GAINING PERSPECTIVE

The path to a polished, completed piece of writing has many steps. If you're like me, some parts fill you with joy and delight, whereas others involve a fair amount of jaw clenching and teeth grinding. How long the process takes varies with the individual, but proof reading, copy editing, rereading (many times) are part of the process. And that’s before you receive feedback from your beta readers. Each step involves either larger or smaller revisions.

Gaining distance from your creation is notoriously difficult to achieve, but a helpful exercise, if you’re at the reviewing stage, is to examine your story from the standpoint of critical analysis. If this reminds you of being back at school writing essays on Shakespeare, bear in mind, that critical analysis allows you to view your efforts with a more dispassionate eye.

You don’t have to write an essay here though, simply spend a few minutes reflecting on your work, and answer the following questions in couple of sentences:

         What is the theme, and how does your protagonist embody the 

         theme? 

         How does your main character change – and if he/she doesn’t – why not?

         What conflicts – external and internal – does your protagonist face? Outline the

         progression and resolution of those conflicts.

         How does your choice of narrator affect the story?

         What roles do your minor characters play, and what is their relationship to the main 

         character?

         How does your setting influence the characters and the narrative?

This exercise can give you a different perspective, and it's worthwhile investing a little time on it - because you can be sure discerning readers will be thinking about these aspects.

Writing Update

I’m editing chapter 15 of my supernatural tale – and facing my eternal dichotomy of enjoying the work and wanting it finished! One or two major decorative additions need to be placed throughout after this first edit, and I'm looking forward to a reread - stepping back from the print face so to speak – and getting an overview of how the story hangs together as a whole (plus giving thought to the questions posted above).

I've some vague stirrings and ideas surfacing now and then for number two of the series - and enjoying an anticipatory thrill. 

A post I read yesterday - more like a book, so I didn't finish it, but did bookmark it - has made me realize I need to actually sit down and write out a concrete marketing plan, instead of just thinking, 'Oh, I'll stick on Amazon and tweet about it.' I know...duh! But committing to self-publishing/e-publishing isn't a decision taken lightly, because apart from the time and research involved (on top of writing and current social media activities) it's business. Not my strong point.

On the other hand, my first novel, AN UNSTILL LIFE©, a two stranded tale of love, loss and obsession, is ready to go, so I'm meditating on a cover and mulling over Create Space as an option for printing. Lots of thoughts rolling round in my head.

Have made absolutely no progress on any of my social media goals, but, um, hopefully soon!

Today’s Haiku

WINTER

storm gusts growl outside

trees groan branches crack break free –

nature cleans her house

Useful Links:

If you’re looking for blogs on creative writing, you’ll find some great links on this website:

http://www.copyblogger.com/creative-writing-blogs-2011/

This is a truly comprehensive article: 

7 Strategies and 110 Tools to Help Indie Authors Find Readers and Reviewers

http://ow.ly/tIdkZ 

Join me on Twitter at: teagankearney@modhaiku

Thanks for visiting my blog, and please do leave a comment.

To all story lovers out there, good reading, and to those of you who write, good writing.