MSFV Secret Agent Success Story
Hey, look, Authoress Anonymous' MSFV Success Story post today is mine! Those of you interested in my humble beginnings as a novice querier might find it interesting (hint: I was not quite looking in the right places). And those of you querying or getting ready to query, especially those who think they've picked out their “dream agent,” might want to check it out.
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Entering MSFV's Secret Agent contest was a terrific experience for me, and a real turning point in my path to finding an agent, even though I didn't win or place in the contest. Not all of the comments on my entry were “positive,” but they were mostly constructive and I found them instructive. I took from them important information about how different people were responding to my first page (well, what was my first page then 😉 ). That information was valuable.
I'm a firm believer that there are few “bad” critiques – some are not relevant, other times a critiquer may lack the familiarity with the genre or the experience in the craft of writing to offer especially helpful advice, some might even be “wrong” given your vision of your book, etc. – but, there is usually something of value there. Rarely should a writer automatically “fix” all of the items a critiquer points out. Rather, get critique from several sources (at least until you find a few rock-star critique partners), and then consider the critiques as a whole. Think about the context for the comments, and if you agree with the critiquer's assumptions and overall view of your story and characters. Sometimes a critique that seems way off base is way off base, but not because the critiquer is “bad” or “gives bad advice.” Sometimes we as writers fail to get all of the information and motivations for our characters on the page. Critique can help us see those bits of the story and the characters that we know exist, but that might not have made it onto the page.
Last November I did a guest post on critique over at the Adventures in Children's Publishing blog. That also might be of interest for buy online cialis those thinking about critique.
As for me, well, I'm busily working on my second novel (it has taken several tries at my way into the story, but I think I'm finally on the right track, even though I'm still getting to know my characters). I'm also awaiting copy edits on Personal Effects, which should land on my desk any day. 🙂
I hope you are having a good summer (or enjoying whatever the season where you are), and that the writers among you are being productive.
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