The cow and the man, both gone out of sight
There comes a time when you are done with editing. You will know when that time, and you must make a committed decision.
This doesn’t mean you can’t make small typographical changes, but it means it’s time to let the story out of the door.
Hand out several copies to the two types of friends you have; the ones who will tell you the truth warts and all, and the ones who will tell you pleasant lies.
Listen to what your truth speaking friends say. Think about what they’ve said from the story’s point of view; you’ll find their changes stick.
Listen to your friends who tell you your novel is a best seller and feel good.
The two combined are your co-editors- they will tell you what is great about your story, and what needs work.
Listen.
4 comments:
In my experience it's very hard to get friends to provide you with constructive criticism. I'm lucky in that my wife is also an editor so we work well together. People, in my experience, find it just as hard to say good things about a piece of writing as they do to criticise. I notice this on Zoetrope. The poems I've posted since I've returned have all been good – I know they're good – and people find it so hard to say anything more than, "That's there's a good poem there, Jim, that is, a good poem and that." They can't put into words why it's a good poem. They like it. But they're stuck there.
It is easier to say what you don't like about a piece but people don't want to offend so they pull their punches. My daughter has read every poem I've ever written and I e-mail her the new ones as they come but she's never once said, "I didn't like that one, Dad." Are you telling me that I've never written a bad poem in the last thirty years? Please!
Hi, thank u for replying my entrecard drop. i have blogroll your site in my serious droppers list. I visit all the sites in this list almost everyday plus most of my visitors too. We all have the same idea of getting return drop cards. Hope that you can blogroll my site back in your web too.
Thank you,
Reena http://reenashwina.blogspot.com
That's an interesting insight, BT. I would never dream of showing stuff to the 'positive fibbers' - I tend to seek out the sharks who might tear me to pieces if I'm lucky.
But why not take a little encouragement. Take it with a good pinch of salt but, yeah, take it!
@ Jim, the praise of friends is very non specific, isn’t it? “I really loved your story, it was so touching,” etc, etc, are not very helpful when it comes to finding out what’s wrong with your book. Even people who disliked me said, “Oh, yeah, it’s a great book,” which left me wondering, did I really have to annoy someone to have them say, “Look, the ending is crap, the middle bit bores me, the characters are cut out of cardboard and where did you get off writing the guinea pig story?”
Like you, Jim, I’ve some friends who would have mine believe I’ve never written a bum word in my life.
I guess I’ve had real success in asking people questions, loaded to get the negative answer- “What was it you really disliked about Melvin’s character?” this approach and really pushing for answers- if people don’t like something, pushing them like this will make them spit it out. I guess the rule of thumb is if you want better answers, ask more specific questions- go into the discussion with both of you understanding that there is no doubt something wrong about the book, and you need their help to fix it.
“People are born with certain faces, like my father was born with a face people want to hit,” Said Thom Yorke, happily, I have the same facility. I’ve always been very lucky in that people are more than willing to bring me their brutally honest opinion of all the things I do wrong, which leads to a life of constant growth and spiritual development.
Jim runs a blog called, “The Truth about Lies,” you can find a link to it in the left hand side bar. If you’ve an interest in writing, or literature, or understanding wither of them, this should be your first stop.
@ Reena, (Merqury) No problem adding you to the blog roll, generally I do it for every serious commenter, but you’re a Entrecard dropper too (that used to mean something different in the 1996, when the entire year was presented by the letter ‘e’). I’m a big fan of Entrecard, it’s one of the best publicity tools available to bloggers. It requires a little work, but can win you some great return readers, and will increase your audience in general (if not leaving you sometimes confused)
Reena runs a blog called “Reenashwina” which is a bit of a catchall; you can find a great deal out about the latest Entrecard happenings from this blog, if you’ve got the chance, check it out- and if you’re a dropper, drop, and build a great base of reciprocal droppers = )
@ Ken Armstrong. Heya, Ken, the positive feedback can help you through some really awful patches- like when you’re considering editing a 1,100 word manuscript- looking down that barrel can be daunting, and you need one or two things to support the idea that you’re not going to flummox it completely, or that you aren’t wasting your time. I’m lucky in that few of my really good friends wouldn’t tell me bad things even if I was Adolph Hitler, “No, you’re doing great, keep it up,” is the sort of thing they offer, “You’re the best, this is really going to get you an award or something” “Wow, I wish I could write like you” while they might sound a little like lobotomy patients, they’re just measuring things by a different standard- they’re comparing where I started to where I am now. The yard stick you and I use to measure ourselves is no doubt a lot less forgiving = ) It helps though, because it’s important to remember just how far you’ve come, and your own yard stick, tells you just how far you have to go.
As you say, take positive feedback with the smallest grain of salt, but take it anyway, relax, and feel good about your writing.
Ken runs a blog on writing called, “Ken Armstrong writing stuff” you vcan find a link to it in the left hand bar. Ken is a great writer, with sense of humour dray as chips and is well worth reading.
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