Having the opening chapters of my story reviewed on youwriteon.com has certainly been an eye opener. Different people have suggested different changes I could make to my story. One suggestion that's been useful has been to use more similes and metaphors to make my work come alive a bit more. Another comment was to think about my lead character's motivation - why hasn't she just left home already and got a job if she hates life on the farm so much? Why is she relying on her inheritance from her father to get what she wants?
This comment was particularly interesting to me but also troublesome. It made me think that maybe I need to look again at this character, perhaps make her a bit younger so that she has to rely on her father for money and so that the idea of her waiting impatiently for her inheritance makes more sense. But it's troublesome in that changing my character's age and thinking about her motivation will require revision of my story. I'm still writing it at the moment and I've made the decision to carry on writing the story until I finish and then go back and make major changes.
The problem is I've been down this route before. I was working on a fantasy novel for older children last year. I had written a lot of it before I had feedback from various people who all gave me different suggestions as to how I could improve it. Without finishing the story, I attempted to make those changes and in the end I abandoned it as I got so bogged down in the nitty gritty of revision. It just took all the pleasure out of it for me. I ended up very confused as to how I ought to change my story and how to fit these changes in to what I already had.
So in retrospect I feel that for me personally as a writer, it's better for me to get the first draft of my story finished before attempting to make major changes/rewrites. That way I (hopefully) won't lose the pleasure of telling a story and I can allow myself space to experiment, even if it means lots of revision later on. Do let me know what you think about rewriting and your experiences.
Be open to changes and suggestions but don't feel you have to take them on board - as you say, sometimes this means extensive revision of what you have already done. Sometimes though, you might have a gem of a suggestion drop in that requires very little change. I found that this happened occasionally during the editing process of my novel - the editor would make suggestions and sometimes these were just too difficult to take on, but others were easier. I guess it just depends at what stage you are taking on the feedback - it's probably easier to take things on board from others in the early stages when your outline is still quite sketchy, and harder at the end of that first draft when plot and characters are more set.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kerry, Elaine. It's good to listen to the views of others but the important thing for me is to feel if their view chimes with mine. I have my new book out with Beta readers and one said he needed a map and that the end wasn't sign-posted, both of which I felt already.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't do what you have done and let people comment on the book as I'm writing it. It would just make me feel frozen.
If you want a great book on how to revise I'd recommend Sol Steein's books 'Solutions for Writers' (my favourite) and 'Solutions for Authors.' I wish I'd read it years ago.
Mainly, though, stay clear to your own voice and vision.