Today, Nicole and I met up at a Starbucks to do some writing reviewing. I think we picked the world’s smallest Starbucks. There was one free table when I got there and there were only five tables total! Add in a co-ed bathroom and my vote is in for smallest.
Anyway, it’s good having someone to chat with who’s going through some of the same writer-ly problems. I thought I’d enumerate a few here. Leave a comment if you have some similar problems or any advice on overcoming them.
- Feedback from critique groups: This was a problem I proposed to Nicole. I recently took the third chapter of my novel to a monthly critique group. (Nicole has read my manuscript in whole and is usually the person I bounce changes off of before doing anything drastic.) One of the critiques I was given at the group meeting was to change the ending of the chapter. The father of one of my protagonists reveals a big plot element at the end, and the critique group said that he gave up the information too easily! They were shocked that he would reveal this information to his high-school age children and a trusted family friend. In the meeting, I told them that the children are going to help him solve the problem created by this plot element and their reaction was that these characters are children and they are too young to help. I was appalled! In the 1920s, most teens over 15 held a job and not many went to college. Getting married at age 18 was common and many people were working in their career at the same age. At 16 and 17, my characters are practically adults. All the same, this group recommended I change it so that the father does not as quickly divulge said information.
I had an issue with this. If the father knew that his children were going to be helping, why would he hide the information from them? Nicole knows what happens a few scenes later and agreed with me that I should keep it as is; it makes sense in the grand scheme of things.
So this brings me to my problem, Do you ever get feedback from a critique that you completely disagree with? Does it make you feel compelled to change something in your story? When do you decide to ignore it or change your plot based on it? - Planning a story: This is something I’ve been toying with. My completed novel, I wrote out a multi-page outline, complete with a chapter-by-chapter breakdown of what was going to happen in each part. I’m working on a similar outline for the story I’m going to write for NaNoWriMo. Just to be different, there’s a novel I’m working on casually right now that I’m not outlining and trying to ‘fly by the seat of my pants.’ Nicole is in the middle of one story with an outline, and she hasn’t yet started outlining her NaNo, and isn’t sure if she plans to.
Question number two: Do you have better luck outlining a novel before beginning, or figuring the plot out as you go? Do you ever write yourself into a corner without an outline? Do you find you lose plot points? With an outline, do you find writing point-to-point is too boring and lose interest?
I’ve love to hear any and all opinions on these questions! Dealing with feedback and planning are probably the two hardest points for me as a writer. Thanks for taking the time to read!
Taking On a World of Words 