The Manuscript Maven

Sharon Mayhew  has been a blogging buddy and a critique partner for years. And I also consider her a good friend. She’s helped me get my writing up to snuff and has always been exceedingly supportive, so I'm excited to be able to return the favor.

Read on to find out about her new endeavor and how you can enter to win a critique!

If you'll recall, I spent a lot of time this year critiquing/editing/and coaching writers. I seriously considered working for a literary agency, but one of the things I learned is that literary agents never have an ending point. Yes, when they sell a book and it gets through the publishing stage they only have to worry about marketing that book, right? Well, not exactly. They do an amazing amount of work.

So, if you have an agent be grateful for all of their hard work and if you are looking for an agent, be patient and understand the amount of work they are doing. It is NOT a 9-5 job!

I did gain some perspective, along with a lot of new writing friends. I LOVE LOVE LOVE editing and critiquing. It's a great feeling to help someone move their manuscript forward or to help them write a query that catches someone's attention. I love having a beginning and ending point with each project I undertake. Not that I don't continue thinking about people's manuscripts. I don't know how many times I've sent someone an email starting with: I was just thinking about your manuscript....

This experience led me to where I am today. I'm launching my own website offering my services for manuscript critiques, line edits, query critiques, and general coaching. I hope you will pop over and check out The Manuscript Maven. If you have any feedback or suggestions to improve my site, please leave them in the comments.

To celebrate, the winner on each blog will have the choice of the first 250 words of a picture book critique/line edits, the first seven pages of a novel critique/line edits, or a query critique/line edits.

The winners will be picked by random.org on December 19th. Please leave what genres you write in the comments.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you are having a lovely Fall!

Charms!

I'm sorry I've been AWOL. School made life extra hectic, but I'm off for a month, so YaY! 

This summer, writer Robyn Campbell told me about the Charms Project that Sally Odgers  put together. The anthology wasn't about profit, but for the love of creating stories. 

When I mentioned that Lenny Lee would be part of the project to my daughter, Mia, she asked if she could write a story. Though Mia would be the youngest contributor, Sally agreed. Mia chose a wolf charm as her inspiration and wrote her story. After a little cajoling, she accepted some of my feedback and revised a few times. Then  Sharon Mayhew  offered her more feedback. Soon her story was done.

Mia is proud that even though she’s the youngest author, her story was gory enough to have to be included in the 3^rd volume, suitable for older readers.

Mia’s piece is called “The Pursuit.” Here’s her bio:

I chose the wolf charm because I love animals. Wolves speak to me, maybe because dogs are one of my favorite animals. A Husky, which resembles a wolf, is my favorite dog. My wolf story for the Charms anthology has fantasy in it. Those are the types of stories I tend to read the most.

I’ve always liked to write. When I’m an adult, I want to be an engineer or do something related to science, but I hope to write at least part time.

           

I’m a sixth-grader who takes ballet and Taekwondo lessons. Since I have learned how to be strong and defend myself, I like to create characters that are tough. I don’t like damsels in distress!

           

My piece is called “First Star.” Here’s what I say about it in my bio:

I chose the star charm because as a child, I believed in the power of wishing upon the first star. As I got older, I realized that wishes came true with hard work and determination. But I still love gazing at the night’s sky. My favorite constellation is Orion’s Belt. 

If I could fulfill one wish for myself, it would be to make a living writing for children and teens full time. With continued hard work and perseverance, I hope I achieve it.

This story is dedicated to my sister, Kathleen, who helped me capture the big sister-little sister dynamic in this story. (Tess/Kate and Theresa/Kathleen, get it?)

The books are available in 3 volumes. Here’s the premise:

Hannah, Josh, Immy and Ashton met when their parents formed the syndicate to restore an old house and reinvent it as a boutique hotel. While the adults worked downstairs, the children found a mysterious treasure in the attic; a crock of charms. Every charm had a story.

Volume One tells the story of the first week in the attic, and offers stories for younger readers. (Susan Leonard Hill is in Volume 2.) Volume Two contains stories, poems and pictures most suitable for mid-grade readers. (Sharon and Robyn are in volume 2.)

In this third volume of Charms, the crock and the children are back. A problem threatens the syndicate and there are new adventures as Josh and Hannah go beyond the curtain to enter the world of the stories. Charms is a collection of stories, poems and illustrations by a wide variety of contributors. It is also a fantasy novel

in three volumes, though each can stand alone. Volume Three contains stories, poems and pictures most suitable for older readers. (Mia, Lenny, and I are in Volume 3.)

It was fun to write and critique these stories with a bunch of my favorite writing friends and my daughter. I hope you enjoy our pieces!

You can only get a copy by contacting 

one of the writers who is in the book. 

(So if you want a copy you'll have to let me 

know and I'll sell it at cost plus shipping.)

If you’re interested, email me at tmilstein at gmail dot com. Cost is $13.18 + shipping.

Sharon is having a giveaway to win Volume 2 on her blog.  Please visit! 

Critique Etiquette

From Cafe Press 

When someone agrees to critique your work, they are giving you the gift of time and expertise. They have lives: work, families, hobbies, their own writing. Those heroes are putting their important tasks and loved ones aside for YOU. Aren’t they awesome? Let’s show them we’re deserving.

Please learn from my mistakes I’ve made and the mistakes I’ve seen made in many a manuscript.

1) Clean it UP!

Proofread BEFORE you send. Your critiquer isn’t your maid to clean up every little speck of dust you’ve left in the rug. Please use spell check. Make sure you read it through to fix those words spell check doesn’t catch. And if your grammar is poor, do the work BEFORE you send it out.

I’m guilty of this sin. When I first started writing, I thought my grammar was tighter than un-waxed dental floss. But I made the same errors over and over. I read a few grammar books. Then I took a grammar course. The rules started sticking! I still make mistakes. Which vs. That gets me sometimes, but at least I know to use a comma before which—not that.

And find out the rules about how dialogue is done. You don’t want to make your critiquer to spend all of their time hitting the return bar for you + playing around with commas and periods.

Here’s another sin I’ve committed. We all have demon words like: that, had, was, but, so. Whatever they are, do a find and replace. I find the demon word and replace the same word with all CAPS and an extra space, so a wiggly red line shows up. Then I will see each and every one. It’s easier to decide if they’re necessary or I need to reword.

2) Explain What YOU Need

Want plot holes covered so nobody falls to their death?

Should you be showing when you’re telling?

Has your story slowed down to school zone speed?

Are you throwing clichés around like (insert cliché here)?

Are your pages bogged down with minutia?

Are your blank-faced characters standing on a blank page?

Have characters who don’t stay true to character?

Does every character speak in the same exact voice?

Do your characters make it work or do they need some work?

Does the dialogue sound like anything people actually say?

Are tags creeping onto every spoken line like weeds?

Is it unclear which speaker is speaking?

Is the word said your BFF?

Are you so in love with your thesaurus that you want to marry it?

Is there a mundane action for Every. Single. Line. of. Dialogue?

Is the structure strong enough to hold your story up or is it crashing down?

Let your critiquer know what to look for. This way you’ll receive a critique tailored to your unique needs.

3) Keep Calm and Revise On

You’re going to receive the critique back.

Unless it’s been through a # of critiquers or you’ve magically created a clean manuscript (I hate you.), expect some feedback that (which?) will hurt.

You’re going to want to hit the delete button.

You’re going to want to argue with your cruel critiquer.

DON’T.

You’re going to dwell on every single negative bit written.

You’re going to gloss over the positive comments.

DON’T.

Instead of the impulse to argue,

Say, “Thank you.”

Seriously, ASAP.

Let the manuscript stew… like your feelings.

Open the document back up after a few days.

You’ll feel like The Little Engine that Could.

And if you know in your gut  you can’t—

If the manuscript truly has so many problems with structure, character, plot, and so on, that the whole 1,000,000,000k manuscript seems too broken to fix…

Take a deep breath.

Read the comments.

Keep them in mind.

Take what you’ve learned and write another manuscript.

Maybe you’ll revisit this hot mess in a year or five years.

Maybe never.

That critiquer spent time, energy, and expertise to make you a better writer.

Keep calm and write on.

Have anything to add about what makes a good critiquee?

(Is critiquee even a word?)

Check out Sharon Mayhew's post about developing thick skin when receiving a critique:
http://skmayhew.blogspot.com/2013/07/how-thick-is-your-skin.html