"People Don't Talk In Contractions"

The past two weeks for me have been filled with excitement, disappointment, tears, and smiles. Thanks to the wonderful Maggie Stiefvater, I had my first experience with someone critiquing my novel-to-be. As Maggie and many other authors point out, it is best to have another writer or avid reader to read your work before sending it out to agents or editors. Most authors these days have a critique group, usually made up of one or two other authors. So I asked Maggie on her live journal how she came by her two critique partners, and in response, she set up a post so that other writers that read her blog could find a critique partner or two.

And so began the heart breaking process. I have barely even talked about the plot to my mostly-finished novel because I wanted to know exactly where I was going before I told anyone what it was about. But I was certainly not going to let this opportunity slip through my fingers. So I typed up a little short paragraph about what the main idea of my story was, and waited to be requested as a possible-future-critique-partner.

That day, I had never been so excited in my life. I received ten emails from other aspiring writers who wanted to read my work! People actually thought my story sounded interesting! So I polished my little baby and sent it's first 50 pages out into the world. No one had ever read my private work, and I was SCARED. I knew that there were some grammar mistakes here and there, and I knew that my main character needed to be a little more unique, but I thought the main thing in itself was pretty good for a first draft.

I discovered that critiquing other people's work was fun. I felt like my opinion actually mattered, and just knowing that I might have a hand in making a book better was exciting to me. I mean, this book that I am reading might be the next NYT Best Seller! But of course, there were obstacles that I had to go through to narrow down the pile of possible partners. Like the girl who ripped my manuscript apart, told me that she couldn't focus on the story because of the terrible writing and grammar mistakes. She actually stated as suggestion; "People don't talk in contractions. You should cut that out of your dialogue." Being that I've never actually met a person who NEVER says a contraction (and the fact that she used a contraction in the dang suggestion to begin with), you can imagine that partnership didn't work out.

But then a few days later, I received my first helpful critique. My little baby was no longer shiny and pretty. It was battered, bruised, and covered in little red marks with comments like "Eve gets on my nerves" and "Where exactly is this plot going?". I was crushed. I cried for two days. I couldn't believe that something that I thought was good was actually really bad, according to this person. Then I thought, well maybe it's just her. Maybe she just doesn't understand what I'm trying to do with my plot.

Then the second helpful critique came in. And she basically said the same thing; the idea of the story is great, certain lines were poetic and beautiful, but overall, my plot was messy and confusing. I looked back at my first 4 chapters and reread it until my eyes crusted over.

I realized that they were right. I had gotten so involved in the joy of finally following my dream that I completely neglected the practical aspects of it. It wasn't completely unreadable, but it definitely needed some work.

Now I have gone back and completely re-worked my beginning, and the plot has thickened substantially. Even though it was hard to hear at first, I can already tell that these changes have taken my book from okay to great. (I think. I need to let my critique partners read it before I know for sure. haha). But my point is, if you are an aspiring writer, ALWAYS let someone read your work before you send it to agents. ALWAYS. Even if you think you have the next Great American Novel on your hands, let somebody read it first. It's always hard to see the flaws in your own creation. And it's better to have a friend be honest and tell you it-sucks-but-I-know-you-can-do-better, than to have a stranger completely reject you after the first few pages, and possibly kill your hopes of having writing as a career forever.

Here is a teaser for my new beginning of Wicked Illusions:

Death is common in our town. Not in the normal way that, “everybody is going to die someday”. No, in Ironbrook, it’s much more familiar than that. Nobody, in the entire history of Ironbrook has lived past their 74^th birthday. Ever.
>:-D   I can't wait to finish this book. I hope it will be as awesome as I want it to be.