I only have a few more weeks of waiting -- hopefully -- left. I'm really excited, because this is my dream agent. I know not to get upset if I get turned down -- that merely means I can revise it and try again. It gives me the opportunity to make some of my other WIP (work(s) in progress) some needed TLC and let them have a try at the publishing world while my currently submitted manuscript would take time to seek it's full potential. Plus, there is the reassuring fact that I have made it considerably far for my age. That really gives me drive.
So, I've become the newest reviewer for Horror-Web.com! I have my first review up, which was surprisingly helpful. When I submit a review to the guy in charge, he critques. I mean, really critiques -- which I love (though it terrifes me to think of hearing criticism). A lot of my new writing buddies on Backspace (which I'll get to in a moment) have been way supportive, telling me how wonderful an opportunity this is for me. I can see why -- It gives me some understanding of what it will be like to have an editor, to have someone go through something I wrote and say "This works; this doesn't". I mean, I have a few wonderful people that read my stuff now and let me know if there is something that doesn't quite fit. But they are, sadly, biased slightly. I want a good critique, and I usually get "You forgot a letter here." or "What did this mean?" or "I don't get this bit -- otherwise, wonderful!" I love and appreciate their time and help, but I need someone to really give me a good swift kick in the butt sometimes. I also consider myself lucky because the owner of the website that critqued so well offered to help me in my fiction by giving his critique of that as well!
Okay, I mentioned Backspace a moment ago, but haven't gotten around to explaining that yet. Some of my published buddies are on Backspace, a writing community online (a very supportive & informative one, at that!), and they reccomended that I join. I was a tad worried at first, because sometimes I feel like I'm just a little kid standing in a crowd of adults, trying to explain I'm one of them. Not that I'm calling everyone old. I just feel like everyone judges me by my age, not my writing ability. On Backspace...I don't feel like an outcast, I feel like I belong. It's incredible.
Oh, Wyman, if you read this -- Thanks a million for your wonderful support and kindness all this time. Reading your comments and chatting with you always makes me smile.
I should be a little more active online soon. I've been 100% swamped lately. But I'm working on returning to my internet family.
~Angel
1 comment:
Well, so you found an honest to goodness critic who critiques, have you? Such people are worth their weight in literary gold to a writer---since writers usually don't have real gold or not much. Hope you can hang onto this person long enough to become a better critic of your own writing.
I tried that "sending it to friends for a critique" thing once. No matter what you say to people about being honest, you almost never get anything back worthy of calling a critique. A long time male friend of mine e-mailed me he enjoyed what I wrote, which was not the critique I asked him to give; compliments are nice, but has nothing to do with the concept of a critique. Another, distant chat friend, with professional dramatic skills to call upon from her recent past, simply ignored my request and never replied. My own brother failed to reply until a phone conversation, where he confessed his wife thought one of the pieces I sent for my brother to critique was okay, but no one in the family he says, understands what I write. It makes no sense to him. I guess I would have been no worse off if I had written my pieces in a foreign language, then sent it to him to critique. So, family, friend, and a friend with a genuine understanding of the art of communication failed to understand my request or did not care to honor my request. Yes, it is TRUE, it is usually a waste of time to seek or take friends' advice on your literary work.
I have tried other methods of seeking criticism. Until it perished as part of our center's budget cuts, I wrote for my local center's company newsletter. I thought sure my editors would edit my work and I would learn something from that. Nothing I wrote for the newsletter was ever edited that I noticed. I have also written a few submissions for Heartbeat, the Fan Magazine of 1960s superstar Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits fame, hoping his editors would edit my work, so I could learn for them. Only one article was edited, which did teach one important lesson: Know who you are writing for, what the subject is, and concentrate on that subject, excluding everything else that can be excluded. A great lesson and reminder, but the only one in about 3 or 4 fan submissions by me. For certain, good critiques and good criticism can be hard to come by.
Am I so good I do not need editing or critiquing? No, that is plain if you go to my Yahoo blog at: (http://360.yahoo.com/wyman_net Except for a few spelling errors I left, after much fighting with Yahoo 360's eccentric ways, my weaknesses are there for the world to see. Sometimes it seems the quickest way to see literary shortcomings is to post a work, then read it, especially after a few days away from it.
;-) Yes, I have brazenly posted my link here to get passersby to come read me, but I want potential writers who come here to see: proofreading, editing, criticism, and rewrite after rewrite is what creates readable literature. After that, if you can catch a break, someone with the power to publish, may even decide it is publishable. Oh Happy Day, OH HAPPY DAY, when that day comes.
Sorry, if my reply seems like a blogpost. I only want people to be inspired to write and readers to be inspired to read, then readers can spur writers on by your own comments to the writers you read. Thank you Angel for inspiring me with your blogpost!
"We shall publish, because we are writers. Readers shall read us, because we are writers. We will write, because we MUST."
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