How not to handle your edits

May 9, 2012May 9, 2012 / kaitlinbevis / Leave a comment

I was recently in a position to see how another writer I know handled their first round of content edits, and it went badly. The editor requested several changed in the manuscript, and offered suggestions on how to make the changes, but was clear that the changes needed to be made in the writer’s own words. The suggestions were pretty basic. Move this sentence here, incorporate action, add description. Very basic edits that. To my surprise the writer was offended. The writer wrote comments in the margins questioning the editors experience, taste, and knowledge of the market. Unsurprisingly, the writer’s contract was suspended.

Content edits aren’t like a critique from a writers group. You can disagree here and there and discuss it, but to say no to everything is just immature. Once your book is under contract, pretty much what they say goes. That doesn’t mean you lose creative control, but if you can’t handle constructive criticism, than you’re in the wrong business.

That awkward feeling when you reread old work

May 3, 2012 / kaitlinbevis / 23 Comments

While I’m waiting on edits for Persephone, I’ve been spending a lot of time writing articles and short stories to keep my name out there. I use duotrope.com to keep up with my submissions, and keep an eye on new markets.

I was thrilled to see a call for submissions for a super hero anthology. A few years ago I wrote a story about a group of super heroes stuck in a kind of “Three Blind Mice” situation. I wrote it, tried to get it published, and eventually gave up, because there just wasn’t a market for it. But this anthology would be perfect!

So I open the file and reread it. It was painful. I… I don’t even know how to describe how badly written this story was. I’m revising it now, but it’s going to be awhile before this story gets out of urgent care and into the hands of a publisher.

Beyond being embarrassed, I’m worried. Is it really that bad because I’ve improved, or with enough time and distance would the stuff I’m writing now look just as bad? And is that a good thing or a bad thing? The mistakes I made on this story were truly amature, so in a way its a good thing I’m humiliated because I’m improving. So if in a few years I look back on my work now and get embarressed then that means I’ll have improved more, right?

But it also still kind of means that something I wrote sucked. Not that big of a deal with an unpublished story I can revise to my hearts content, but what about my published work? It’s out there as is forever now. Whatever I learn in the future can’t be applied to it.

Scary thought.

Meep!

March 21, 2012December 13, 2012 / kaitlinbevis / Leave a comment

It was nerve wracking. Everyone was talking over each other, to the point where all the voices melded together in one clamorous yell.
“I don’t like her.”
“She’s being such a bitch.”

They’re talking about my baby.

No, not Bella. The world had better hope I get a bit less uptight by the time she goes to high school, because if I ever heard someone talk about her like that, I’d kill them.

Brutally.

Not this is my writers group. That I willingly attend. I look forward to it even.

It was hard to remember why, as they ripped my story to shreds, complaining loudly about the lack of tension. It’s hard to remember that they aren’t actually yelling at me, they’re excited to have finally stumbled upon that key thing that was bothering them as they read my story. There’s this moment where the problem of a story clicks. For everyone in the room. At the same time.

Loudly.

It’s a good thing. They care about my story. They care enough to get excited when they realize what’s wrong. They care enough to spend the time to figure that out. If my story sucked, they wouldn’t have to try so hard to find out whats wrong ;). Not only would the flaw be more obvious, but they wouldn’t be invested enough to care, And it’s an awesome thing. I was upset, and defensive but not offended. And they weren’t offended by me being upset or defensive.

It’s a beautiful thing. I’ve been on the other side of that table, talking over the person next to me about how I hate this character, or how I’m so bored with the story. And sure I had a moment of “wow, I should have been nicer,” but I won’t be. It’s not personal, and they know that. After I got home, and took a day to cool off, I set to work. And while I don’t think my problems are completely solved, I know I made progress, and it’s because of them.

The relationship between a writer and their writers group is a weird combination of stockholm syndrome and dominance play.

I actually just wrote that sentence. Wow.

They’re my friends, but they feel like more than that. If my friends talked to me like that, our relationship would be short lived. They feel like family, but not quite. My family doesn’t understand my writing like they do. They support it, but that’s different then getting it. I don’t know how to explain what my writers group is to me, but I love them. And I can’t wait to go back.

Run for your life!

March 16, 2012February 28, 2015 / kaitlinbevis / Leave a comment

So a few weeks ago, I got to run from zombies. I’ve always been afraid of zombies, pod people, or any instance of the entire world turning against you. I’m not sure what that says about me, but the sense of hopelessness that comes with a zombie apocalypse is just creepy.

When I heard about a 5k where you get to run from zombies, I went all in. I guess I’m a conquer your fears type girl. I’m also the type of person that likes to drag others in with me. I pestered a few friends until they signed up, and off to run from the zombies we went.

The weather was abysmal. It was wet, and muddy. I can’t even describe HOW muddy. There were puddles deeper than I am. It was like… A swamp. It was ridiculous. There was no running. Zombies ate me and my friends within the first three obstacles. Luckily, by flirting with zombies, you can sometimes get a flag back. Apparently getting soaked and covered in mud from head to toe is a good look for me, because no one ever flirts with me outside of mud soaked zombie invasions. Maybe it just takes an apocalypse?

I climbed up unstable rope net things, was helped over a really tall hay bale…. by a zombie. Swam across a lake, and slid down a mud slide. I had a blast, and I’ll do it again next year.

One thing I did learn from the experience though, I would not survive in the event of a zombie apocalypse. I need more training. Fortunately, there’s an app for that. I downloaded zombies run! And now run to the sound of zombies chasing me every day. One day I might be fast enough to survive.

Maybe.

Why iCloud can be dangerous

March 7, 2012February 28, 2015 / kaitlinbevis / 3 Comments

I was so thrilled with the idea of a cloud. Finally, my drafts would auto save to every location instantly. The ultimate safeguard. Great in theory. In practice, dangerous.

iCloud autosaved the second draft of my second book, “Daughter of the Earth and Sky.” unfortunately, during the saving process the document was corrupted. To my horror, the corrupted document saved over every viable copy of the draft I had on every computer, iPhone, and other electronic device. My whole book was unopenable.

Fortunately, I’d recently emailed the book to a friend so I was able to retrieve it minus a few of the more recent changes (amazingly awesome changes I can’t even begin to recreate). It’s created a lot of work for me, but it’s much better than it could have been. So word of warning, save multiple copies of your document, email it to friends, and save frequently. Losing a whole book would really suck.

Writer’s Group

February 10, 2012February 28, 2015 / kaitlinbevis / Leave a comment

I love my writers group. So much that I’m going to copy a dear friend from my writers group, and do a post about them. I joined my writers group over a year ago. Their feedback makes such a difference in the quality of my work, but most importantly, they’re my friends.

I can’t stress enough how important it is to have a good writer’s group to critique your work. Critiques can be terrifying, so it’s important to find a group you can trust. My group is like a family to me. They’ve been there with me through brainstorming, revision, content editing, copy editing, querying, and my eventual acceptance to Musa Publishing. Many of them have had the same success. The rest, I’m confident will be joining the ranks of published authors soon.

Lately my writers group has hit a rough patch, we’ve grown too large for individual critiques to be effective. It’s happened before in the past, but people come and people go, and in the end it balances out. Having the right number and mix of people in a writers group is a delicate balancing act. You need a handful of people. Too few and you’re not getting diverse enough reactions. My rule of thumb has always been to always listen to feedback I get from the group as a whole. If multiple people are seeing the same mistake in your work, it’s a mistake. If only one person sees it, it’s a preference. Without enough people it’s difficult to make that distinction.

On the other hand, you can’t read dozens of submissions in a week and give quality feedback, so chances are you’re not getting quality feedback either. I’ve read somewhere the ideal sized group is eight. I can see that.

I’m midway through my second critique of Persephone II: Daughter of the Earth and Sky. I know it’s only a matter of time before our group finds balance again, but I wish soon would come a bit faster.