Last night we had our first peer critiquing session in our group. That's where you bravely submit your writing to the scrutiny of others and take on board their feedback. It's a delicate thing, giving people feedback about their writing. But last night was really useful for me.
I was one of two 'guinea pigs' - the rest of the group won't start submitting work for critting until the next session - & we started off by discussing ground rules, such as setting a time limit for each critique.
I think critiquing is going to be one of the most valuable things about doing this degree. I got a lot out of last night's session & although I had quite a few moths battling around in my belly before we got started, once I got everyone's feedback I was really inspired.
When I got home last night I went through everyone's notes again & made some of the suggested changes to my first chapter. I really, really want to go through the rest of the manuscript right now & look for the things they picked up on last night to see if I can fix them in other places in the manuscript. For example I have a tendency to write 'stage directions' (my first drafts are invariably 50% stage directions) & it can be tricky to weed them all out because after a while I don't see them.
But I will be a diligent student & work on my essay this weekend instead. *sigh*
Showing posts with label peer critique. Show all posts
Showing posts with label peer critique. Show all posts
27 April 2007
Another draft complete
I've finished another draft of Girl in the Shadows, and it's getting pretty close to where I want it to be. In this last rewrite I completely rewrote one character (Mrs Steppa), deleted an entire chapter (which actually felt quite good) and weeded out a whole lot of unnecessary description.
As part of the master's course, my manuscript gets assessed by a professional manuscript assessor, who will tell me everything that's wrong with it (along with some ideas to fix it, hopefully!).
So I think I'm almost ready to send the manuscript off for assessment. But before I do, we're going to do some peer critiquing at our next class. I've put up my first chapter for the rest of the group to critique (& have since then already changed some of the opening lines). But first chapters are always the hardest.
It wouldn't matter if your book was the most brilliant thing ever written. If the first chapter was crap, no one would ever read past it to find out how brilliant you really were!
I know my first chapter can still do with some improvement. I'm confident that the rest of the master's group can give me a couple of brilliant ideas to make it just that bit better. And once that's done, it's off to the manuscript assessor for a major reality check.
When I have the assessment in my hot little hands I'll have a pretty good idea of how publishable Girl in the Shadows is. Or at least know how much further I have to go before it's ready to submit to an agent or publisher.
And if they reckon it truly sucks, well, it'll be bum-down-head-up for another major rewrite.
As part of the master's course, my manuscript gets assessed by a professional manuscript assessor, who will tell me everything that's wrong with it (along with some ideas to fix it, hopefully!).
So I think I'm almost ready to send the manuscript off for assessment. But before I do, we're going to do some peer critiquing at our next class. I've put up my first chapter for the rest of the group to critique (& have since then already changed some of the opening lines). But first chapters are always the hardest.
It wouldn't matter if your book was the most brilliant thing ever written. If the first chapter was crap, no one would ever read past it to find out how brilliant you really were!
I know my first chapter can still do with some improvement. I'm confident that the rest of the master's group can give me a couple of brilliant ideas to make it just that bit better. And once that's done, it's off to the manuscript assessor for a major reality check.
When I have the assessment in my hot little hands I'll have a pretty good idea of how publishable Girl in the Shadows is. Or at least know how much further I have to go before it's ready to submit to an agent or publisher.
And if they reckon it truly sucks, well, it'll be bum-down-head-up for another major rewrite.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)