Friday Finds Critique
Hey ya’ll happy March, hope February was good for you. It was enlightening for me. I got my first chapter critique back. Ya’ll I have so many emotions. Lets start with the good, touch on the not so great, and finally move on to how I’m coping and moving forward.
So the good? Well to start I’m at a critique stage which is crazy and satisfying to me. I’ve gone from never wanting to talk about my book out of fear that it wasn’t good enough to bravely putting it out there for people I love and respect to judge and critique. I’m a braver writer now than I was before which can only be a good thing.
I actually got positive feedback. I have a solid opener, the character relationships come off as real and relatable, my main character want is understood and he is liked, and the build of of action is on the right track. These are all things I was super nervous about, so it feels good to know that I’m heading in the right direction . It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. The chapter had just as many, if not more things to work on. My short list includes.
The Bad:
Point of view inconsistency
Too many Proper Pronouns
Unclear World building
Point of View: I knew this was going to be a problem, because frankly, I’ve never been confident with my choice of point of view. I’m struggling, I don’t know if it would be better for the readers to know exactly what is going in my main characters head or if having the reader know more about the world that the characters inhabit is a better experience. I’m leaning more towards third person but we’ll see in round two of critiques
Lack of Proper Pronouns. This one is an easy but crucial fix. Basically I have a crap ton of characters in my first chapter. There’s a party going down and a lot of the main players are present so there’s also lots of he’s and she’s being thrown around and its confusing to my readers. If my readers are too confused to know whose speaking and to who, they can;t really enjoy the story.
Unclear world building . This one is more of a personal critique. I know there are a bunch of concepts that will need to be introduce. Non of those concepts are present in the first chapter. Which was an oversight on my part. There’s a lot waiting for my main characters once he leaves his front door, and I have just have to do a better job preparing my readers for the new world my characters reside in.
Armed with new knowledge, I re wrote the chapter sprinkling the new story elements that are pivotal to the story and world. I fixed the point of view inconsistencies, eliminated the unnecessary pronouns in the story to add some much needed clarity. I re plotted to better know how to place world building elements in a way that progresses the story. Then after all of that I toke a break, as ya’ll may have noticed. Now I’m back, back here, as well as insta and twitter. I’m back to my strict writing schedule plus I have a check in schedule with my critique partners, which keeps me accountable and on track. Till the next time, create, hustle and love yourself
