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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 [...]
Learn to Listen to Critiquers Listening to critiques is hard! I have to remind myself that writing is communication, with a writer and a reader. When I get feedback, what I’m really doing is checking to see if I communicated what I wanted to. Well, no. I didn’t. I have two choices: Ignore the feedback. [...]
Yesterday, I started brainstorming on revisions for a picture book. I got some editorial feedback in February when I saw the editor in NYC. But it’s been hard to approach this revision because when we talked, I disagreed with much of what the editor said. Cooling Off Period Helps Me See Editor’s Wisdom So, I [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
5 Days on Psychology of Revising For six years, I’ve taught the Novel Revision Retreat across the country and I’ve thought a lot about the psychological issues that writers face as they face the work of revising a novel. It’s interesting that most psychological discussions of writing involve writer’s block. Not much discussion of everyday [...]
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