And now, a brief interlude while I contemplate critiques...

Mon, 05 Jul 2010 19:19:33 GMT

I handed BRAWL the first three chapters of Iron Debt and said, "What's wrong with this?" I couldn't see anything wrong with it, but I knew there was. There always is, and with River's Wrath stuck in slush-pile purgatory, I have tremendous room for improvement here.

Well, they told me. Little devil boy up there is pretty much exactly how I feel about it. Ooo, scorchy! Yay, scorchy!! I'm probably going to have to sit down and assault using red pen. They don't want to see it again until it's done, but if I can whip the first three chapters, I am pretty sure I can *get* it done, because then, I'll have this *very* solid foundation to work on.

The Fabulous Margaret apologized afterward. She told me that she was sorry she'd been so harsh. I told her that was silly, and she should stop apologizing. It needed it, after all. :) And then we spent about an hour walking around, talking shop, and coming up with neat ideas for where I could go with it. I probably won't use all of them in Iron Debt, but I suspect that some of them will make it into Zytomancy.

Now, I just need to figure out where Ben Franklin is buried...

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Writers groups are a good idea.

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 00:57:32 GMT

Last week, I handed BRAWL "The Half-Daughter's Curse," and I really didn't know what they'd think of it.

Today, I got back seven very helpful critiques. I have apparently done a good job of setting the voice of the story. People are kind of split on certain details - but not everyone likes every story. And as usual, I've managed to be subtle in all the wrong places. For once, I have been told to make a story longer, not to cut anything, but to add detail and explanation.

I never look forward to editing, but for stories that I know have problems, it's always a big help to hand them over and say, "Make of this what you will, but tell me what it is."

If I get published, it's going to be directly related to their help.

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Words of the Barely-Published

And now, a brief interlude while I contemplate critiques...

Writers groups are a good idea.