-At Pam Zollman's speech: I can turn my fiction writing into nonfiction magazine articles for fun and profit!
-At my personal critique with Alyssa Henkin: My writing is technically good, but would be improved with an injection of more emotion for the main character. In other words; I've got good plot but need better character development. Also: I'm definitely MG.
-At the red-eye critique sessions with other writers and the discussions following: The difference between publication and obscurity might just be listening to others. It is pointless to go to a critique if you're not willing to at least listen to others' suggestions and comments.
5 comments:
So you got a really great, concrete thing you can work on. That's fantastic! I'm glad it went well!
I'm quite happy with it. It wasn't what I expected to hear, so at the moment I was a bit wrong footed. I expected the main problems to be elsewhere, but she actually felt that I'd overcorrected myself--she guessed (accurately) that because I'd been so worried about the hook and grabbing the reader's attention that I'd forgotten about other aspects of the writing. It was really great to get solid feedback that one part was good and one part needed work.
I also tend to focus more on plot, and then in revisions add to my character's emotional arc. That's so great that you got feedback you can put to use!
Great stuff, Beth.
Glad you got some good advice on your work. I tend to be too plot focused and writing characters is something I struggle with. I always used to look at them as 'something I needed to have in order to write about this really awesome plot', ad now I'm finially getting that without a character that is awesome & compelling in their own right, the plot won't matter.
The more I learn, the more I start to see all I still need to master...
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