tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32085591.post996377211731473877..comments2023-11-07T21:12:19.852-06:00Comments on Wyrdsmiths: Owning Your Work (pt 1)tate hallawayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06631759014508937940noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32085591.post-35406430277850937262007-07-24T19:56:00.000-05:002007-07-24T19:56:00.000-05:00Critiquing can be a lot of fun when it comes down ...Critiquing can be a lot of fun when it comes down to brainstorming ideas. "You know what would be cool? If you did this, this <I>and then</I> this! Can you imagine?" <BR/><BR/>Getting critiques can infuse the writer with new passion. I'm basically an instinctive, touchy-feely writer, so I like to take the "excitement" level for a piece of advice into account. As in, if the suggestion gets me all "Oh, my God! That's awesome, I'm so doing that!" and I want to sit down right away and write, well, it's probably a good idea. If I go, "Um. Hmm. Well. I don't know...," then it might be a great idea but it's probably not right for me or the story I'm trying to tell. That's been my experience, anyway.Kelly Swailshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08712523963592799928noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32085591.post-61453232308640025702007-07-24T11:20:00.000-05:002007-07-24T11:20:00.000-05:00Mari, was that a published review? Or a personal o...<I>Mari, was that a published review? Or a personal one?</I><BR/><BR/>It was a requested critique.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32085591.post-56198955082337454822007-07-24T08:28:00.000-05:002007-07-24T08:28:00.000-05:00Mari, was that a published review? Or a personal o...Mari, was that a published review? Or a personal one?<BR/><BR/>Steph, excellent story on the "small" change front. I've been there-you think, <I>that's cool</I>, but then you start to work on it and...Kelly McCulloughhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06399122960869198042noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32085591.post-48819156188018218952007-07-23T18:59:00.000-05:002007-07-23T18:59:00.000-05:00I just revised a story where I started to take a p...I just revised a story where I started to take a piece of fun advice (different setting) before I realized how many of the basic assumptions of my society it was going to change. Since the piece was largely about how the main character fit into that society (or didn't), I realized about 500 words in that taking the advice would mean taking the story apart and fitting it back together. <BR/><BR/>I might have done it anyway if I didn't know of a book that just came out in this unusual genre/setting combo. That makes the work the change would have taken quite possibly counterproductive. My fundamentally lazy core vetoed that one.<BR/><BR/>I've also set stories aside for a while when I've gotten critiques that pointed out a problem then offered me a solution I didn't want to take. Sometimes I've come back later and decided the proposed solution was better than anything I was going to come up with, and sometimes I've managed to find a solution I thought fit the "voice" of the story better.<BR/><BR/>I'd like to say I always at least try to find the problem behind the critique, but I'm more contrary than that. I do at least try never to say, "I love you and thank you for reading my rough, rough draft--but you're nuts." This is good, not only for relationship reasons, but because I have, more than once, had an a-ha moment at some point down the road when someone else phrased the same point in language I can relate to better. <BR/><BR/>Never saying I know better means never having to say, "Oops. Uh, you wanna critique another?"Stephanie Zvanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15182490110208080002noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32085591.post-1457019553354036872007-07-23T11:31:00.000-05:002007-07-23T11:31:00.000-05:00I no longer have his commentary - and I wish I did...I no longer have his commentary - and I wish I did!! it was priceless - but John Urbancik in late 2005 gave me scathing marks on how I'd created and dealt with the main character in my first two books. For who and what she was, he said in essence, she was too weak, too sniveling, too emotional. Unfortunately, he never finished the second book. If he had, he would have seen her character grow, blossom into the person she was meant to be. I couldn't change her into something she wasn't at the end of the first book and BOOM there she was at the beginning of the second. It wouldn't have fit the story at all in many ways.~ Marihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11791869629938128432noreply@blogger.com