When Beta-Reading & Forum Communities Do Not Turn Out As Planned

With classes out for the semester, I have decided to return to my writing. This post I drafted several months ago, but I will post it now to explain my hiatus and because it is worth mentioning. I have not edited any phrasing, so some statements may not be current.

So my time at WriYe has drawn to an end before even completing one year on the forum. I'm sure I've already reached my goal but I have not updated my word count since starting grad school. I've fallen behind on my writing because of my environment changes, one of them being that I will no longer be on WriYe. The culture of the main demographic of many hobbies I partake in has an outward welcoming aura but always turns out to be extremely closed and somewhat rude.

My first beta reading experience was also at WriYe and it was a complete disappointment. Neither of the beta readers that I selected, both fairly active and well-liked members of the forum, upheld their end of the bargain and the moderators did little to help (click below for details).

All in all, I'm putting this out there to say there are two writers who are holding on to my first ever completed manuscript and that this has been my first experience with beta reading. There is really no way to say "be careful." One of the readers I was decently acquainted with myself and still this fiasco.

Yes, life happens, but, short of a dire long-term emergency, nothing excuses you from the responsibility of a contract or keeps you from sending a note of "I'm sorry but I can't do it" or "I need more time."

I am very thankful that the forums motivated me to complete two manuscripts, but I am quite sure I do not owe them my longest manuscript as collateral.

Updates! WriYe and Writing

I've been working on my trilogy since February. I got off to a really slow start, but I've learned so much over the course of these past 5 months.

I've been keeping up with my progress on the National Writing Year forum, which is why you see me pump out a WriYe Blogging Circle post once a month. WriYe is also the reason my stories sidebar is filling up so well--I participated in a challenge called Laster Wriy'er Standing (LWS), which, as you can probably guess, involved submitting a piece and voting out someone every two weeks. The challenge provided a nice break from my trilogy, despite a few unsettling faults with the competition. Working with the same characters for so long has been really rewarding.

Another blurb about WriYe, it's Zombie July! I signed up for the challenge mistakenly, but once I found out what it was about, I decided to give it a try. I've never written a zombie story nor do I have an interest in zombies, but I have an idea for a zombie short that will hopefully see itself written in time this month. This month's blog post, in celebration of zombies, is about overused tropes, so stay tuned for my reply to that.

I'm also participating in July Camp to help me finish the final book of my trilogy (the first time I've ever participated in NaNo!). My recent move has taken my daily word count down by over 1K words, so I'm hoping to meet my goal so I can be free to write and edit casually. It's been a busy month!

Fresh Habits

• I've watched myself grow from a few words a day to up to 5000 at home. This habit reset each month as I started a new project. Currently, I am pumping out 2000 words a day.
• Went from writing 1/2 - 3/4 a chapter a day to writing 2 chapters a day.
• Went from writing a few times a week to every day.
• I've learned a lot from research and small critiques, but the biggest thing that improved my writing was READING!
• From critiques, I learned that I am my best (and worst) critic--if I put my mind to it, I can think of all the questions a reader might come up with, and this helps sort through rude or unhelpful critiques.

Goals for July

• I hope to finish the final book of my trilogy so I can prepare for editing. (I'll be looking for beta readers, too!)
• Outline and write zombie short, Sometimes Poison is the Sweetest

The largest goal is, of course, to finish up this trilogy. I honestly can't wait to start editing! During that phase--after July--I'm also going to start outlining my next novel, which I've decided to save for my first NaNoWriMo.

Also, did you hear? Writer's Edit is hosting a giveaway that includes a chance at a free copy of Scrivener and other books!

Don't Criticize Me!

To critique or not to critique?

Learning to critique is an important part of being a writer if you ever intend on engaging in a community to improve your own work.

By critiquing, you help another better their work, and by receiving critiques, you can better your own.

Essentially, you're putting your head together with another--you may be good at picking out grammar errors and they may be good at pointing out characterization issues, so together, you've aced both!

I enjoy critiquing and the benefits of criticism. I mostly am good at pointing out grammar but also at considering the author's intentions before making a comment. I'm always looking for ways to more effectively word a scene.

Welcome to the Dark Side

But critiques also have a "dark side" I feel like isn't talked about much. It's common sense that you can ignore comments you don't agree with or find useful, but there's a little more danger than just that.

Confidence

The downside of critiques is that if you lack confidence or the ability to empathize (see where the critique is coming from), your confidence in your work can be shot. You also have to be able to understand when a critic has genuinely misjudged your work because of genre/topic biases or when they’ve made a reading mistake. If you can’t, in terms of comments that you don’t immediately see the benefit of, you won’t be able to tell which comments should be disregarded.

To overcome this:

1. Know your work and your audience. Before sending off your manuscript, be sure you understand your world and your characters and have an idea of what you are unsure about. Additionally, understand your audience and whether your critics fit into that subset. If not, be aware of how they differ from that subset.
2. When reading a comment, decide if you agree or disagree. If you disagree, ask yourself why. If the critic highlights a sentence or paragraph they didn't understand, compare it to other critiques. What meaning were you trying to portray and why do you think the critic missed it? Could you improve clarity or did the critic somehow miss the previous sentence? (It happens.)
3. And no matter what, keep on writing. It's envitable that a certain comment might make you feel down, or that a large edit may have to be made, but that doesn't mean your work was bad. Editing is a part of the process that makes your work all the more valuable, so if critiquing helps you along that step, continue!
4. Take care of yourself and don't feel obligated to put up with the process. If you ever feel like you can't take critiques, take a break. I frequently see this negatively worded as if something's wrong with you if you can't take them. If it's not a pride issue, it could be a confidence issue, and that is not your fault. We seem to forget that harsh yet constructive critiques can seem all the more harsh to a writer when the comment is inapplicable to what the writer desires. We all have different sensitivities.

Research

Research is very important, as well. I’ve received comments on my current novel that, had I not addressed the same questions myself earlier with intense research, I would have taken as affirmations of my doubts.

One good example is contractions in narration.

In the case of the contractions, I wondered if they were okay to use because consistency becomes a problem. I found plenty of articles that said “why not” and none that say no. (I hope my critics don’t mind me using this example!) It wasn’t until after I received a comment on it that I cracked open a book. The first thing I saw was contractions in the narrative, and they looked pretty natural.

Research complete.

Now, think about a fiction book—you probably wouldn’t notice certain things because you’re enjoying the story, but don’t you think a lot of do-not’s, had-not’s, is-not’s in the character’s mind would pull you from the story? Classics, with their formal language, don't use contractions. I'm also sure you were very aware of the tone created by the lack of contractions.

Really, I don’t understand why we think contractions shouldn’t be in the narrative considering most fiction books we pick up have them. Rules and conventions of formality stick hard! This is another reason why it's important to research any changes you're unsure of, but to also research ones you agree with--there's always a possibility your way and the suggested way were both right and it's always helpful to know.

Bias in Differing Experiences

I don’t claim to be an expert on grammar, characterization, and the works because when I read a published work, I read for enjoyment, not critique. I think it’s also important to point out bias in terms of being told a manuscript is already published and the work of a “professional author” versus the first or second draft of a new writer. Similar studies have been done on being told an author is Black versus White, for example. I’m pretty sure that a fancy metaphor in the published book would receive great reviews (take The Last Unicorn for instance, which I haven’t read), while, in the first/second draft critique, it would receive suggestions that it be changed because it’s too unconventional.

Being an African-American author, my critics tend to be White. Which isn't a problem until they come across some part that explains, for example, black bodies. I've actually been fearful of describing black bodies the way White authors describe White bodies because I know most White readers will be turned off by it. But I had to realize censoring myself that way would be catering to racism and self-hatred. I've noticed more and more the strange ways the beauty of White characters are detailed in most books, but when I describe the simplest feature of my Black characters, it's always pointed out as strange, which is because such descriptions are sadly rare.

Representation is important.

Overanalysis Spoils Pleasure

Critique is not something I could do for an extended period. I haven't read much recently and am already struggling with heightened awareness to certain themes in novels (mostly the emphasis on a lack of diversity and the occasional misrepresentation of God). It's moreso receiving critiques that heightens my awareness than giving critiques, and this awareness is a double-edged sword.

I have an immediate example of why long-term critique would further cripple my ability to enjoy novels. I used to be able to read any old fiction piece I picked up, but not anymore. (I'm only using the novel below as an example and stating a brief opinion about the work. Please do not take this as judgment of the novel as I did not read it in its entirety.)

I got a 50 cent novel from the library yesterday and the third sentence was:

He'd just been keeping himself busy while awaiting the arrival of a delegation of peacekeepers from several superpowers who would be meeting with the pope that morning, but like several other members of the press and tourists who'd been ignoring the altercation or losing patience with it, he was becoming concerned.

- The Reincarnationist by MJ Rose

The sentence doesn't seem so long on screen, but it instantly stomped on my will to read the book, along with a few other less immediate factors.

My point is instead of enjoying the story, I now notice small details that fracture my reading. This could just be me, but it does seem like something that would happen to anyone. I mentioned how the framing of a manuscript being professional vs. first-time may bias critique; I used to take pleasure at laughing at the one typo in a published novel, but I do not want to find sentences odd that I normally would not.

When we are in critique mode, we over-analyze things. Also, unique structures (metaphors, sentences) will almost always be eliminated. At first, over-analysis may not be a problem, but it is a learned behavior--you heighten your senses as you stay longer in an environment where you're supposed to point out things. So your brain thinks "The more things the better, right?"

I am in no way ragging on critiquing. As I said in the beginning, it is a very valuable process that I enjoy. It's just that we point out the benefits so much I didn't want to be another avoiding the cons of the process. When you are aware of these things, the process will only be more valuable for you, because if you shield against the negative, you only get the positive.

Another blog prompt brought to us by Wriye.

No Flo Joe: The Unpoetic Poeticness of Modernized Poetry

How do I feel about poetry? The crafty arrangement of words that pulls at your heartstrings and conveys years of emotions in a single line?

I love rhyming pieces more than anything, especially when the piece doesn't come off as contrived. I'm always amazed at how classic poets pulled off rhymes so flawlessly without sounding like "she looks at the flower... every hour." But I don't pay much attention to poetry in general, especially since I attended a workshop with a "professional poet" who bragged about the quality and depth of his work, but the pieces he shared all seemed contrived and empty to me.

Personally, the times I tried free verse, it came naturally. But I can't derive any pleasure from it. If I purposely blow meaning out of proportion, people snap and hum about how deep it was.

Which brings me to spoken word, an art form I really got to absorb in college.

Spoken Word

I recently fell in love with spoken word. And I fell out of love with it just as quickly. This isn't always the case, but spoken word is an example of an art form that started out great and got watered down over time. But this is because it had a purpose--an original focus and a particular group of artists--that it is being drawn away from.

Anything goes nowadays at spoken word gatherings. People throw analogies so strange no one could possibly identify with them, yet everyone snaps because "it's gotta mean something deep, right?" The recent changes in spoken word I've experienced are that pieces tend to be very shallow in the regard that they compete for snaps and leave behind true emotion, rhythm, and meaning.

Spoken word originated in Harlem and naturally flowed with the hardships Black people faced. Today, people use it to talk about the time their sister ate their sandwich and other things that don't flow the same way Black and Hispanic artists can make the art form work as they tackle themes of discrimination and oppression. At the same time, many of these artists of color have stopped telling their own stories to catch up with the hype of social justice and "deepness."

The great thing about spoken word is that your favorite poem can be your own, and that's okay. It makes sense that you can be most enthralled by the beauty your own experience naturally produced. This is also how the poetry serves as a coping mechanism--it reveals the beauty in the struggle. Though, as I mentioned above, the beauty of spoken word is melting away because people are trying to force it rather than let it come. The rhythms today are very contrived and every other artist sounds the same [to me].

People who are really into spoken word get offended at this, but some are quick to agree and say that's just how it is. No--that's what it has become. Your unique perspective has the same rhythm as the dude next door? I don't think so. And why does your voice change to sound like Gustavo's? What happened to Charlie? I want to hear Charlie. Charlie has a story that is just as powerful as Gustavo's. (Maybe--again, it's an art form attuned to minority struggle. This is my opinion, but this is why spoken word has stopped resonating with me.) I'm sure plenty of people are satisfied with the direction the art is going because it is becoming more inclusive.

I am not a spoken word artist myself because, as I said, I don't like writing free verse and I can't write rhymes. I wrote one piece and never performed it. I do love, however, how the community is so close-knit and supporting and everyone has their favorite poem from each artist in their community. I also love how frequently poems are performed in duos and trios.

And on a note that almost seems tangential at this point, my favorite poem is A Rainbow of Friends by P.K. Hallinan. It's been my favorite ever since I was a child. Now that I think about it, I performed it as spoken word many times when I was a child. Everything comes full circle!

But I suppose I prefer my poetry with vocals and rhythm nowadays.

How about you? Has your life been changed by poetry? Do you wish it were more popular or used in more creative ways? Do you have an undying love for spoken word that will persist no matter how much the art form changes? Don't forget, music is poetry, too!

Another blog prompt brought to us by Wriye.

How Many Labels Have Enabled Your Characters?

I talked about character motivations for the February WriYe prompt. This time, I will continue the psychoanalysis of the main characters of my trilogy while being obscure about their identities. We apply labels to people all the time: the nerd, the geek, the prep, the wallflower, the extrovert (and, of course, many other more stigmatizing labels). These labels can be applied to characters, but I'll be focusing on more specific labels this time around.

Character archetypes are related to character motivation. Whether your character is socially or selfishly oriented will determine what will and will not motivate them.

First, I looked up the 12 main character archetypes. I'm going to list them here for my pleasure:

1. The Innocent
2. The Orphan
3. The Hero
4. The Caregiver
5. The Explorer
6. The Outlaw
7. The Lover
8. The Creator
9. The Jester
10. The Sage
11. The Magician
12. The Ruler

And now, it's time to put the four main characters of my trilogy on the chopping block. Until I release their character profiles, I'll refer to them by their initials. (Then you guys can come back to all the initialed posts and finally know who I was talking about!)

S.W. - The Innocent w/ a bit of The Orphan and a drop of The Sage
L.W. - The Explorer & a teensy-weensy hint of The Outlaw
B. - The Lover
A. A. - a bit of The Hero, & a species-specific bit of The Caregiver, w/ a fading dash of The Innocent.

By far, the hardest character for me to label was A. A. I think it's pretty obvious that B. proved the easiest. (Must be her simple name.) L.W. is the antagonist, but he is connected to a much larger antagonist. The Outlaw seems like a typical archetype for antagonists, but L.W. wants to have a peaceful life and settle down just as much as he wants revenge. S.W. is calm and trusting with a desire to just fit in and make everyone happy, but she also has a nosy, research-loving component. And, of course, when things don't seem right, she steps up that "sage" component to try to make sense of her surroundings. B. is simply searching for her bae, but the world makes settling down the last thing she can do. Everyone she's ever with gets ripped from her arms.

So, according to the "four cardinal orientations," L.W. would be oriented towards freedom, B. towards social satisfaction, S.W. towards order, and A.A. is just all over the place. Somehow, that seems like a logical balance.

Based on my categorizations above, I believe it's possible for characters to fall under a single archetype. At the same time, the more complex a character is and the more experiences they have had, the more likely they are to have multiple archetypes. I don't believe it's possible for a character to be so incredibly unique that they don't fall under any of the archetypes.

I think archetypes and motivations can be very useful ways to think about character development. Really, you can create a solid character just by filling in these two things. Their background is also important, but it can be created around their motivations, as well. After that, everything else just comes. The personality solidifies from the experiences and goals, then it just seems pretty obvious that his favorite color is forest green.

This analysis was actually pretty insightful for me.

Now, an interpretation of my character as the epitome of her archetype? B., I choose you!

B. clenched her unnamed comrade's thick forearm as it slipped deeper into the frigid, dark water. "It shouldn't've been you!" Her voice grew quieter. "...It should've been me. Come back." The cold permeating through her fingertips was her only response. B.'s grip on the limp arm loosened and the body of her comrade sank below the ice. "Come back," she whispered again.

Again, she had been saved. And again, she was alone.

Kudos to people who immediately got the reference! I had to do it (since I wasn't going to reveal any story information just yet).

I mainly used this site for archetype reference. Another blog prompt brought to us by Wriye.

Volunteer Before Victim! On Editing and Revising

As someone who enjoys writing in a stream of consciousness (and who has a funky writing style), editing is certainly important.

I have to make sure my ideas are clear and well organized. A spell check won't catch this miss steak (wut), but it would label dis as a mistake. So, not only do I have to do a read-through for careless mistakes I may have made, but I also have to keep in mind what mistakes spell-check may be making in terms of what I want in my writing. So revision is more than just a spelling or grammar check--it's an idea check.

Are my thoughts coming across the way I want? Is there a better way this scene or sentence could be executed?

In small amounts, I do enjoy revision. I enjoy laughing at some of my mistakes, rewriting sentences into stronger statements, and reordering paragraphs. Why? Because I see my thought process strengthened and it makes me feel giddy inside.

On the other hand, I put myself on an editing schedule recently where I risked burnout from the amount of editing I had to do, which is why I said "in small amounts."

Now, I do all of my revisions on software, so I couldn't take a picture of the process. I also cut down on the depth of edits I have to do because my outlines are pretty thorough. Unlike my editing process, my outlines are printed, and I mark them up as I write. I also have a separate booklet that I fill with scene edit ideas. Those ideas I either add as I go or save for the editing process.

So, for me, editing is a process that begins the moment I type the first word of my manuscript.

Another blog prompt brought to us by Wriye.

Who Moves You?

Motivation gives us purpose, in fiction and in reality. High achievers, strong characters, and those who break the system all have powerful motivating forces, whether it's a mission from God, a lost or missing family member, a desire for a high status, or a dislike of the status quo.

I haven't written very many complete works, but I find that my ideas don't stick to certain genres or archetypes. What motivates my characters?

The main character in my trilogy is motivated by a dislike of the status quo. She grew up dreaming of an equality that wasn't a reality. As she gets older, she's one of few who feel things aren't right, and she eventually decides to do something to change it. Along with two of the other protagonists, there's an overarching desire to prevent the further loss of family. The "antagonist," on the other hand, is motivated by an anger at what he has become.

The main character of my upcoming novel has lost his parents, his only loving support group, and seeks to learn the truth about their demise.

In a short story I'm currently planning, the character's motivation is to escape her fears.

Many of these motivations are a desire for tranquility. Perhaps that sums up all motivations, minus the desire to be supreme lord ruler.

Personally, my favorite character motivation is probably the epic journey to set things right--fighting against the status quo. They make stories of epic lengths where anything can happen, but can also be super cheesy if the character is "the one and only" for no particular reason and somehow manages to set everything straight alone. It's not a theme you see often in real life because public opinion, peer pressure, and group mentality work together to convince people that the status quo or the person with the loudest mouth is the right way. This sort of theme is present in my trilogy, but familial loss also seems to be a theme among the works I've planned.

My characters' motivations all stem directly from their personalities or, in the case of my upcoming novel and the short story, from the plot itself. I don't deliberately give a particular motivation to a character--I let my characters develop as the plot develops and vice versa. It may be unconventional, but it works for me. I let the character become a person in my mind, then I consider adding something to a character sheet.

I've realized I have a difficult time creating characters for novels (short stories are fine), but when I develop a character first, the world develops around them. Three of the characters in my trilogy and three in the novel existed in some form prior to their plot development. This is also why I'm so sure I'll be writing a romance novel using the character in my sidebar. Once I realized my repurposed characters sprouted novel and trilogy ideas like nose hair while my attempts at new characters eeked short story ideas that could possibly be stretched into novels, I decided I want to again shift through my old, unused characters and see who else can be repurposed.

I'm eager to see the diversity of motivations that arise in my future works!

Stay tuned to hear more about these characters!

Another blog prompt brought to us by Wriye.

Mid Year's Resolutions: My One Main Goal

It isn't quite January, but I've decided to pick up this year's Wriye blog posts from the beginning.

This year, my goal is to complete all three books of my trilogy. I'm entering a new stage of my life and things will get hectic come August, but I don't just think I can do it, I know I can. This has become the mantra that I use to push on when I get distracted. I've always been one to focus in on a single goal in my life, and because of it my writing, drawing, and other hobbies always drifted to the wayside. This year, I'm determined to keep my writing going strong with everything else in my life. Additionally, I hope my writing will rekindle my drawing spirit.

Also, since I know I work best one project at a time, I tell myself I'd be happier with one complete novel at the end of a month than with two half-finished drafts. Besides, I'd have to develop a system to make myself write near-equal amounts on both, or one would fall by the wayside anyway!

On other writing-related notes, I want to decide if I will be serializing or publishing any of my work on my blog and whether I can participate in NaNoWriMo for the first time ever.