From: Anonymous
(The question's at the end of this missive.)
A few months ago a friend handed me cc's of STAY and BP. I enjoyed both books and was sorry when I came to STAY's last pg. I look forward to the next segment in The Life of Aud.
Initially Aud seemed unreal, even mythical, but then she morphed into a more sympathetic character. As someone who doesn't have an alpha personality, I vicariously enjoyed her kick-butt abilities. She's a walking TAKE BACK THE NIGHT. Aud's evolving awareness of the strength to be found in vulnerability is fascinating... She's one to watch. Know that I'll be buying your next hardback when it arrives at Bailey/Coy.
Another comment:
Thanks for your candid response to those who've asked about how you deal with MS. I copied it out of your archives (it took some searching!) and saved it on my hard drive. I'll read it again when I need some bouying.
My story:
At the end of June I was laid-off as a result of a brain hemorrhage I had in Oct. of 2001. I was devastated. I was just finding a foothold in my professional life. Then in January I was diagnosed with a seizure disorder. The blood scarred my brain and left a lesion, thus the seizures, which haven't been controlled with medication. I was having one grand-mal sz a month up until August, when I started a new med. Luckily there've been no grand-mals since Aug, tho' I'm still having almost daily partial sensory szs.
Lost job, lost fertility...
My partner and I were also trying to have a child. I was gonnna be the birth mom; my lover's 9 yrs older. Our first try was scheduled for the end of the month the bleed happened. I still have (expired) ovulation predictor kits in the bathroom cabinet and a basal body thermometer in the nightstand drawer.
Now my ability to have a child is in question. Anti-sz meds are teratogens and the increased volume of blood during pregnancy could be life threatening for me.
I went to a baby shower last weekend and was doing just fine emotionally until a little 14 month old toddler, who didn't even know me, climbed into my lap and relaxed against me. The tears started flowing. At least I was sitting on the floor at the back of the room.
I'm still recovering cognitively from the bleed, and am dealing with side effects from the meds. Very fun. I bled from an arterio- venous malformation, lovingly referred to as an AVM by the neuros. There's no guarantee the ugly thing won't bleed again, and b/c it's 2 mm from my motor strip (it was a rt frontal lobe bleed), left side paralysis could result. I may have brain surgery this winter.
I was working as a writer/editor for a children's curriculum publishing company, writing articles for trade journals and the client newsletter, pumping out catalog and ad copy, and editing the newsletter and everything else the marketing dept threw my way. Learning the soft skills of editing (dealing with both in-house and freelance writers) was a challenge. There were some stinkers.
It took me years to get a job in the field I'd been aiming for since I graduated from college. I was 30 when I started, hired from a pool of 100 applicants. I still think of how I beat the other candidates when I'm despairing. I had way too much self-esteem wrapped up in my 9 to 5.
Here's my question:
An MFA holder who was a coworker and is a friend just handed me her manuscript for a novella. I'll be the first one to read it. I feel honored to be first in line, even before her husband.
How do I give her constructive feedback? I'm familiar with editing nonfiction but have no idea how to skillfully criticize a piece of fiction--especially a tender first draft. My only qualification is that I read a ton of literary fiction and hope to someday publish a novel (even tho' I haven't ever finished a short story).
An aside:
A few yrs ago I took the beginning fiction class through the UW extension, wrote a few scenes for a short story, was told I "had talent," and then immediately stopped writing. I don't think any beginning fiction writer should be told she has talent. It's daunting.
I think somehow dealing with this bleed and the epilepsy will push me to my keyboard. I want to write chapter books for 8-15 year olds. In my dreams I think "JK Rowling stand aside." Realistically I'll be lucky to finish a first draft.
So finally--what do you appreciate from a first-draft reader? How do I constructively contribute to her 2nd-draft efforts?
I appreciate your accessibility--it's unusual for a novelist to answer a fan's questions.
Take care and I hope y'r feeling well these days.
Damn. I'm very sorry.
What I appreciate in criticism of a first draft is the general, overall, bird's-eye view. My first question is always, "Did you like it?" If the reader liked it, all the other problems can be fixed. If the reader didn't like it, it gets sticky. Is it because the whole thing made no sense or was too ambiguous or just plain confusing? Was it because the main character was obnoxious? Was it because it dealt with themes and/or events that the reader found objectionable? Was it because it was just bloody boring, or preachy, or cliched? Assuming the reader likes it, I then want to know: "How did you see the main character? Did you find her/him interesting? Did s/he act consistently (not rationally, hardly anyone ever acts rationally) throughout, that is, did s/he seem like her- or himself or did s/he slip out of character now and again?" Then I want to know if the reader saw, felt, smelled, heard, tasted the world in which that character lived. (Sensory detail is really important to place the reader in the story.) I want to know if the beginning was easy to get into, if the ending felt right (was it satisfying? was it too rushed? did you expect what happened? did I forget any plot threads? did you believe it?), if the middle kept you turning the pages. Only then, when the elements of story have been sorted out, do I get interested in comments on the writing. Do the image systems work together? Am I spending too much time explaining things the reader already knows? Do I use cliched phrasing or character descriptions? Do the sentences lead naturally from one to the next? Does the reader always know which character is talking? And so on.
Criticism is a tricky thing. When Kelley and I first started reading each other's first drafts, I used to get so cross when I first read her comments that she started leaving them for me to find in the morning when she'd gone to work, so that I could stamp about and curse and kick the furniture and get it out of my system, and by the time she got home I'd be rational again and willing to talk sensibly about the writing. Now, of course, I'm all sweetness and light about such things .
The two most invaluable traits in a critic are honesty and kindness. Be honest, but tell your truths kindly. Some people are just so afraid of hurting others' feelings that they steel themselves into a kind of callousness; they spit out their criticism in short, brutal sentences so they can get it over with. Then there are those who say, "Oh, it's lovely dear, loved it, wonderful, wonderful stuff. Don't change a word. I was wondering, though, whether you really meant for the main character to be a boy? I mean, he seemed more like an old woman to me. And then the stuff about the trainset? Wouldn't that have been better as a knitting needle?" In other words, "It sucked, but I just don't have the courage to tell you." One good rule: try to begin and end your comments with something you liked, even if everything else in the middle is terrible. And emphasise to your writer friend that no matter how fabulous a writer is, s/he always (and I mean always), has to rewrite, usually many times. (On second thoughts, don't emphasise the Many Times part; it's too dispiriting.) Good luck to you both.
