Hi! Terry here with our question of the week:
We all get notes from editors, beta readers and agents. Sometimes we don’t agree. When you get feedback to change something that you really want to keep, how do you let it go or justify keeping it?
I’ve been in writing critique groups ever since I first thought about writing a book. In the beginning I panicked over every note anyone gave me.
Change the name of the protagonist because the woman critiquing knew someone with that name once and didn’t like them? Sure. But what about the other woman in the group who loved the name?
One person thought the descriptions were beautiful. Another wanted half of them cut. Yet another wanted to add his own ideas.
Needless to say, conflicting critiques put me in a tizzy.
After a while, I learned a few valuable lessons:
1) Sit on the critiques for a day, a few days, a week. As long as it takes to look at them with a cold eye.
2) Consider the source. I don’t mean that the critique is only valid if it comes from someone whose work you admire. One of my best critique partners ever is a non-fiction writer who doesn’t even read mysteries. But he has an uncanny ability to get to the heart of what I’m trying to do and make suggestions that work. Also, a good reader doesn’t necessarily have to be a good writer.
3) Before changing anything because of a note, make sure the comment addresses what your intention is with your manuscript, not what their idea of what the piece should be.
4) Each member of a critique group has a “theme.” One may be more interested in overall plot, another in depth of character, another in grammar and style, yet another in descriptions. If you’re aware of that, you’ll be more comfortable with assessing how much a comment mean to you. For example, when I write a first draft, I often neglect description of surroundings. So if a critique partner is sensitive to description, they may zero in on that, and I tuck away the comments for when I actually am ready to write the descriptions.
If you are with a critique group or beta readers long enough, you’ll learn to trust both them and yourself.
BIG NOTES. At some point, I began getting notes from agents and editors. Those are ones that I pay most attention to.
My first agent, as far as I can tell, never read my books. She never gave me any notes, so I was surprised when my second one said of course she would read a manuscript before she sent it off to my editor—and she would send me notes. I will never forget the first notes she sent me. She said: “This is good, but you aren’t done yet.” That turned out to be one of the most important notes anyone ever gave me. Every book I wrote, she would say the same thing: you aren’t done yet, you need more (fill in the blank—chapter, twist, wrap-up). Each time I said, “That’s not true. It’s done. I don’t need anything else.” And she would reply, “Fine, I can send it this way. It’s okay.” I would go off and pout…and then…and then. Oh, wait.
Every single time, I would come up with a new twist, a new way of ending the book, new thinking about what happened. And the book was stronger. I learned to trust her. She’s no longer my agent, but that note lives on.
Every time I finish a book, I think…I’m not really done. What does this need to make it complete? It happened in Deep Dive, my most recent Jessie Madison book. I was very satisfied with the way everything worked out. I knew who “dunnit,” knew how it ended. But that night when I was in the bathtub, a little voice said to me, “You couldn’t leave well enough alone.” I gasped (literally) because the voice was one of the characters in my book. And I knew in the moment that the book was not done. Not at all. There was another twist—a big one. And it made the book so much better!
Bottom line, if someone tells me words are extraneous or not working as they stand, I’ll take the comment seriously. But I’ll consider all of what I talked about above, and make my decision based on whether note is in line with my intention…and even if it doesn’t, I may circle back and take another look. Golden words aren’t indelible.
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