I was back again at the YMCA, exercising with my children last week. This time I’d finished walking on the treadmill and decided to try out a weight machine I’d never used before.
I read the little sign on the side of the machine and hesitantly started out.
After a minute or two, I relaxed. It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. In fact, it seemed almost easy!
I was confidently lifting the weights when a big guy, with a YMCA badge on, walked up to me, frowning. “You’re doing it wrong, ma’am,” he said. “You should be sitting all the way up here. And your elbows should be here. And you need to pull the bar this way.”
Suddenly, the weight lifting got much harder. And more unpleasant. In fact, I stopped doing it completely and retreated to the safety of the treadmill.
This, I think, is what writing is like at first. I’ve gone back and looked at stuff I wrote fifteen years ago and winced. The WIPs usually had good bones to them, but they were a cosmetic disaster area. Lots of telling instead of showing, too many dialogue tags, gobs of adverbs.
I can tell by reading it that the words were coming to me really quickly—but I was, technically, doing it all wrong.
I think we all need someone to (more gently than the guy at the gym did) tell us when we need to go back to the drawing board—or do some major revision. Sometimes the story does come out really easily, but usually we have to do a lot of grunt work in the editing process…and we could use some direction.
New writers should probably try to pass their manuscript around in front of a beta reader or two. There are writing critique groups online where you can find critique partners who write the same genre. They’ll read your manuscript critically and you’ll read theirs in return.
What’s important, I think, is not to retreat when the going gets hard or when we hear constructive criticism, or when we realize the process is a lot more time-consuming and scary than we thought. For most of us, writing is just too important to us to give up because we’ve got a lot of work ahead of us.
I ended up going back to that weight machine…not that day (because I was too flustered), but the next one. And my muscles really did end up being sore afterwards…but the sense of accomplishment was worth it.
My July 6th release is just days away! Click here for my book release contest. Entering is easy…and you might win a $25 bookstore gift card, a signed copy of “Delicious and Suspicious,” and a “Delicious and Suspicious” tote bag. :)
Hahhaha….oh, sorry, just laughing at Simon’s comment.
I find it hard to relate to your post today, Elizabeth. It’s been so long since I’ve been to the gym, I’ve forgotten what the weight machines look like.
But you’re definitely right about the writing part. You can’t give up. And you need the critiques. Looking forward to the new book. Congratulations!!!
So true. I think we all need a helping hand. Although, if you’re anything like me, you’ll never figure out the weights thing. I could never leave my husband because then who would put the weights on the bars for me? I know, such a dilemma. :P
But thank goodness I seem to have gotten a hang of this writing thing ;)
I didn’t know about that website you linked to. I’ve created an account. Thanks for the post! (P.S. I’m too impatient to pre-order. But I’ll be down at the bookstore looking for it on Tuesday. Fingers crossed they’ll have it.)
I know what you mean. It’s like when you first drink vodka, and you mix it all up with orange juice or sprite or something, then someone comes along and says, “Pfft. Pansy. Real men drink vodka straight” and then you’re all embarrassed and try it straight but it burns your throat and then you give up as soon as the guy that said, “Pfft” is gone, but then a day or two later you try it again and this time it burns, but in a good way. Yeah. I totally feel you.
Wait. What were we talking about here? I get the feeling I just went off topic….
I should end by agreeing with everything you said in the post. (Mainly because I do, but also because it may marginally redeem my first paragraph.)
Elizabeth – Thanks for the good reminder about getting input on our writing – and for that link. Hopefully we all grow and develop as writers, but I don’t think you can do that alone. We need people who support us enough to really want us to succeed, and who are honest enough to tell us what we need to do to get there. That’s what I love about my beta-readers : ).
My crit buddies are amazing. I’m so glad I found them early on – they made me realize I had some good bones in the story too – but I had a lot to learn :)
You are so right about the rewriting. What is really exciting for a writer is to go back to an older work and discover the story is still viable and we can fix all those mistakes.
Picturing you with the weight machine made me think of a good friend here who has been going to Slender Lady to work out and is now proud of her arm muscles. I challenged her to arm-wrestle, but she thought the bank parking lot was not a good place for that.
I’ve looked back on some of my old writing and had to calm the shudders. The plots were fine – but the writing!! Hopefully, I’ve improved since then. Geesh!
My test readers were a big help. They discovered issues I’d missed entirely.
I still have your contest up in my sidebar.
I just read Simon´s analogy. LOL
I wouldn´t dream of reading my first ´novel´ again (though my sweet mother still claims it was a good book), but I hope the one I am revising now is somewhat better. At least my very critical beta reader was so excited after chapter 6 that she asked me to send her more than one chapter, please!
NB: my readers really enjoyed your guest post so now that they have seen the post about Delicious and Suspicious, a few of them have pre-ordered your book. Yay!
I’m excited for you and your release of “Delicious and Suspicious.”
And critique groups are vital to the success of an author. My Yahoo! groups have helped me in so many ways that I don’t see how I could have accomplished much of anything without them.
Stephen Tremp
Lol! This reminded me of a time in high school when my cross country teammates and I went to the school’s gym. I was using a leg machine and thought my legs were super strong from all the running because it was the easiest thing ever. Then one of the football players informed there were no weights on it. Oi!
I like looking back on my old writings. They’re so terrible it’s funny! It’s good to see how far I’ve come and that I’m improving.
Can so relate to this post! And hey – six days? YAY! Go for it and market, market, market now!
I know! Even the first book I wrote scares me.
I did get better.
Stephanie–Thank you so much!! I’ve heard good things about that particular critique service, which is why I linked to it. I think it’s the biggest game in town, too.
Simon–Ha! Oh, I just about snorted coffee through my nose this morning when I read this. And you’re right–it’s just LIKE that! Except I’m a Guinness drinker mainly. And vodka might make me act unseemly. I’m definitely not a real man. :)
Where were we going with this metaphor?
Patricia–I’d describe the weight machines to you, but I was so flabbergasted by them that I didn’t know what I was looking at!
Carolina–I had my 13 year old put the weights on. :) I’m such a wimp.
You’ve gotten the hang of it for sure!
Margot–Good point about the honesty. It’s nice to hear that our books are great, but constructive crit is so much more useful.
Alex–Thank you so much!!
Jemi–And good for them for giving you encouragement as well as direction!
Stephen–Thanks! I’m excited, too–and nervous. These things always make me a little anxious, but the excitement is stronger.
I love that there are so many writers online to learn from!
Maryann–I’d love to do that some day. I think there’s a germ of a good story in that mess somewhere.
Ha! The bank parking lot sounds like a GREAT place to arm wrestle. Give the bankers something to wonder about as they look out the windows. :) I bet you’d have won, too–all your work with your horses.
Elspeth–But see, the plots were there, even in the early days. And the story is really one of the most important things.
Laura–Yeah, the football players always know that kind of stuff! We’re the ones who never really know what’s going on! He also pointed out that I didn’t have the pin sticking into the weights…I guess I was lifting at the default weight, which was something really piddling. :)
That’s the best way of looking at it, Laura–that we have a chance to see how far we’ve come! Always good to see the encouraging part of something like that.
Dorte–Simon cracks me up. I was snickering in my coffee this morning.
Mothers always like our books. :) Good for you for getting your critical beta reader excited, though!
That’s wonderful! Thanks so much for all your support, Dorte. I really do appreciate it. :)
The Old Silly–Thanks so much, Marvin! Will do. :)
Diane–I know what you mean! The writing just gets better with each book.
FABULOUS metaphor! If you do it the right way, it hurts more, it’s harder, but you get a heck of a lot more benefit, and start to finally get in shape!
(and that may be how to state it: You’ll get more benefit if you try it this way.” Though probably we should keep to ourselves on the “if you keep doing that, you’re gunna injure yourself!”)
Did you use Critique Circle? I’m trying to figure out where to go for a critique group. Someone had pointed me to the Guppies group with SinC. Have you had any experience with them?
Hart–You really should OWN this analogy, because you’re the exercise queen compared to me!
Oh, I’ve really pulled things. :) In writing, and while exercising. Yeah, we should keep that to ourselves!
Lisa–I sure haven’t–this is totally word-of-mouth for me. But I DO know lots of people who are part of the Guppies. I’ll recommend them highly. I think of them as more of a mystery writers’ group, but that’s probably ill-informed on my part! Many of them go on to great careers in writing.
Oh, yes, it’s that whole thing about being stretched out of our comfort zones. It surely does create sore muscles. But, hey, we look and feel much better for it!
It can be hard not to retreat when given criticism but your right, that’s exactly when we need to step up, listen, and get the job done!
Thank you so much for all the links, I will spend the rest of my afternoon going through them.
CD