Monetising: Adverts
As a second part to my attempts to make a little out of my writing, I’ve branched out into hosting advertising spaces on my websites.
Thanks to the fabulous Project Wonderful, this is incredibly easy. Just a short time spent setting up the account on their website, a wait while they confirm the site is suitable, and then configuring the ad spaces (doesn’t take long and is very user-friendly), I now have ad boxes up on Starwalker and this blog right here.
The ad boxes are completely controllable, and I’ve only added one or two to each site; it’s counter-productive to have too many, and I hate cluttered websites. I think I’ve reached my limit in the amount of things I want to add to my sidebars!
The ads have been up for less than two weeks and already I’m seeing returns. Nothing huge – the ad payments are done in cents (and sometimes fractions of cents) – but it will all build up in time. For relatively little effort and no monetary outlay at all, it’s definitely worth it! PJ handle all the complex stuff for me; all I have to do is let it run and watch the cents tick upwards.
Definitely not enough to make a living from, but if I ever get my own adverts sorted out, I’ll be able to afford to display them through PJ using only my ad revenue. Handy!
Monetising: Donations
This subject has been on my list of things to sort out for a long time. Finally, I’m getting around to doing something about it.
Let me make one thing clear: I give my writing away for free happily and willingly, and always intend to do so to some extent. In truth, I am reluctant to ask for money on something I am offering for free.
However, there are people who would happily give money if the option was there. For e-book versions, for merchandise, and even just for visiting the website.
The first two of those options involve a lot of work (which is in progress!), but the latter is easy to set up. It’s also the trickiest for me to want to do. It seems cheeky to me! But I’ve come across a few discussions on this topic over the past months and it seems that I’m in the minority in that regard.
It’s not a case of asking for money; it’s giving the option to those who wish to contribute. Some readers like to be able to support the work they enjoy, and some writers like to support their fellow artists. The more I think about it, the more okay I am with that. If I had the funds, I might even do the same myself.
So this week, I bit the bullet and sorted out donations for my websites. It was actually shockingly easy! (Paypal really have made it a painless process – well done you guys!) There’s now a ‘Donate’ button in the sidebar on the Apocalypse Blog, Starwalker, and this site (look right, everyone!). Hopefully unobtrusive and inoffensive.
So, the avenue is now open. I don’t demand or expect anything, and if I’m honest, I’m still a little nervous about the whole thing (will people get annoyed and leave? will they suspect it’s the start of rabid commercialisation?). But let’s see how it goes!
My first step towards making money from the writing I do purely for the joy of it. Next: actually selling things to people! (Uh oh, I feel there’s a slippery slope coming!)
RedFest Guest Appearance
Through some local contacts, I’ve been asked to do a ‘writing corner’ at the Redland Spring Festival in September (RedFest). I’m not entirely sure of all the details yet, but I’ll have the space for a period of time. It has been heavily suggested that I do some kind of talk/info session about writing.
Wow. I do little talks for my writing groups fairly often these days, but this is (even more) public! And very intimidating. But very awesome.
What do I do the talk on? What do I wear? (Shut up, I’m a girl, y’know.) I should sort out business cards. Or bookmarks. Or something with my links/writing on to hand out. (Don’t want to miss an opportunity to pimp myself, after all.)
I’ll have to see if I can bribe my writing group folks to come along and keep me sane. And anyone else I can get to come! You! Are you in south-east Queensland? Then you have to come!
Can’t wait. I’m a little bit terrified. I think I should go lie down now.
Expounding
I’m not very good at updating this blog regularly. When things get busy, it’s usually the first to fall by the wayside! I tend to come along and splurge a few posts, and then focus on something else for a while.
I would like to change this. I’m not entirely sure how just yet, but I’m thinking about setting myself some time every week to write specifically for this blog.
I haven’t been creating the kind of chronicle for Starwalker that I did with the Apocalypse Blog. The journey of writing Starwalker is a rollercoaster – it’s crazy and fun and hard, and I’d like to capture some of that here. If only so I can look back and say ‘wow, I was nuts!’
I’ve also been giving talks about writing lately. I had a guest pull out of my writing group meeting this month, and put together some emergency notes so that we had something else to talk about! It was actually great fun (and I learned a lot!), but it would be nice if all this material I’m collecting didn’t just sit in a notebook somewhere.
I have plenty of stuff that I can write up. I have already started on the notes from my writing group (though assembling rambling notes into a coherent post is harder than it looks!), and will hopefully have something post-worthy in the next week. On top of that, there’s always the occasional vomit of information that has previously lived within the confines of my skull, like the recent posts on why and how to critique fiction.
Reviews. I would like to do more reviews, too. I often feel opinionated enough to write them, but finding time to do it is always the trick. Plus, I’ve promised at least one fellow writer that I would do one on their work! Sheesh. Get to it, slacker.
Perhaps I’ll try to post every other week, with a different type of post each week. That sounds terribly organised! Considering that I’m struggling to keep up with Starwalker most weeks, that is frequent enough to get me back into the habit of writing for this blog. Who knows, maybe I’ll throw in more posts as well!
So I have a plan. I have lots of things to write about. Now all I need is some time in my life, and I’m set! Watch this space, people – I will try to make it active and interesting!
How a Web Serial Helped me Write
This is a guest post that I did for the lovely Sharon T. Rose, over at Lilyfields, cross-posted here for your enjoyment. Many thanks to Sharon for letting me play in her sandbox!
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I have always struggled to find time to write. I know I’m not the only person who battles with this; full-time writers are a rare breed! I’m always studying or working full-time, juggling commitments and chores at home, and have some desire for a social life around the edges. Squeezing something like writing into a busy schedule isn’t easy; too often, it loses out to ‘more important’ things and gets sidelined.
Without a schedule for my writing time, I used to binge-write: splurge on one story while the iron was hot, get as far as a particularly tricky part, get distracted or waylaid, find I’ve lost momentum on the story, and move on to one of the many shiny new ideas that cropped up in the meantime. Rinse, repeat. I’ve started lots of stories and many of them continue to be tantalising beginnings, full of possibilities and tied shoelaces. But I’ve finished only two novels.
National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo, or NaNo to its friends) went a long way towards helping me gain the time and focus to really get my head down and write. It’s all about making time and getting it done, and it’s a wonderful excuse to put all distractions aside for a month and just write. It was exactly what I needed.
The first time I did NaNo, I aimed for the target (50,000 words) and stopped there, with much relief and self-congratulations. In my second NaNo, I aimed for the end of the story, and that became completed novel number two. Huzzah! I had found something that worked for me.
But NaNo only happens once a year, and as my fellow Wrimos will attest, it’s somewhat exhausting. As fun as it is to write a novel in a month, I wanted something more sustainable, even if it took slightly longer to reach the end of the story. I wanted to maintain the discipline and momentum of NaNo without burning out. So how to apply that to everyday life?
NaNo encourages its Wrimos to put pen to paper every day, and I had discovered that my hour-long commute was an ideal time to write for me, shoehorned in between work and home. In the feverish post-NaNo celebrations, I started to toss around ideas for how keep that up, and the best one I came up with was to start a web serial. Specifically: a fictional blog in which the main character wrote a post every day, to make me write a post every day.
It was nuts. I had no idea if I could do it or not, but enthusiasm and determination distracted me with web hosting, domain registration, website setup, and advertising, and then shoved me over the cliff while I was still giddy. All of a sudden, I was sprinting down the cliff-face, strewing posts around me with feverish abandon and generally trying not to fall on my head. Thus, the Apocalypse Blog was born.
I set myself a goal and a schedule: a year-long story, posted (and edited) every day. With no time to lose, I barrelled right over obstacles (though my poor characters often had to go around the long way) and kept piling through my list of plot ideas. Hip-deep in the story, I wrote off-the-cuff about characters I was living right alongside. Stepping back and taking stock was for after it was finished!
It was the best fun. I knew it wasn’t perfect, but a big part of letting go to something like this is saying to yourself “that’s okay”. Just go with it and enjoy the ride. Put it out there and see what happens. Sometimes when I think about it, I still get a little giddy.
When the Apocalypse Blog kicked off, I had a week’s worth of buffer: I was always a week ahead in the posts I was writing, which gave me some flexibility. That lasted for the first four months, until I fell sick with pneumonia (don’t try this at home, folks). My lovely buffer was coughed away, and I wound up writing, editing and posting in the same day.
Sounds insane? It was. And yet, it worked, for the remaining eight months of the Apocalypse Blog’s life. I didn’t miss a day.
I often wonder why it worked so well for me. Part of it was being so involved in the story; after a while, it was hard not to write it. I wanted to know what happened next!
A big part of it was the extra pressure to deliver: I had committed to a post every day, so that’s what I did.
On top of that, I don’t like the idea of putting a half-finished piece of work out into the world; the failure would have been very public and disappointed all those who had joined me on the journey. I hate to break promises and knowing that I had readers waiting for the next post, the next revelation, the next arc of the plot, pushed me on. I had to get to the finish.
Best of all, I got feedback. Readers cared enough to send me emails and I wasn’t writing into a void any more. My writing mattered to more than just me, and there’s nothing more wonderful than knowing people want to read your work! I got reviews and ratings on various sites. I also discovered supportive communities of web fiction writers, always willing to give help and advice. All of that encouraged me to keep going, to keep up the pace, and to my surprise, I found I could.
Now, I have a completed story number three. It wound up as long as three traditional novels (over 340,000 words!) written over the course of a year, and I’m absurdly proud of it.
I couldn’t just let that be the end of it, though. A month after the Apocalypse Blog finished, I started a new project: Starwalker, another web serial and fictional blog. I’m posting weekly rather than every day (I couldn’t keep that up forever!), I still don’t have a buffer, and I’m still loving it.
Having that fixed schedule pushes me and makes me push myself. I make room for my writing because I have a commitment to deliver on; it’s no longer ‘just for me’ and losing out to other parts of my life. I’m not only writing more now than I ever have in the past, I’m also pleased with what I’m creating and having a great time doing it. In the process, I’ve discovered a new format that works for me.
Web serials are not for everyone. I know that the kind of pressure it offers isn’t to everyone’s liking – especially the bufferless seat-of-the-pants pressure that apparently works for me. Other writers I know prefer to have months of buffer built up, so that deadline is there but less stressful. Others like to have the whole thing finished first. It’s really up to you and what you want to get out of it.
There are lots of great reasons to start a web serial (and I have many more than I’ve shared here!); this is just one to consider. Have a problem with writing? Try something different and see what works for you. Don’t be afraid to experiment, and don’t be reluctant to push yourself.
If you go for it, who knows what you’ll be able to do?
Road to e-booking
Some of you may have heard that I’ve been working on preparing the Apocalypse Blog for being made into e-books (I’ve talked about it randomly on Twitter and Facebook). This is true! And despite all the recent delays and headaches I’ve had – which I’ll probably whine about on here later – I am making progress.
The current plan is to break the AB saga (340,000+ words) into three books, each of roughly 100,000 words. This fits into three story arcs: the end of the world; the sickness and the shamblers; and trying to find a new future (at some point, they’ll get proper names, but I’m still working on that!).
There will also be a prequel ‘book’, covering the entries that were made before the bomb went off, back when Faith’s world was normal. I wrestled with the idea of splitting this off, because I like the lead-in that this ‘normal’ week gives the story. It sets up Faith’s voice and some of the plot points that come into the story much later on with Matt and Bree.
However, because I am looking at offering the e-books for sale through Smashwords (with other possible venues later), having this week-long prologue on the first AB book might be counter-productive. The previews available on Smashwords always start from the beginning of the book, so prospective readers would have to get past the first 7,000+ words before anything apocalyptic happened. It didn’t seem like a good way to hook new readers, so instead, the prologue section will be Book 0 in the saga, and Book 1 will start with the bomb exploding.
To prepare AB for e-booking, I’m editing the existing posts, mostly tightening up the language and correcting any errors the slipped through the proofing that was done before it was posted. It’s interesting to see how my writing has changed since I started writing AB!
I’m also keeping in mind some of the feedback I received in AB reviews, particularly about glossing over events, and trying to rectify that where I can (where it fits into the story and atmosphere). As a result, many posts have been expanded, and some have had whole sections added in.
Because the e-book format isn’t as limited as the online blog, some events that were split over several posts have been combined into a single, long post. Hopefully they will flow better now! Other than that, the structure of the piece hasn’t been changed.
I’ve just finished the first editing sweep through Book 0 and Book 1. Phew. Final proofing and formatting to go, and the covers to sort out, and they’ll be good to go! I’m planning to get them up on Smashwords as soon as they’re ready (hopefully within the next few weeks), and then move on to Book 2.
Overall, I’m pleased with how the books are coming out. I don’t hate the writing (despite it being two years old now), and I’m still very fond of it! I’ll be proud to get them up and available for others to read. Can’t wait. Wish me luck!
Critiquing Fiction: Part 2: How?
Part 1 of this subject discussed why critiquing our fiction is a good idea. So now that everyone has checked their egos at the door and arrived with open minds, what next? How do we go about tackling this beast?
Firstly, it’s worth looking at the format of the feedback session. With online critiques/workshops, you don’t have much choice – text is the way to go. But in face-to-face meetings, there’s more scope for variation. Having been through a number of these, as well as running my own, here are my recommendations:
- Don’t read out the pieces. Unless you’re doing performance poetry (which is a whole different ballgame), I find this counter-productive. It it generally terrifying for the writer, even (and sometimes especially) among friends. Also, reading a piece aloud colours the listeners’ reactions to it, because the speaker is injecting their interpretation into the performance. This is heightened by having the writer read it out, because they know what they intended for it to say. For example, how they read could gloss over areas that other readers might struggle with, or add emphases others might not pick up. I prefer to get feedback on how someone read my work, rather than their reaction to someone else’s reading of it.
- Send the pieces out before the meeting. Give everyone a chance to read and digest the piece before the feedback session. Give them enough time to fit in a thorough reading before the discussion, without sucking up half of the meeting itself; it frees up more time for discussion. Failing this, five or ten minutes of quiet directly before the workshopping of each piece to read will have to do. It’s still preferable to having it read out!
- Don’t prompt responses before reading. When giving a piece to someone to read, don’t tell them what it’s about, what you’re trying to achieve with it, or any other such feature. Anything that might colour the way a person reads a piece will affect their responses; if you want honest, authentic reactions, let the critiquers read it cold. Share extra information after they have read the piece!
The most important thing for everyone to bear in mind is that offering a piece for critiquing is not easy. This is a creation of someone’s mind and heart, into which they have poured pieces of their self. Inviting criticism of their baby is nerve-wracking because you never know what someone will say. Approaching a workshop session with your piece in hand is uncomfortable at best, and panic-attack-inducing for some.
That isn’t to say that you shouldn’t criticise the baby – after all, that is why we’re here. But there are ways to make it easy on the writer, so that they don’t feel under attack with the floodgates open. (I’ve seen writers sit there like deer in headlights, trapped in the middle of a highway. It’s not fun!)
So, some tips about how to approach giving feedback:
- Positive AND negative. It is easy to forget the first one of these! Positive feedback is just as important as negative: writers need to know what they’re doing right, just as much as they need to know what to work on. Being able to point out to the group, “Hey, this bit here is awesome, I love the way the colours reflect the emotions in the scene,” helps everyone to pick up tips and skills to use (not just what to avoid!).
It also helps the writer not to feel bombarded by a lot of negativity. I know writers who have come out of a critique session with the firm impression that they are terrible writers, they can’t join two words together successfully, and should just give up (one woman joined my writing group after being put off writing for 20 years by a critique group!). Look for the merits in a piece and communicate them to the writer, even if you’re also pointing out a lot of areas for improvement.
Some groups formalise this by having a ‘shit sandwich’ approach: positive comment – negative comment – positive comment. It’s a valid approach but can wind up a forced if you’re not careful. I prefer not to use restrictive, fixed structures. As long as critiquers make the effort to point out what’s good about the piece, I’m happy! - Constructive. Yes, I know this is bandied about a lot. But what does it really mean? To me, it means more than just pointing out something as good or bad: you need to say why. What is it about a phrase that jars for you? What is it about an image that makes it powerful? Why does that action seem out of place for that character? The more context you can give for your feedback, the more useful it is to the writer. Go into detail!
Sometimes, you may not know the reason. That’s okay, but make sure you say that! Be aware that just saying, “That word doesn’t work for me,” is of limited value to the writer. Without an idea about why it doesn’t work for you, the writer can’t know how to fix it. Often, in this case, I find throwing it out to the group for discussion is a good way to find the ‘why’, even if I don’t know it myself. - Solutions. That should always be the focus of your feedback. This builds on the point about making your feedback constructive: you are there to help a writer improve his or her work, so do it! Offer suggestions, solutions, or maybe just options. Don’t just think about the problems: think about ways you might solve them. This will help with your own writing, as well as give the writer lots of tools to take home.
- Subjective. There is no black and white in writing: your feedback is always subjective. You are giving your opinions and viewpoints on the piece, and your phrasing should reflect that. “This is wrong,” isn’t a phrase that should be heard in a workshopping session. “I think this is wrong,” or “This doesn’t work for me,” are better ways to approach it (followed by “because…” and your reason, of course!). You are one reader, and it’s not unusual for a group to completely disagree about what works and what doesn’t in a piece. No word is law (except the writer’s).
The exception to this might be grammar, of course, which does have very strict rules. Bear in mind that that the writer might be violating rules on purpose, as part of the style of the piece or for a specific effect. Make sure that it is being done on purpose and is effective! - Bias. This is an extension on the ‘subjective’ point above. Everyone has their own viewpoint and opinions about things, and it’s often useful to know where these opinions spring from: namely, what your bias is. Do you prefer high-action sequences? Do you despise limp-willed protagonists? Do you love plot twists that have no warning or preparation? What genres do you prefer, and which ones aren’t your cup of tea? All of these things colour how you read and react to a piece.
Being aware of this and telling the writer will help put your comments into perspective. This is not to say that it is an excuse for the writer to ignore your feedback – far from it. “I read lots of romances, and I find this very dull,” can mean different things depending on the genre of the piece or if it is a romantic scene! - Offering. You’re not there to impose your will on your fellow writers. You are there to make observations and suggestions. Offer your opinions, knowledge, and experience to the group, and be prepared to be overruled. The writer may have many reasons for not acting on your feedback (see below). Consider your feedback to be a gift (as should the writer!), and offer it without expectations.
Got all that? Good. It looks like a long list, but it’s actually pretty easy to achieve! For group critiques, it helps to have a leader able to push towards that approach, encouraging positive comments, discussions about problems and solutions, and so on.
So, as a writer, what do you do with this deluge of helpful information? You’ve got piles of notes, possibly some copies of your piece with writing all over them, and a head buzzing with ideas. Here are some things you should keep in mind:
- You went to the critique group for a reason. Keep this in mind! Even if the feedback and rewriting is daunting, believe that it will be worth it.
- You are the writer. Just because someone has suggested a change, that doesn’t mean that you have to make it. It is your piece and should always stay and sound that way. Don’t let comments knock your confidence; they’re intended to help you improve. Even successful, professional writers constantly seek to improve their craft!
- You can’t please everyone. Trying to satisfy each and every critiquer’s wishes is a futile enterprise. That’s okay. A good rule of thumb is to try to please the majority, but be aware that you’ll always have people who just don’t fall within the bounds of what you’re trying to achieve.
- Every critiquer is biased. Try to know where they’re coming from with their comments and put them in perspective. Work out if they are your target audience or not. That will help give their comments context and help you formulate a response.
- Always have a reason for rejecting a change. It is tempting to disagree with (negative) criticism and reject it, because your baby is just fine as it is, lopsided ears and everything. If this is true, why take it to be workshopped in the first place? At the same time, don’t feel obliged to apply every change you get from a workshopping session. So where do you draw the line?
A good rule of thumb is to articulate your reason for rejecting a change. If you can articulate it (to yourself is fine; you don’t have to tell the critiquer!), then you probably have a good reason for rejecting it. Note: ‘I don’t like it’ is not usually a good reason. The critiquer took the time to read your piece and give feedback, so the least you can do is to have a solid reason for rejecting it.
Working out a reason is often a good analytical process to go through, as well. Why is that image important to you? Is that word really as vital as you first believed it to be? Is there another, better way to do this that might tick both boxes?
Another thing to do is to ask others’ opinions on the same subject. In group critiques, you can usually get this in the session. If the feedback is one person out of five, it’s probably an isolated case. If it’s three or four out of five, then it’s well worth looking into and addressing. - There is no such thing as a ‘perfect’ piece. Give a piece to a critique group, and someone will find something to say about it, no matter how polished it is. Remember the third point in this list. Don’t try to make a piece perfect: make it better. That, at least, is achievable!
Phew. So once you’ve got this far, you should have an improved piece of writing, and hopefully more confidence when you next take a piece for discussion.
Having a piece critiqued or workshopped should be a valuable experience. I hope that all writers can experience it this way, and that these guidelines can help with that.
Good luck with your writing and your road to self-improvement!
Critiquing Fiction: Part 1: Why?
Over the years, I’ve done a lot of critiquing of fiction, from both sides of the fence: I’ve given feedback on others’ work, and given my work up to be considered. I know what I like and what I don’t like when it comes to the process. What works and what doesn’t. So here are my thoughts and philosophy on how to get the best out of a critique.
First of all, I don’t like calling it ‘critiquing’ (I have used it here only because it’s the term most often used for it). The word carries negative connotations, and this should not be a negative process. When I run feedback sessions in my writing groups, I tend to call it ‘workshopping’, because it is a closer reflection of how I like the process to run.
Many advice pieces on critiquing (workshopping!) fiction will say that the criticism should be constructive. This is good advice! I would like to go further than that, however, and break it down into a lot more detail.
Why do we do it?
This may seem like an obvious question, but I think it bears some examination. Let’s look at it from both sides of the process: the writer and those giving feedback.
Firstly, why does a writer bring a piece to be workshopped? What is it that a writer is looking to get out of it? It’s good to be clear about why you are asking others to workshop your writing, both for your own sake and to help get the kind of feedback you’re looking for.
There could be many reasons for asking for feedback, not all of which are good ways to approach the process.
Some bad reasons to bring a piece to be workshopped are:
- Acclaim. If what you’re looking for is a pat on the back and a thumbs-up, you’re not looking for a critique. You’re bound to either be disappointed or heartbroken, possibly both. There are plenty of back-patting societies around if that’s what you’re looking for.
- Confidence. Be very careful of trying to gain confidence through having your writing workshopped – that is not the point of the exercise. People will question what you’ve done. They’ll point out errors, disagree with things you think are perfect, and so on. You need to be prepared for that. At the end of the process, you may end up more confident in your writing, but you need to be able to get through it first! I have seen people driven away from writing entirely by a single experience with critiquing. If what you’re looking for is a way to gain confidence, see the bullet point above.
- Confirmation of perfection. There is no such thing as a perfect piece of writing; there is always someone out there who will find fault with it. Also, if you think a piece is perfect, what the hell are you doing bringing it in for critique? See the first bullet point. (I have seen people do this. It never ends well.)
Avoiding those, here are some of the positive, useful reasons to have a piece workshopped:
- Improvement of the piece. This is the crucial point of the process, and should be the focus of every critique comment given and received. More on this later.
- Improvement of writing. This could be any facet of the writing: style, grammar, plotting, structure, etc. There’s a lot of scope for comment here, so if there’s something specific you’re looking for feedback on, be up-front about it. There’s no point getting line edits on a piece when you’re still working on the structure and characterisation.
- Beta reading. Does what has been written make sense to a reader? Do the images and metaphors work? Is the reader picked up and carried along by the story? How does it feel? Is there anything that might trip a reader up or throw them out of the story? Early reader reactions can be very eye-opening and important when polishing a piece.
- Problem solving. If there is a particular part of the piece that isn’t working, perhaps throwing it out to others for ideas will help you find a solution. It can be a great way of getting past a hurdle you’re struggling with.
Ultimately, be honest with yourself about your goals and motives. Make sure that a critique is what you are looking for. Approach workshopping with the expectation that your work will be questioned, errors will be pointed out, and you may have to revisit things you thought were great already. Just remember that it’s intended to improve the piece!
Next, let’s look at why a person would be motivated to give feedback on a piece. Again, I’ll break it down into good and bad reasons.
I have seen a lot of people approach workshopping in a wrong or unhelpful way. Here are some of the factors in that:
- Competition. Writing is not a competition. Selling books/stories/pieces can be, but that’s not what workshopping is for. This isn’t about putting down someone else’s work to make yours look better. Workshopping isn’t about comparing the piece in front of you to anything else: judge it on its own merits. (One to be careful of if swapping feedback is one of your goals – it’s not a competition to see who can get the most/least comments, either.)
- Expounding knowledge. Workshopping isn’t about showing how much you know. Again, it’s not a competition; there are no winners or losers, and it’s not about telling the writer how terrible and stupid they are. Keep it relevant and useful, and note that ‘educating’ and ‘expounding’ are two different things. Also remember that you don’t know everything.
- Look at me. This covers both of the above, but also other situations where feedback is particularly slanted to allow the critiquer to show off. This shouldn’t be a factor for the writer or the reviewer. Workshopping is not about egos – please check yours at the door.
- Everyone should write like me. Hell no. That is not what workshopping is about. You are there to support and improve someone else’s writing, not shape their piece to look like one of yours. You may not even be the target reader for the piece. Be prepared to be ignored if your feedback isn’t relevant and don’t try to impose your opinions on others – offer them, don’t force them.
But there’s a surprising amount of good stuff you can get out of giving feedback. Here’s my top list of why giving feedback is a great thing to do:
- Support fellow writers. Depending on the setup, these writers may be friends, acquaintances, or just names on a website. Sometimes it may even be anonymous! I’ve found writing to be an incredibly supportive community, and the fact that there are critique groups around proves that. Every writer should strive to improve, and I think it’s great to be able to help them do that. It’s especially great when more experienced writers can help the less experienced.
- Learn how to critique your own work. Looking at other people’s writing in a critical way helps you to develop skills that you can then apply to your own writing. It will help you to look at your writing in new ways, and show you things you hadn’t previously realised you were doing. By examining others’ work, you’ll become more aware of what kind of reader you are, what you look for, and what works for you. This will naturally feed into your own writing, and you will improve as a result.
- Learn more about writing. Workshopping others’ writing will expose you to different styles. As with the point above, you can gain a deeper understanding of what works for you, as well as what works in general. On top of that, the kinds of comments made by the group will also feed into this: others will comment on things you hadn’t thought about or been aware of before. It all expands your knowledge and toolset.
- Receive critiques of your own work. It’s only fair that, if you want to get feedback on your work, you give feedback in return. It helps to motivate good and useful feedback from all parties involved. This can create a wonderful supportive environment if handled correctly. Unfortunately, that ‘if’ can be a big one – check the list above to see some of the pitfalls in this approach. Just remember to keep it supportive!
Lots of great reasons to get involved in workshopping or critiquing! Arriving with the right expectations is half the battle, and the better prepared you are, the smoother it will go.
So you’re all prepped and ready to go. Now what? Check out: Critiquing Fiction: Part 2: How?
Apocalypse Blog reviewed!
On the heels of a recent Starwalker review, a new review of the Apocalypse Blog has come to my attention. They’re just piling in lately! Whoo! Keep it coming, people!
With comments like: “The Apocalypse Blog is (or was) one of the better [zombie blogs]…” what’s not to love?
Thanks, ScaryTrue!
Starwalker on Top Web Fiction
So many updates lately! However will you all cope? (Assuming there are still people reading this, and you haven’t all given up on me in exasperation. Not that I would blame you.)
I was pointed towards the Top Web Fiction site by a Starwalker reader recently (thank you, kind reader!). I don’t normally check it, mostly because I don’t have a lot of time for that kind of thing recently*. When my kind reader emailed me, Starwalker was number 16 or 17. Out of all the superb worldwide web fiction listed on the Web Fiction Guide! That’s a hell of a complement.
I checked today, and Starwalker is up to number 9!!! On the Science Fiction listing, it’s number 3!
Wow. Just, wow. I am stunned, and so happy. This is unexpected. It’s just one of the many, many reasons I write, and why I love my readers.
I want to say a big, huge, extraordinary thank you to everyone who voted. I’m am honoured by your support.
* Note: I’m trying to do better at that stuff these days. Honest I am.
