Sorry for not posting on Wednesday. Too many things were going on in my life, including my hurried attempts at rewriting a scene so I could share it with my local crit group on Thursday night.
The response from the crit group?
The scene needs work.
Not too surprising, really. I'm still unsure with how the scene should unfold, and when I'm not comfortable with a scene, my prose goes into the tank. Too much explaining. Details out of order. Poor descriptions. Normally I would have spent another week polishing the words before submitting, but since I didn't submit anything at last month's meeting, I felt obliged to turn something in this month.
My takeaway from all this? Sometimes I just have to bounce ideas off my crit partners to get me out of a writing rut.
Have a great weekend and enjoy the writing links!
ChemistKen
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Getting Reviews
10 Things to Know About Pitching Agents and Editors
Conflict and Series Characters
Three Tips for Creating Evocative Prose
Nanowrimo: Act Two questions and prompts
6 Key Terms in Amazon’s KDP Contract — A Digest for Busy Writers
Sometimes, Two Rights… Make a Wrong
Website of Ken Rahmoeller -- fantasy author, chemist, and lover of all things Hogwarts (Photo Courtesy of Scarluuk)
Sometimes you also just need to move on from a clunky scene. You know it needs work, and you know that some of the things that happen in it might need to change. Keep going. Hopefully, by the end of the draft, you'll have a better idea what needed to happen in order to get the right outcome ... and polishing the prose can certainly come later!
ReplyDeleteI bounce ideas off one of my critique partners all the time. He's helped me with two of my books.
ReplyDeleteAt least you're writing and bouncing ideas. I need to start again. Off topic because you'll care, I think our old female cat might have died. She didn't come in last night when it got down to just above freezing, no sign of her today during searches of our property, and tonight is dipping under freezing. Mom is in the hospital again for congestive heart failure. I want to critique your chapters but at this rate it might be my next Seattle trip.
ReplyDeleteGlad you shared. It got you out of that rut. Great links, as usual!
ReplyDeleteCPs are the best. I learn a lot from them.
ReplyDeleteHang in there, Ken.
I get what you mean about bouncing ideas. My son comes in handy for this kind of thing. Where I'm more fantasy, he's more sci-fi. Together we get long debates about what is realistic or believable.
ReplyDeleteI'm lucky I have him on so many level. :-)
Anna from Shout with Emaginette