The Value of Peers

I know I'm not the first one who has asked peers to review their writings, but there is one thing that I am finding irksome about the idea of peer revision.  In my college's writer's guild, we made sure to write in rules to prevent this.  And that is...

Just saying what is wrong with the writing.

Whenever I have someone read my work, I don't just want to hear what I'm doing wrong but what I should do to fix it.  This is how we can grow to become better writers, by learning from each other what our weaknesses are and how we can make them stronger.

Which leads me into my writer's tip

Whenever you read someone's work and they ask, "What do you think of it?" follow the "Good News / Bad News" style.

Good news - Tell the writer something they did good about the story.

Bad News - Tell the writer something they need to fix and how to fix it.

If you keep it simple to one or two bad news items, that's great.  You don't want to overload someone with bad news and only have one good news item.  Make sure they also stay equal (1 good news for every bad news).  This will avoid overloading as well.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

I write to allow my soul to live.  I write fiction to allow my mind to live.  I write literature to allow my body to live.

Spring is a time for growing

Hey everyone,

I haven't posted in a long time due to being busy with school work and such, but here's the latest update.

I am working on several stories yet again and tempted to pick up writing one of my novels yet again.  I have been finding my characterization anymore is getting weaker due to the fact I'm trying to focus on the plot too much.  So, I have been going back in some of my stories and bring some of the characterization forward, making it not just a plot story.

So, into the writer's tip...

Remember to ensure your characters are well rounded.  If your character has reservations about killing someone and is forced to shoot someone, don't just fire the gun.  Get into your character's head and let the gun shake in  his hands a little bit.  Each character you create should have a character sheet drawn up on them, telling you everything about how they look and what they do.  This will especially help when you go to write the story and the issue comes up.  I'd suggest freewriting about one character during a writing session; you may be surprised with what you come up with.

RANDOM SENTENCE OF THE WEEK

The market finally came to a close and Martin stood outside, sad to see the doors closed.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

I write like I'm a detective.  Sometimes my characters don't tell me everything I should know to write their life's story, but they sure do drop a lot of clues for me to write about.