The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Reaction

So....

I received my feedback from agent Laurie McLean of the Larsen Pomada Literary Agency (won at the Boom Effect auction to raise money for Tee Morris' daughter). WhenI first mentioned I won this critique, some people asked me to share the feedback when I received it. I shall summarize and include my initial knee-jerk reaction. Then I'll tell you what I think now!!! 

Besides my main character, who Laurie liked, I need to work on my other characters because they're one-dimensional and cliched.
-Okay, fine, I can rewrite all my characters.

My villan is to 100% evil.
-I know you're not supposed to do that, was trying not to do that, but guess I failed.

My love interests are just props for my main character.
-Okay, I liked the two guys, but, oh well.

Too many convenient occurences in the plot.
-Well, I guess I didn't know how else to do it!

The cut away scenes for a different POV is disruptive instead of informative.
-Ack! I added the second POV to try and reveal more world building etc. Okay, epic fail.

I took too long to get into the story.
-Again, I know you're not supposed to do this, really tried to jump right in. *sigh*

Of course there were good things she said too, but on that first reading, those barely registered from my eyeballs to my brain. All I could focus on was the problems pointed out to me by this amazing, professional agent. Of course I had that eensy weensy part of me (okay, most of me) that wanted her to say it was brilliant (HA!) so I was feeling quite deflated. Yes, tears threatened to appear.

My temporary fix was to go for a long walk and listen to one of my favourite podcasts Writing Excuses. Forty-five minutes later I arrived back home, not jumping for joy, but feeling better. I took the advice of my writing friends and se the critique aside and have been letting my brain work on the problems.

This week at our little writing group we've created (just three of us genre writers) I read them the bulk of the letter, and it really didn't seem so bad!

She said I write cleanly.
-YAY! That's great!

She thought my main character was "delightful".
-Whoohoo! That's a good start.

She said I excel in making the reader feel they are in the Las Vegas high-stakes poker world.
-Well, that's a pretty darn good thing!!

She said I write the parts about poker and working out "with mastery".
-Wow, wait, what? Mastery? Holy crap! LOL. Those of you who know me a little won't be too surprised by that...

And the best part? The advice she gave me at the end. I hope she doesn't mind if I quote her here, but it's really terrific!!! She said, "So, you have some work to do. But great writing is not written, it is rewritten. I hope your editing phase goes well and your book becomes stronger in the process. Best of luck."

Wise words, am I right? For every writer.

My writing group friends and I helped me out, we talked through a few solutions and I'm really feeling better about the whole thing now. I haven't figured out exactly how to fix things but I'm on the right track. I'm still going to let it sit for a bit before tackling it again.

Thanks for listening, and remember, great writing is not written, it's rewritten! ;)

Get Published

I'm a little behind on posting this, but the episode of Get Published where Michael Plested interviews me is now AVAILABLE!! It's Get Published Episode 35 - How Sandra Wickham's Career has Evolved. (get it, Evolved, I'm in the Evolve anthology..*cough*)

I'm really happy with the way it turned out, I was honestly a little afraid I was going to come across as a total dork...but it's really good! I hope you get a chance to listen and I'd love to hear your feedback. You can listen here:

http://www.michellplested.com/getpublished/get-published-episode-35-how-sandra-wickhams-career-has-evolved/

Advice to New Writers

I'm writing this blog entry to participate in the Peevish Penman "My Best Advice to New Writers Blogfest."
You can find all the blog entries giving out great advice here.

Being a new writer myself, my advice is going to be pretty basic.

1. Commit Yourself
If you want to make a living as a writer, if you want to be published, you need to put in the time. It doesn't happen magically, despite us wishing it would. Treat it like any other job where you need to put in the hours and learn and improve as you go. As a Professional Fitness Competitor, I had no choice but to train and diet six days a week. There was NO OPTION. Now I treat my writing (ediitng, researching, outlining) the same way. There's no option, no excuse, you just have to do it.

2. Support Group
Gather supportive people around you, whether you join a writing group, create one yourself, or keep close any of those people who will cheer you along. I've found my support people by attending Conventions, which I also highly recommend. I've also met them on writing message boards (Absolute Write Water Cooler is my choice), Twitter and through blogging. Writing is NOT easy, and editing is worse. (hee hee) When times are tough, those in your support group can give you the applause, shoulder to cry on or kick in the butt that you need.

3. Submit!
In order to submit something, it has to be your very best work. That means, first, you need to finish it. Yes, finish it! Finish that short story or novel and then revise it until it's your absolute best work at that time. Then, send it in. Don't be afraid of rejection letters, they are just stepping stones (or ladder rungs, whichever you prefer) on your road to publication. Celebrate each rejection because it means you finished something, polished it the best you could and sent it out into the world! That's worth throwing a rejection letter party.

I encourage you to check out all the posts for Blogfest and get writing! :)

Who Do You Write Like?

Here's something fun I found going around on Twitter. I am a little skeptical as to the results, however, since apparently I write like Stephen King. Really? I mean, really?!! Wow, that should be GREAT for my career then. Start lining up the film companies. (hee hee) It's still fun to try:

I write like
Stephen King

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

When is a draft complete?

I am working away on draft two of novel number two and I am not sure, but I think it might be time to set it aside.

I've done some major changes, deletions, rewrites and rearranging.

What I'm not sure about, is when you know it's time to say "enough" to one draft and set it aside until the next draft.

Help! How do you, dear reader, know when your draft is complete?