Developed on Scribophile
I gave my first critique on Scribophile several months ago to my friend Jo, who is writing a fantastic story about an impossible love in a war-torn world, with Sanderson’s suggestions about critiquing fresh in my mind. Since then, I’ve developed my own style for critiquing:
- Usually, I critique the first time I read through and try to give my reader’s responses as they happen for me. My hope is that the author can see my immediate, gut reaction to their writing this way.
- Unless a word or paragraph or line of dialog really interferes with the flow of my reading, I don’t stop to suggest a different wording or way of phrasing something.
- I try to always be encouraging. 🙂 It’s their baby, after all, and they’ve worked really hard on it. I try to honor that.
Of course, not everyone on Scribophile critiques this way. Frankly, I’m glad they don’t, because the more technical suggestions I’ve received for my work (grammar, diction, etc.) have been invaluable.
But in a certain way, writing and catching grammatical mistakes is the easy part. It’s the telling of a cohesive, compelling story that’s hard work. So that’s where I try to be helpful when I critique.
photo credit: jontintinjordan via photopin cc