{"id":2793,"date":"2007-08-24T15:26:00","date_gmt":"2007-08-24T20:26:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2020-03-27T21:28:40","modified_gmt":"2020-03-28T02:28:40","slug":"dealing-with-critiques","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/henrymelton.net\/2\/2007\/08\/24\/dealing-with-critiques\/","title":{"rendered":"Dealing With Critiques"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>For a number of years now, I’ve taken advantage of friends, co-workers, and relatives in an effort to get more eyeballs looking at my novels before I do the final polish and call it done. \u00a0<\/p>\n

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Some of these people have been helping me for over a dozen novels. \u00a0I also have new people who are just starting this process. \u00a0Part of me likes having more critiques — the more people checking, the fewer errors are left behind — but some days I’m overwhelmed.<\/div>\n
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Africa is rushing at me, and I had this false hope that I could get the latest round of review copies back in and processed before I caught the plane. \u00a0I can tell now it’s never going to happen. \u00a0The inputs on Golden Girl are all over the map. \u00a0I’m getting directly contradictory advice from people — and the advice all makes sense! \u00a0<\/div>\n
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My workflow goes like this: \u00a0I reformat the manuscript into a dual-column layout like a magazine and make comb-bound copies to send out. \u00a0(My reviewers didn’t like manuscript formatted pages.) I have a carefully cultivated list of people who have proved that they can read, and mark-up, the pages and get them back to me in a reasonable time frame.<\/div>\n
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After a couple of reminder emails, I generally get them all back and lay them out side by side. \u00a0Turning the pages in sync, I compare all the markups and make changes as appropriate to the manuscript on my laptop.<\/div>\n
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In general, I get several different types of corrections.<\/div>\n
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Typos are quick and easy, and disgustingly common. \u00a0Do you know how many times I type ‘by’ when I meant ‘my’? \u00a0Novel after novel, I make the same mistake, and miss seeing it in my own self-reviews. \u00a0Amazingly, it takes the whole crew to find these. \u00a0One person will find some, but miss others.<\/div>\n
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One reviewer is a born copyeditor. \u00a0She’s always taking me to task for using abbreviations without defining the terms, or questioning my use of a phrase.<\/div>\n
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Another reviewer is always correcting facts, or suggesting alternates. \u00a0He’s been around and seen much.<\/div>\n
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And then, there are the plot points. \u00a0These are the hardest to deal with.<\/div>\n
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The best are the “Oh, wow! \u00a0Why didn’t I see that?” \u00a0suggestions. \u00a0They might be sub-plots that can be fixed with a word or two, or a chapter or two — but they make the novel so much better.<\/div>\n
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Harder are the “No. No. No. \u00a0You just don’t get it.” suggestions. \u00a0I wrote that scene that way on purpose. \u00a0But, I need these for two reasons. \u00a0One: \u00a0If the reviewer didn’t understand, then many readers won’t either. \u00a0I’ll need to rework it, even if I don’t change the plotting. \u00a0Or Two: \u00a0This is really a delayed ‘Oh, wow.’ and I need time for my subconscious to churn on it for a while.<\/div>\n
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There’s also a voting issue. \u00a0I one person has trouble with a plot point, but every one else is happy, it’s likely not as important. \u00a0But if multiple people have the same issue, then it has to be fixed, regardless of my opinion.<\/div>\n
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And finally, there’s the final issue. \u00a0Do I offend a loyal helper by not taking the offered advice? \u00a0It’s a hard one, because it is my story. \u00a0I have something I want to say, and characters who have come to life.<\/div>\n
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I have to be true to the tale.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For a number of years now, I’ve taken advantage of friends, co-workers, and relatives in an effort to get more eyeballs looking at my novels before I do the final polish and call it done. \u00a0 Some of these people have been helping me for over a dozen novels. \u00a0I also have new people who… Continue reading Dealing With Critiques<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2794,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/henrymelton.net\/2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/08\/IMG_0842.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4t90x-J3","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrymelton.net\/2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2793"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrymelton.net\/2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrymelton.net\/2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrymelton.net\/2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrymelton.net\/2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2793"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/henrymelton.net\/2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2793\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2795,"href":"https:\/\/henrymelton.net\/2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2793\/revisions\/2795"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrymelton.net\/2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrymelton.net\/2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrymelton.net\/2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrymelton.net\/2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}