26. October 2011 by Gore Wehner.

Years ago, I went to a writers conference and paid to have my work critiqued by a literary agent. Honestly, it was the best $40 I’d spent toward my career at that point. Why? Because he told me right to my face why the work would be rejected.

If there’s a better way to be humbled, I don’t know what it is.

Anyhow, it was a middle grade novel featuring two eleven-year-old girls and right away he let me know that these girls sounded exactly the same…and not only that, they didn’t sound like children.

My jaw thudded to my lap. Didn’t sound like children? Didn’t have unique voices? Yikes!

It forever changed the way I wrote my books. Could I have learned this a different way, maybe by reading how-to-write-4-kids books or maybe in critique groups with my peers? Maybe. But coming from  a respected agent with his thumb on the pulse of publishing, his words carried heavy weight.

I admit it depressed me at first. Not because I began to question my skills as a writer…I was well aware of being a work in progress. But because I’d spent so long perfecting the manuscript, and now I had to revise the Whole. Entire. Thing.

Blah.

After the critique, the agent asked if I had any other novels I was working on. I admitted I’d written five, but hadn’t tried to get them published. It was his turn to drop his jaw. “Why not?” he asked.

Now, I might have been naive, but I wasn’t clueless. I knew each of those novels needed work. A lot of work. “They’re just practice,” I admitted. And it was true. I enjoyed writing each one of them. Spent many anti-social hours editing them. But I knew they weren’t “there” yet, and I wasn’t going to waste my time and an agent’s time sharing them.

And that is why I highly recommend attending a writer’s conference and forking over the extra $30-$50 to have an editor, author, or agent give feedback on your writing. You can ask him or her questions in the allotted time you’re given (generally 10-20 minutes). You can discuss your other projects. You can address problems your having with your work. Take advantage of this time with a knowledgeable professional. It is worth every dime, I assure you.

If you come out of the meeting feeling frustrated or upset, consider what you have learned at the meeting. Did you not agree with the feedback? Sleep on it for a few nights. Research the advice the agent/editor/author gave you. If they felt your voice was weak, start googling “voice.” (And take a look at what I’ve had to say about it here on this blog.) If they said there wasn’t enough conflict, start sifting through similar books in the same genre to find how the author handled their story’s conflict.  In other words: be proactive. Doing something productive will make you feel better. And you just may find your mentor was correct…at least a smidgeon.

If you come out of the meeting feeling motivated, as I did, pat yourself on the back and then start working on finding how to fix the problems in your novel.

I put that novel away and started working on others that day, but I have taken the agent’s advice to heart, and my work since then has been much stronger. The money I spent? Worth it. You may wish to take a chance and do the same. You may want to bring some tape to hold your jaw in place, though.

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17. October 2011 by Gore Wehner.

Something new is happening to literature. Anyone can get published without upfront costs. Before, authors were limited to either going with traditional, POD, or vanity presses. Now anyone can upload their work to a variety of on-line venues such as Kindle, the Nook, Smashwords, and many more with little to no upfront costs.

So what do we need publishing houses for?

I know people fed up with traditional presses, citing receiving many rejections over what they deem is quality writing, or admonishing the long period of waiting between acceptance and getting their books on the bookshelf. Plus I’ve heard grumbling over agent and publishing fees that “might have” been theirs had they avoided going the long route of submitting. After all, they argue, we’re doing all the marketing ourselves anyway.

So what is a writer to do?

Here’s my take. E-publishing is definitely a valid way to go. But it’s similar to an agent or editor slush pile. Someone has to find it to read it, and if it isn’t well done, the reader will put down the book and not bother reading anything else you write. Ever. (Although an agent or editor might give you a second chance someday.)

In all honesty, too many e-book writers put out material that isn’t very good.  Traditional publishing houses have knowledgeable editors. Editors that can turn a good book into a great book. If you have a long way to go with writing, they will turn you down. This may mean you aren’t ready to share your work with the world yet. It could be a pretty decent benchmark of where you stand as a writer.

But they also may turn you down if they feel you won’t make them enough money. After all, publishing is a business. Physical books cost money to make. And your editor needs to be paid for his or her time and service.

So it may have nothing to do with skill as much as marketability. This is why I’m happy e-books are out there and anyone can publish through them. But this may change publishing as we know it.

As readers, we’ll have to muddle through the bad writing to find the well done books. Eventually people may become wary of self-published work and search for books published by established, well-known imprints.

Or, readers may tolerate poor writing. Perhaps not even realize the craftsmanship is missing. Will this “dumb down” America? Will our standards of literature change?

Only time will tell. But until then, I applaud the efforts of those e-publishing, but respect those sticking to traditional publishing as well.

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4. October 2011 by Gore Wehner.

One of the most difficult parts of being a writer–ahem, a good writer–is the revision process. You’ve probably heard the term, “Killing one’s babies.” If not, you will eventually. It means (in a rather morbid fashion) that you will be removing a beloved portion of your story for the greater good of your novel/short story/essay.

Yes, you heard me correctly. Sure, you may be thrilled with a sentence you’ve written. It has pizazz! It has symbolism! It has the mark of a creative mind!

But then someone points out that it has no place in the storyline.

It slowly dawns on you (and by “slowly” I mean it may take a few days to settle in) that your critiquer is correct. Although it’s an awesome sentence–perhaps the best you’ve ever written–it doesn’t add to the story. In fact, it may even take the reader out of the story, it’s so profound.

Delete sentence. And sob.

But first? Copy and paste it into your “word dump” file. You do have one, don’t you? The place where you keep all those phrases that you love but can’t keep? You know, those babies? Because good writers don’t really kill their babies. No. They send them to a foster home in the hopes someday they’ll be adopted.

In the meantime, you will return to your work, cutting and pluming as if the piece is an unruly bush that needs trimming before the neighbor’s complain. Yes, there are mixed metaphors in my post. Another problem for writers.

This is why I am going to start up a new blog for those desperate to understand how to revise and trim. I call it “Revision 411,” and the link is here: http://revision411.wordpress.com/

I will have it up and running soon.

Help is here. And hopefully all your babies will be adopted soon.

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