About a month ago I read a blog from 'The Kill Zone'. It is written by a group of mystery writers. They offered to critique first pages for 30 people. The catch, you had to be one of the first 30 people to submit it.
I pulled up the first page of a WIP I worked on last year. I edited it to death. At the time I thought it was pretty good. But, it had been maybe 6 months since I read it. I thought, oh, I'll look this over and submit it. Of course, if I had my way, I would take a week to check and double check, then submit it. Since I didn't have the time, I submitted it. I only read it enough to submit the word count they asked for, 300 words.
This morning I pulled up blogger and guess what. My heart stopped, I couldn't breath and my whole body spasmed. There it was, my first page for everyone to read and comment, along with a critique from Jordan Dane.
It took me a few minutes before I could gather myself to read it. I had already read some of the critiques on other first pages. They weren't nice. Not that anyone came right out and said 'you write dog do-do', but if they didn't do well, they had to be told.
So, I've been thinking of critiques all day. If we are going to improve as a writer, we have to listen to our readers. I have my fictional world in my head that I see clearly. When I read my work, I see and feel everything. But, I don't know until someone else reads it and comments whether they feel the same as me or not.
Do I have to listen to everything a critiquer says? No. I have learned this by getting quite a few bad ones. Even JK Rowling has one star reviews on Harry Potter. But hey, if I earn a billion dollars on some of my books, I can seriously overlook a bad review. But until then, I know I need to get critiques and think about what I'm told.
How many critiques do I need? I have a critique partner. What I like about her is she doesn't let me slide on anything. She always seems to catch the things I know have something wrong, but I don't quite know what. But I do believe we need more than one person to read over our work. I admit, I'm not a strong writer. If I was, I would be published with a dozen books under my belt. So, I expect my critique partner to have someone else look over her work. I don't know that magic number, but I will keep putting my work out there and keep getting critiques and opinions to help me work.
So, what did I learn about my page? It's dark. Hehe. I wanted it to be. It is a crime scene. I didn't do well with the description of the park. Nothing new. I am not good with descriptions. It is something I am working on. One person commented the police procedures were wrong. It wasn't something I researched, but there is a reason I wrote it the way I did. I won't change it, and if they could read past 300 words, they would understand also.
Jordan Dane thought it would read better if I started in a different spot and gave more details in the first paragraph and move my descriptions farther down in the chapter. She probably is right. I plan on looking it over in detail more this weekend.
I'm still on cloud 9 that I got such an honored critique. (Yes, I know that is cliche', but hey, it's only a blog, not a published novel)
Feel free to check it out: http://killzoneauthors.blogspot.com/2012/05/first-page-critique-beware-wolf.html
So, for anyone that has read this far, I will pay it forward and offer to critique a first page of your WIP. Send it to faiththomas365@hotmail.com
Just put blogger critique in the subject and I'll send it back to you as soon as I can. If you really want more than the first page critiqued, hey, I'm game. I don't do that many critiques and I can use the practice. I'll give you my honest opinion in a positive way.
Keep the Faith
I pulled up the first page of a WIP I worked on last year. I edited it to death. At the time I thought it was pretty good. But, it had been maybe 6 months since I read it. I thought, oh, I'll look this over and submit it. Of course, if I had my way, I would take a week to check and double check, then submit it. Since I didn't have the time, I submitted it. I only read it enough to submit the word count they asked for, 300 words.
This morning I pulled up blogger and guess what. My heart stopped, I couldn't breath and my whole body spasmed. There it was, my first page for everyone to read and comment, along with a critique from Jordan Dane.
It took me a few minutes before I could gather myself to read it. I had already read some of the critiques on other first pages. They weren't nice. Not that anyone came right out and said 'you write dog do-do', but if they didn't do well, they had to be told.
So, I've been thinking of critiques all day. If we are going to improve as a writer, we have to listen to our readers. I have my fictional world in my head that I see clearly. When I read my work, I see and feel everything. But, I don't know until someone else reads it and comments whether they feel the same as me or not.
Do I have to listen to everything a critiquer says? No. I have learned this by getting quite a few bad ones. Even JK Rowling has one star reviews on Harry Potter. But hey, if I earn a billion dollars on some of my books, I can seriously overlook a bad review. But until then, I know I need to get critiques and think about what I'm told.
How many critiques do I need? I have a critique partner. What I like about her is she doesn't let me slide on anything. She always seems to catch the things I know have something wrong, but I don't quite know what. But I do believe we need more than one person to read over our work. I admit, I'm not a strong writer. If I was, I would be published with a dozen books under my belt. So, I expect my critique partner to have someone else look over her work. I don't know that magic number, but I will keep putting my work out there and keep getting critiques and opinions to help me work.
So, what did I learn about my page? It's dark. Hehe. I wanted it to be. It is a crime scene. I didn't do well with the description of the park. Nothing new. I am not good with descriptions. It is something I am working on. One person commented the police procedures were wrong. It wasn't something I researched, but there is a reason I wrote it the way I did. I won't change it, and if they could read past 300 words, they would understand also.
Jordan Dane thought it would read better if I started in a different spot and gave more details in the first paragraph and move my descriptions farther down in the chapter. She probably is right. I plan on looking it over in detail more this weekend.
I'm still on cloud 9 that I got such an honored critique. (Yes, I know that is cliche', but hey, it's only a blog, not a published novel)
Feel free to check it out: http://killzoneauthors.blogspot.com/2012/05/first-page-critique-beware-wolf.html
So, for anyone that has read this far, I will pay it forward and offer to critique a first page of your WIP. Send it to faiththomas365@hotmail.com
Just put blogger critique in the subject and I'll send it back to you as soon as I can. If you really want more than the first page critiqued, hey, I'm game. I don't do that many critiques and I can use the practice. I'll give you my honest opinion in a positive way.
Keep the Faith
well done on winning that fabulous critique! You must definitely be over the moon with it. Jordan Dane has given you some excellent pointers on how to improve your already great work :-)
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