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Another personal point on this discussion — I don’t do book reviews. It’s a tough choice because I know a lot of my friends (here and elsewhere) write great books and I would love to help promote those. But, I have this fear that if I start reviewing the books I like, someone (maybe someone I barely know) will come up demanding that I review their book. I don’t think people HERE would do it, but this isn’t the only internet place I dwell. And, if that happens, what do I say if I don’t want to. If I say no, they might get mad and vindictive on me. If I say yes, and don’t like the book, I’d feel obligated to tell the truth about it, and again, that would make them mad. If I simply refuse to do reviews at all, I can say, “I don’t do reviews” to everyone and avoid most of the problems.
So, I guess it’s a selfish decision, but I like to avoid the drama.
–June
I don’t treat books I get for free any differently than books I pay for. I intend to read them, or I wouldn’t get them. I may not read them immediately. Eventually, however, I will pick them up and start reading. If the story grabs me, I keep reading. But, if I get bored, I put it away and don’t bother. I don’t feel obligated to read something just because I have it. The story has to actually interest me.
–June
Names are a huge problem for me, or, none at all. It’s a bit confusing. Sometimes a character shows up in my head with a name attached. They literally introduce themselves. And then I have to build the language elements around the fact that they have this name.
Other times, finding the right name is like root-canal — painful and seemingly endless. I don’t have a method. I just dig through languages, name lists. I play with mixing together letters. I pull my hair out. My housemate plots to murder me. Eventually, if the character is actually going to go somewhere, I find the right name.
Now, this is for main characters. For minor characters I just make up a list of potential names that fit with whatever the language structure for the world is (I write in my own, created, fantasy and SF worlds) and when I need a new name, I pick one and scratch it off the list.
As with nearly everything I do in writing, it’s not pretty, but it works.
–June
Honestly, I don’t think so. Oh, I would still make up stories in my head, but I don’t think I would feel the same desire to type them into a computer and make them, well, communication. I might role-play them with friends. I might talk about them. But I probably wouldn’t write them down.
I don’t think I could live without stories inside. But, the need to write them, for me, comes hand in hand with a desire to share those stories with others. And if writing had no chance of doing that, I probably wouldn’t do it.
–June
My process is chaotic.
First there’s the idea. I get a lot of ideas, but only a few of them ‘stick’. Most are just fleeting things that never go anywhere. Once an idea sticks though, I start to play with it in my mind. I attach extra bits — maybe ‘who is the main character’ or ‘what sort of world is this in’. After a bit, I feel the need to write ‘something’ on the growing idea. I don’t mean notes, outlines, character sheets — I mean scenes. I write in some POV about what could be the beginning of a story. Maybe it actually is, maybe it isn’t. And this runs anywhere from a few paragraphs to 20k words.
Then… well, nothing. I put the stuff I’ve written away on the hard drive. The story has to grow in my back brain. This isn’t an active part of the process. But, it is vital for me. The story will sit for a LONG time. Weeks at least. Months almost always. Even years. Every once and a while I pull it out and look at it again. I might write a bit more, or not, and put it away again.
Eventually, the story is ready and it goes into the active writing list. I do try to focus on completing the active writing list, but there are gaps. Active writing is just that — writing the story.
I write relatively slowly. I write a paragraph or a scene, then I go back over it to make sure it says what I mean. I spend a lot of time between scenes deciding what comes next. I revise a scene until it seems to be doing what I want it to do. Then, I move on to the next one. By the time I’m finished I have a pretty solid first draft.
The first draft still needs work, but it’s generally pretty close to ‘finished’. Second draft is nipping and tucking, correcting pacing issues and fixing any inconsistencies. But, really that only takes a short time.
Then it’s copyedited and it’s done. Move on to the next project.
Of course, sometimes, like now, I have a lot of active projects.
Currently I have:
Ciqueo — which I’ve been writing for years. It seems to be write a bit and put it away for months. So, that one is a really slow go.
The space adventures — book one is at about 15k and I’m eager to get back to that now that I’ve figured out the plot hole that was driving me insane.
Domino — which is my Julno and is still moving fine (if I could find time to write around the other things I’m doing)
And the on-going anthologies — of which book one is ALMOST done (1 story to revise. 1 to get out to the copyeditor)So, I am not efficient. But I do get things finished eventually and this is the only way that seems to work for me.
–June
When the advice attempts, intentionally or not, to get the author to change the fundamental story they want to tell. It’s fine, to me, to say that you think this or that element isn’t working, but some critiquers try to get the author to tell a story they, the critiquer, would rather read as opposed to the story the author really wants to tell.
That, I think, is the most destructive type of critique.
Though, there is one other kind that might be even worse. Fortunately, this is very rare, but I have witnessed it — the critiquer who actually tries to encourage the author to give up because ‘they will never be good enough’. This is just wrong.
–June
I think any method you use strictly will get you in trouble. You need to be flexible. You need to evaluate based on several criteria rather than just one. That said, there are a few things I use.
First, as others have said, think about who the critiquer is. Are they interested in the genre you are writing, or are they unfamiliar with it. Further, what is their ‘skill level’ — this isn’t a perfect criteria because there are professionals who are not very good at critiquing and rank beginners that have a real talent for it. But,that said, I will often give more weight to someone with a lot of success in the genre I’m writing over someone who has never finished a story.
Second, think about how the critique ‘inspires’ you. Negative comments will always make you feel bad on some level. But, after this initial ‘oh no’, a good critiques will usually inspire you. The good critique makes you think ‘oh, wow, that makes so much sense’ while the one you should reject makes you feel like you want to abandon the story.
Finally, I think you can look at percentages. If only one critiquer has a complaint while 10 others say ‘not a problem’ it’s possible that one critiquer is just presenting a personal quirk.
–June
I’m probably weird in this, but I don’t like too much organization. Somehow, when everything is neat in its folder or file, my creativity just dies. I need a bit of chaos to work.
I do ‘organize’ in the sense that I am careful about using folders on my computer — every file has its proper place and it only goes into that folder. No long strings of unrelated files on my hd.
I also use a program that comes with MSOffice called OneNote. OneNote allows me to group things into folders, but inside each folder there is just one big white page. I can paste whatever I want on that page, wherever on the page I want it. This helps me still keep a bit of chaos to it all.
On things like the shared-world (our anthology series Children of the Vortex) I need to communicate the world to other writers, so I write a ‘worldbook’ that has chapters for each element of the world I feel needs explaining.
As for handwritten notes, they go anywhere — chaos again — I love having my scene notes going side-ways across an old grocery list, or a list of phone numbers. I tend to have at least 3 spiral notebooks nearby into which notes on pretty much everything in my life will find their way.
My level of organized chaos would probably drive a lot of people crazy. But, it’s comfortable for me. I can find what I need, and yet I don’t feel like I’m in boot camp.
–June
Thank you for doing all this work. It’s a big job and I certainly could not do it.
I may be getting ahead of it all here, but I’m designing my publisher website right now, so this is on my mind. When all this is finished, will there be code to put up on my website to allow visitors to get at this database? Or would I just add a link to the database here on FM?
Whatever the answer is, it’s great. But, I eventually will need to know what to put on my own site to promote this.
–June
I don’t know the details of your book. So, this may or may not be helpful. In the off chance it is, here goes.
I sounds like you have not chosen a ‘main thread’ or storyline for the book. I would look at your 12 story arcs and decide which is the biggest, best, most compelling. Which, in essence, is the MAIN story.
If you can identify a main story, you make that the trunk (imagine a tree) and see how the other storylines attach to it. This might give you a sense of what the structure of your novel should be.
–June
I keep my notes in the OneNote program that comes with MS Office. I like it because it allows you to create folders and in each folder is just a blank page on which you can paste anything — images, words, imports from websites, etc.. You can just toss things anywhere you want on the page, as if it were a digital scrapbook, and I like that too.
I like as little order as I can get away with in notes, so this is excellent for me.
–June
I usually write in worlds of my own invention, so ‘real world’ names don’t usually work. In the world creation I usually pick a foreign language that has the right feel for the world. Then I play with the words. I try not to use the language directly, but rather create my own words that match the feel of that language. Then, when I get to names, I look at traditional names in that language/culture and play with those until I have names I like.
I do this so that I get the sense of a real language for my worlds. Of course some worlds need to have multiple cultures and languages, so I might have to do this several times for a given story.
–June
I think the point is that just because these characters made you feel nothing doesn’t mean this is true for everyone. What leaves you utterly cold could well deeply move someone else. Likewise, there may be characters who moved you deeply, who leave another reader feeling nothing at all. Just things are very personal.
–June
I have to agree with Wandering Author on this one. I think the characters in the book are richly drawn. However, they have strong flaws that some readers might find they cannot like.
I agree that writers have to build characters who are strong. But likeable? That’s often a very personal thing the author can’t completely control. It’s not unlike genre — some readers like mysteries, some hate them. If a reader hates mysteries there’s not much a mystery writer can do to make that reader like their book.
–June
