Samhain Publishing Ltd Weblog

The Last Things I Learned Before I Published

I’ve been writing a long long long time and submitting a long long long time. A few summers ago, I was invited to join a critique group with 3 multi-published members of my chapter. I was honored and terrified. Though I’d known these women for years, well, showing them my work terrified me. I’d never been part of a face to face critique group and this was immersion, you know? But I went and it was a good decision. I learned a lot. A lot. Two of the authors moved away and another joined, also multi-published and a great editor to boot, and I’m still learning.

I learned more about plotting (still not so good at that, actually – I have to write by the seat of my pants.)

I learned to accept challenges to stretch my imagination and skills.

I’ve learned to write crisper point of view.

I’ve learned that what I see in my head doesn’t always come out that way on paper. (You should see us blocking out some of the actions in each other’s books!)

I’ve learned how to brainstorm someone else’s book with a page of notes to go on (and how to share them. Did I mention I was intimidated????)

I’ve learned “till” is not the word I think it is and “amazing” is supposed to have a religious connotation.

But most importantly, I’ve learned that every word counts. EVERY word. Revision now takes forever because I just can’t pass up that one sentence with the one word that sounds “off” to me.

Beyond that, emotion doesn’t just belong on every page, but in every paragraph. The hero and heroine need to react to one another’s dialogue and actions. What the reader can’t see, the reader can’t know, and for heaven’s sake, these are love stories! They need to have emotion. I just never knew, well, how much :)

What have you learned that’s helped you do what you love?