Right now, unpublished as I am, I have the time to take one draft through a workshop -- I doubt I'll have that kind of time if/when I publish, so I'll have to come up with a new method for all this then.
I can't really say how I pick which advice to follow except that I look for stuff that shows the reader "gets" what I'm aiming for and the story and that seems to help make the story more of what I see it being. I do pay more attention to comments that are left by 2 or more people (the more comments on the same thing, the more seriously I take it -- I mean, if EVERYONE is confused about why character A would thank Character B except me, then it obviously needs to be cleared up for the reader). I do my revisions based on those comments, then revisions based on any major changes I realize will need to be made (I don't go back and start the current revision over or I'd NEVER get it done).
The next read is beta readers, which I have yet to figure out how to select. I want people both who are familiar with the story and people who can come in with a fresh perspective. I also want a few readers who aren't writers since writers seem to notice things that the average reader would never even think of. My hope is to have the version the betas read close enough to done that all it needs is some tweaks. But we'll see since I've never gotten that far yet. I hope to have A.C. ready for betas this fall.
Once I get published, I have no idea what I'm going to do. The chapter by chapter method of the workshop will definitely be too slow. I am trying to rely more on my own instincts -- not showing every draft to someone/anyone for validation that I'm on the right track, but I have no idea how what I'm learning now will translate into revising the next book without the workshop to help, if that makes sense.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2008-05-27 04:07 am (UTC)I can't really say how I pick which advice to follow except that I look for stuff that shows the reader "gets" what I'm aiming for and the story and that seems to help make the story more of what I see it being. I do pay more attention to comments that are left by 2 or more people (the more comments on the same thing, the more seriously I take it -- I mean, if EVERYONE is confused about why character A would thank Character B except me, then it obviously needs to be cleared up for the reader). I do my revisions based on those comments, then revisions based on any major changes I realize will need to be made (I don't go back and start the current revision over or I'd NEVER get it done).
The next read is beta readers, which I have yet to figure out how to select. I want people both who are familiar with the story and people who can come in with a fresh perspective. I also want a few readers who aren't writers since writers seem to notice things that the average reader would never even think of. My hope is to have the version the betas read close enough to done that all it needs is some tweaks. But we'll see since I've never gotten that far yet. I hope to have A.C. ready for betas this fall.
Once I get published, I have no idea what I'm going to do. The chapter by chapter method of the workshop will definitely be too slow. I am trying to rely more on my own instincts -- not showing every draft to someone/anyone for validation that I'm on the right track, but I have no idea how what I'm learning now will translate into revising the next book without the workshop to help, if that makes sense.