The Three Worst Critiquers You Could Ask For...

Critique Itch: The overwhelming desire to let other people read your work, whether complete or incomplete, in search of an opinion.

We all come down with it at some point, whether it's early on in our first draft, or later in revisions, or, for a lucky few, when the whole thing is polished and complete.  I, myself, have had the itch for quite a while now.  But care must be taken when we seek out opinions and critiques about our baby.  There are certain people that just shouldn't be asked for an honest opinion about anything in terms of evaluating you or something you have crafted.  You wouldn't ask your son's first grade teacher to diagnose a rash on your left arm, now would you?  No.  Because they don't have the context to be able to evaluate something like that.  

There are three people you should never ask to critique your novel, no matter how much fiction they read...

1.  Your Mom

Yes, your mom has hopefully been there for you through thick and thin, skinned knees and lost loves, graduations and birthdays.  She has been the guiding force in your life for as long as you can remember, and you ask her opinion about any big venture in your life.  The problem with asking mom to critique your writing is that she is waaaaay too close to you to give any kind of objective opinion.  She has always thought you were a winner, no matter how defective your science project was or how ridiculous you looked in those acid washed jeans pinned tight to your ankles.  She will tell you it's wonderful; everything a good story should be and that everyone will love it for sure.  She won't mention the giant plot hole that is staring her in the face from the get-go, or the complete lack of sympathy she feels for pretty much all of your characters.

2.  Your Best Friend

No matter how many fights you've gotten in, or how many boyfriends/girlfriends you've stolen from each other, your best friend has stuck by you.  They may even be the type to be relatively honest with you when you try on something atrocious or start dating an ex-con.  But when you ask them to  critique your writing, they will:

 a) be too scared to tell you what they really think

b) be too eager to spite you after you got the hot guy's/girl's number last night

or c) not have a clue what makes writing good and shrug their shoulders at you

Best friends are incapable of being objective, much like good ol' mom, above.

3.  Your spouse/SO

When you ask your spouse to critique your novel that they have seen you pouring your spirit into for the last few weeks, months, even years, they will look at you like a deer in the headlights and may even feign an illness just to get out of it.  Of course, they may be curious to read the thing you've kept secret and been obsessed with for so long, but to give an opinion on it is a different thing, entirely.  There is no right answer for them; no opinion of theirs that you will accept.  If they say it is wonderful, you will immediately be suspicious that they are placating you and get upset.  If they say it is garbage, you will immediately be suspicious they are just mad because you spent the last twelve date nights finishing your book and get upset.  The best they can hope for is a harmless indifference toward the whole thing, after which you will also become suspicious and get upset.  It's like setting a trap for them.  Not very nice.

Now, I'm not saying you shouldn't let these people read your book, because of course you should.  They will most likely want proof that you are, in fact, not insane and all that time spent obsessing about imaginary people and places was not for nothing. I just don't think these are the right people to seek a critique from.  They are your loved ones and think highly of you no matter what.  But when you feel the itch coming on, you don't want that.  You want validation.  You want to know whether or not you suck.  Hopefully, your mom, best friend, and spouse would never tell you that you suck (as a writer), even if it is, in fact, true.  

So get realistic and get a beta reader, critique partner, or writing buddy that will look at your writing objectively and critically, with their writing knowledge behind them.  It will help you learn to swallow some of the tough criticism that will no doubt come later in the querying stage.

Help! I'm Trapped in My Novel and I Can't Get Out!

So... I was perusing the ol' interweb for the first time in, oh I don't know... A MONTH, and I noticed that my blog has accumulated quite a lot of dust and cobwebs in my absence.  Can it really be that I haven't posted anything for almost 4 weeks?!  I kind of feel like I have this new exciting and adventurous relationship with a vampire (my novel).  He's super mysterious and complicated and seems to suck every bit of my time, energy, and charisma and all he gives me in return is a negative self-image and withdrawals when he's not around.  By the way, just want to clarify my novel is not about vampires, nor are there any references to vampires; pretty sure that wagon is a tad full if you know what I mean...

Anyways, I suppose I just wanted to share that I am, in fact, alive and well; just pouring my soul into this life-sucking manuscript.  Being the perfectionist that I am, I have already rewritten the beginning twice and several chapters in the middle before the end has even been written, so it's a slow, slow process.  I am in a good place, though, and I think the fact that I am so absorbed in it is a testament to that.  The story is really just flowing out of me and my characters are beginning to speak for themselves.  I don't feel like I have to force it as much anymore, which feels wonderful.  I might just finish this thing by the end of the year after all!

I can't finish a post without offering something useful to the world, so I thought of some more music to share.  The album is "Divenire" by Ludovico Einaudi.  This album has been absolutely instrumental (no pun intended) to my book and my writing process in general, in particular the song "Primavera."  If you like  to listen to music while you write but are concerned that words will distract you, listen to this album.  It's just awesome.

That is all.  Happy writing folks!

Wal-Mart: the Enemy of Setting

We all know by now, or at least you should if you are a fiction writer, that setting is a character; that place should live, breathe, and move just as your characters do.  I can't tell you how many boring, static descriptions of places I've read in the first few pages that literally lulled me to sleep.  But aside from being static and lifeless, I'm finding many settings in fiction to be indistinguishable in their sameness.  And what do we expect?  With a Wal-Mart in every town, McDonald's and Starbucks peppering every corner, what is left to distinguish one place from another?

With emphasis on corporations, chains, and globalization, I think our culture is slowly moving away from the importance of place, and what makes place unique.  What ever happened to all the dives, greasy-spoons, and local haunts that make a place memorable?  They have all seemingly been replaced by generic, cookie-cutter restaurants and hang-outs.  And when was the last time we all stopped and truly took in our surroundings, categorizing each element of the place we call home? 

 If you are writing a story set in the desert, I want to feel the relentless sun, the dryness on my skin, see the southwestern style stuccoed houses, etc.  If you're writing about the south, I want to pass by the huge plantation houses, smell the magnolias, and sip sweet tea on the porch with your characters. 

I think Faulkner is an excellent example of an author that gave us memorable settings; places we could feel and smell, see and hold in our thoughts, as if we were really there.  In his novel, A Rose For Emily, he doesn't just describe the house where Emily lives as a bland, typical house somewhere in the south.  He artfully paints us a picture of a crumbling Mississippi town in the post-civil war south:

"It was a big, squarish frame house that had once been white, decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies in the heavily lightsome style of the seventies, set on what had once been our most select street. But garages and cotton gins had encroached and obliterated even the august names of that neighborhood; only Miss Emily's house was left, lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps--an eyesore among eyesores."

 I suppose my point in all of this anti-Wal-Mart nonsense is simply to stress the importance of place in the world of fiction.  We are all products of place, and the characters in our novels should be no different.  Whether it be a fictional setting or a real one, make it memorable and alive and it will help bring your characters to life as well.  Be selective in your description, though.  It's quality, not quantity, we're after.

Chapbooks, Collections, and Poems... Oh my!

Lately I've been pondering the idea of submitting a collection of poetry for publication, because let's face it: I clearly do not have enough going on and what's another writing project, right?  But seriously, I have wanted to publish a chapbook since I was about sixteen years old, I just didn't know how to go about it.  I still don't, really, but I'd like to think I'm closer than I was all those years ago. 

Anyway, I have been revising and gathering some of my favorites that seem to coalesce well enough.  I am an avid fan of the Poetic Asides Blog on the Writers' Digest site and frequent it more times than I'd like to admit.  I was checking a new post the other day and saw one of the editors has begun a series titled, "Assembling and Submitting a Poetry Collection"- what are the odds?  He has found a publisher for his collection of poetry and has decided to share his experience with the world.  I highly recommend checking it out if you are in the market for some poetry publishing advice.

All these publication ponderings have me itching to share my writing with the world, so I decided I'll share a few pieces of my own on the blog in hopes that it will ease the super scary transition to submitting a complete work of fiction or poetry.  So read, comment, or just pass right on through...

This is a series of senryu I wrote while sitting in the waiting room of a hospital:

I wait in the room
where waiting is implied;
a tissue-laden limbo

Intensive care;
vulnerability that
opens at the back

Reconciled beneath
the many wires and machines,
lies his spirit, marred.

                      Amy Glamos

RTW: Tardy As Usual...

Hello strangers.  I swear this book is sucking the life right out of me, but from what I hear, that is a good thing.  I'm sufficiently invested.  Anyway, my tardiness is showing again but I felt compelled to participate in yesterday's Road Trip Wednesday question, seeing as it's a phenomenal one.

YA Highway's Road Trip Wednesday question of the week:

What song would you love to see a book based on?

I actually spent a lot of time thinking this one over, and though I tried really hard to distance the question from my own WIP, sadly I just couldn't.  I am so immersed in the story I can't seem to direct my creative kool-aid down another avenue.  So, after much hair pulling and frustrated groaning, I came up with one of the songs that has been a significant influence in my own WIP.

I am sure most of you out there are familiar with Florence and the Machine.  I find their music to be very helpful while I'm writing and I listen to it often.  Every one of their songs has a super epic feel to it and I guess that helps me write.  The song that I've played so many times my kids are humming it around the house is "No Light, No Light".  It encompasses a lot of what my characters are going through and seems to summarize the overall tone of my story pretty well.  I don't want to give too much away because I'm an anxious ball of nerves when it comes to discussing the premise of my book, but I wanted to share the song that has fueled much of the story for me.

Here's the song, in case you aren't familiar with it:

(I chose not to provide the music video for this song, which depicts gyrating men, choir boys, voodoo, and other wacky things that seem to be very typical of a Florence and the Machine video, because unfortunately I have none of these things going on in my story.  The lyrics are the focus here.  Maybe in the next book, I'll include some of this to liven it up a bit...)


And now the hermit is telling me it's time to crawl back into the writing cave.  It sure was nice to see you, sunshine.  Does anyone else have a particular artist or song that either fuels their writing or should be made into a book?