I'm taking a little break from my World Lit reading, mainly because about eight of my reservations came in at the library at once, and most of them are YA paranormal/fantasy or contemporary novels. So today, I'd like to talk a little about plot and premise.
I've read a lot of work by my fellow aspiring authors over the past few years. Some of this has been for friends or creative writing classmates, and some for my freelance editing work. One problem I see fairly often in beginning writers (it was a problem for me too) is confusion over plot and premise. I think this is because, generally, when you ask someone what a book is about, you are actually asking about the premise, not the plot. Not what happens in the book, but the situation the main character finds himself or herself in.
Example: Katniss, who lives in the dystopian future, is forced to take part in the Hunger Games, a brutal fight to the death with twenty-three other kids as opponents. (Premise.)
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Quit your whining
Work is hard. Writing is hard. But cheer up! The sun is shining and the grass is green.
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Why alpha readers rock
If you're part of the online writer-blogger community, you've probably heard a lot about beta readers—those friendly, helpful people who read finished drafts of your manuscript and give you feedback. This feedback can range from general impressions to an in-depth picking apart of grammar, mood, pace, character, description, etc.
But there's another kind of reader who can be just as important, and for some just as indispensable: the alpha reader. Alpha readers are slightly different than beta readers in that they don't read the entire manuscript at once, but work with you as you write it, reading scenes or chapters at a time.
Over spring break a couple of weeks back, Big Chimp and I decided to be each other's alpha readers for our current works-in-progress. I have to say, it's been really helpful so far. Though Big Chimp and I first met in a creative writing program and have been working on various creative projects ever since, we've never regularly exchanged work, often finding excuses like "it's not done yet," or "it needs another round of editing."
In our new system, we each write (or edit) a chapter of our novel during the week and submit it to the other person on the weekend. It's only been three weeks, but this system has helped me so much with my WIP that I'm kind of kicking myself that I've never had an alpha reader before. In our first round of exchanges, Big Chimp identified the major flaw in my writing: I've been using too much description—too much showing and not enough telling. This has helped me to see my writing process and how it's evolved over time. In the first draft of my WIP, I concentrated on just getting the story out, flaws and all. As such, I knew there was probably too much telling, too much exposition—something I could fix in the second draft. But when the time came, I went too far in the other direction, ending up with a lot of surface description, but not explaining a lot of the things that needed clarification. Now I'm back to a more natural balance, and my writing is flowing better because of that. But imagine if I hadn't had an alpha reader to keep me on track: it probably would have taken me much longer to realize what was wrong, and I would have had to do even more revision and rewriting.
Reading Big Chimp's work has also benefited me a lot. He's the best writer I know, and I can learn a lot from studying his sentence structure, pacing, and character development. I can only hope that he finds my work as helpful as I find his.
So what about you, writer friends? Do you find alpha and beta readers useful? Do you have a set system or, like me, are you still figuring out what works best for you?
But there's another kind of reader who can be just as important, and for some just as indispensable: the alpha reader. Alpha readers are slightly different than beta readers in that they don't read the entire manuscript at once, but work with you as you write it, reading scenes or chapters at a time.
Over spring break a couple of weeks back, Big Chimp and I decided to be each other's alpha readers for our current works-in-progress. I have to say, it's been really helpful so far. Though Big Chimp and I first met in a creative writing program and have been working on various creative projects ever since, we've never regularly exchanged work, often finding excuses like "it's not done yet," or "it needs another round of editing."
In our new system, we each write (or edit) a chapter of our novel during the week and submit it to the other person on the weekend. It's only been three weeks, but this system has helped me so much with my WIP that I'm kind of kicking myself that I've never had an alpha reader before. In our first round of exchanges, Big Chimp identified the major flaw in my writing: I've been using too much description—too much showing and not enough telling. This has helped me to see my writing process and how it's evolved over time. In the first draft of my WIP, I concentrated on just getting the story out, flaws and all. As such, I knew there was probably too much telling, too much exposition—something I could fix in the second draft. But when the time came, I went too far in the other direction, ending up with a lot of surface description, but not explaining a lot of the things that needed clarification. Now I'm back to a more natural balance, and my writing is flowing better because of that. But imagine if I hadn't had an alpha reader to keep me on track: it probably would have taken me much longer to realize what was wrong, and I would have had to do even more revision and rewriting.
Reading Big Chimp's work has also benefited me a lot. He's the best writer I know, and I can learn a lot from studying his sentence structure, pacing, and character development. I can only hope that he finds my work as helpful as I find his.
So what about you, writer friends? Do you find alpha and beta readers useful? Do you have a set system or, like me, are you still figuring out what works best for you?
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
World Lit Wednesday: MISS CHOPSTICKS by Xinran
ISBN: 978071180416 [UK]
Continent: Asia
Country: China
Title: Miss Chopsticks
Author: Xue Xinran
Translator: Esther Tyldesley
"Three was absolutely determined that this would not happen to her. After all, hadn't her father 'taken' her mother—and look what had become of her. It was as if he had gone out and brought back a tool to have children, make clothes, cook, do the housework, raise the pigs, feed the dogs, and endure injustice and hardship. If wanting a man meant that kind of life, Three would gladly do without one" (page 167).
In the rural Chinese village where Three grows up, women are referred to as "chopsticks"—ultilitarian, easily breakable things—while men are the strong "roofbeams" that hold up a house. Three's parents have six daughters and no sons, a situation that has brought ridicule on their family from the other villagers. The sisters are worth so little that their names are only numbers corresponding to the order in which they were born.
With her eldest sister already married off, and Two dead—having committed suicide rather than suffer the same fate—Three is desperate for a way out. When a sympathetic uncle helps her run away to the nearest large city, Nanjing, Three is determined to show her father that even a chopstick can support a house.
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