CA Retreat

I’m just back from a Novel Revision Retreat in San Rafael, CA. What a great time. I always learn so much from other writers.

My suite-mate wasn’t taking my class, but I watched her

Endless Revisions?

How Many Times Do you Revise?
When do novel or picture book revisions ever end? I’m always a new person, with a bit more knowledge and a bit more life under my belt. I could always make changes to the story. When do you know it’s time to submit your baby?

My Best. When I’ve done everything [...]

Test Submissions

Submit, Then Revise
At our spring conference, Jen Rofe, literary agent at Andrea Brown Literary spoke about sending out manuscripts.
The one thing that surprised me was her attitude toward submission and revision. Rofe said she usually sends out a mss to about five editors. Then, depending on the feedback, she’ll often ask the writer to [...]

Emotional Critiques

It’s well know that I don’t want an honest critique on my novels or picture books! But for some reason, people keep giving me exactly what I don’t want.
Conflicting Emotions of Receiving a Critique
Yesterday, when my local critique group talked about my latest picture book manuscript, three emotions held sway.

Embarrassment. I am always embarrassed [...]

Critique Groups

I’ve written before about Different Styles of Critiques and When to Ask for a Critique. Today focuses on the different types of critique groups.
Different Critique Groups Meet Different Needs
I’m heading off today to my local critique groups and I realized I have several different types of critique groups, each one filling a different need.
Critique Ideas. [...]

When to Ask for a Critique

At what point do you let others read a draft?
First Drafts are $#@#
It’s an open secret that first drafts are awful and the best thing about a first draft is that it is finished. So, do you prefer that outside readers read this draft or wait for a more polished draft? Do you [...]

Revision: Understanding critiques

I seem to be thinking a lot about critiques these days, probably because I’m getting critiques from a couple different sources.
The Strengths and Weaknesses of a Critiquers
In critique groups, I find that writers/readers have different styles of critiquing.
Grammar Witches: This person always finds the punctuation, spelling, and grammar mistakes; I’m grateful for them, because fixing [...]