I’ve been having a hard time finishing my current work-in-progress. That’s really begun to bother me in the last few weeks. Granted, enrolling in an advanced degree program of any kind is not necessarily conducive to finishing any non-school-related projects. (I started the second semester of my Master of Arts in Creative Writing program this week. More on that at the end.) But I did think I would be further along by now.

During my semester break, after company left, I completed the usual pre-second-draft steps.

1. I printed out my entire manuscript. (Sorry, rainforest, it’s necessary. But I did print in the 2-page format on the back side of already used paper.)
2. I sat down in the morning one day and read the entire book through with a notepad to make notes of things that needed to be changed or reordered, and a bright pen (I don’t like trying to find my black inkpen writing on a sheet with black typing, so I use bright blue or purple or green) to write notes on the ms. I wrote “Del?” next to several scenes that were only in notes stage in the first draft once I realized they may not be necessary and could probably be deleted.
3. Then I opened the last version of the first draft and re-saved it with a new name. That way no matter what I change or delete in the second draft, I can always find my original material in the previous file. I start the filename of the second draft with “2D” so I know which draft it is. I always end with the date so I know the latest version, and so any previous changes can be found should I decide I have to see it the old way again. My new filename might now be “2D Fluff N Fold July 13″.

Then I sat there.

Nothing. Couldn’t figure out why my mind was a blank. The next step should be easy – the manuscript was covered in notes and I had another piece of paper with notes on things that needed to be done or re-thought.

Still nothing. I went and dug a hidden dark chocolate bar out of the back of the cupboard. Maybe I needed to be more comfortable. I pulled out my favorite winter blanket and kicked off my slippers and propped myself up against a pillow on the already comfortable couch.

Then I remembered a question I had to ask my husband, so I went over to my mail program and sent him an email. You know what happened next. Then it was the end of the day and I’d pretty much accomplished nothing.

After a week of this kind of torture, I had to get ready for school again, so I was at the university library checking out books. I found a book on how to write romances (The Art of Romance Writing by Valerie Parv) with a diagram in it. Maybe I needed something visual. I went home and drew the diagram on a big piece of butcher paper. Then I went through my book and tried to fill in the diagram. Amazingly, it worked! I had all the elements I needed in the plot – as I “knew” I did. I just hadn’t been able to look at 100 pages in a pile and figure out what to do next. Not this time anyway.

Since I’ll have to be working on my romance in between homework assignments, and since having a visual aid helped me a lot, I’m going to make index cards for those boxes on the diagram. Then I can focus on one thing, the next thing I have to write. That will make writing in fits and bursts somewhat easier, especially when I’ll also be working on other writing assignments for class.

With a little luck and some hard work, I hope to get a lot more done on my romance this semester!

Master Degree Notes: I’ve been trying to keep you updated on my degree program so you can live vicariously through me if you like. I’ve had “school-brain” since about the second week of school, and it didn’t go away during the semester break. I think it’s similar to what my friends with new babies called “baby-brain” during the late stages of their pregnancies and now with their babies. You simply can’t keep track of anything else anymore! LOL!

But I am keeping track of school stuff. It’s going to be an awesome and challenging semester! I’ve only been to one class so far, Popular Fiction, the one I’ve been most looking forward to, and the reading list is huge! We have to read a book a week – big ones like The Fellowship of the Ring and Dune – and we have a writing assignment each week, and we have academic readings about how to write or the theory or whatever. Sheesh! And that’s just one class! I’ll keep you updated as to how it all goes along!

Looking back over the past 100 weeks of my blogs, I discovered a pattern. Even though we set the topics as a group, I can still manage to swing my focus over to:

Getting serious about writing.

Finding time to write / Writer moms.

Giving Pep talks.

Yeah, it is all about me and my hang-ups! So here are some of my favorite blogs, grouped according to my writing struggles. Hope some of you can relate and be encouraged.

Getting Serious About Writing.

1. NaNoWriMo Meets Flylady. The blog that started it all. The philosophy behind Routines for Writers is establishing writing routines to make writing an automatic part of your life. What Flylady did for cleaning, we wanted to do for writing.

2. A Writer’s Business Plan. This blog talks about when I started getting serious about writing—not as a hobby but as a career. If you don’t have a business plan or goals, this blog will help get you started.

3. Making Writing a Priority. Time to walk the talk. All the dreaming in the world won’t get your book written. You’ve got to make it happen. It takes Passion and Discipline.

Finding Time to Write/Writer Moms

4. A Writer’s Shiny Sink or 10 Ways to Write Every Day. I think of this blog as my sleeper blog. When it first came out, it received normal hits/responses. But then, someone sent a tweet and it got retweeted and passed around for a few days. I’m guessing this is a small taste of what it is like to have your novel debut. If you were one of the RT’ers, thanks—it was fun!

5. Summer Survival Guide for Writer Moms. I like this blog because it is a stealth-way to include two other favorites that are linked inside it (25 Ways to Write While Distracted and 30 Ways to Keep Kids Busy so You Can Write.) Also, it’s the blog where I share my discovery of the “Interrupt Cards” which has completely changed how I write with kids in the house. These cards alone are worth the effort of 100 weeks of blogging!

6. Focus, Focus, Focus. What happens when I have unlimited time to write? Uh oh, better find my focus and fast.

Pep Talks

7. One Big Mountain. Oh, boy is it ever! This blog compares the writer’s journey to hiking up a mountain.

8. Takes Longer Than You Think. Enough said?

9. Author Crush Month: Lois Lowry. Author Crush month in Feb is one of my favorite features that makes our blog unique. While it is somewhat scary and intimidating to approach an author I admire to ask for a piece of his or her time and expertise, I have found the month to be a great encouragement to me and a big hit with our readers. All of our guest blogs are just excellent, but this one in particular found me right where I am in my writing life. Lois starts out writing about her first writing table, tucked in a little corner of her husband’s den and ends with:

And I have a comfortable chair, now. It swivels and tilts and twirls. So different from the stiff ladderback that I placed in front of the little table in the corner once!  But it wasn’t the chair, or the corner, that mattered then, or that matters now, really. It’s the feeling of the space, and the sanctity of what can happen here.

10. Avoiding Discouragement—A Melodrama. Totally different from my other blogs. I had fun with this one, making up characters named Optimist, Discouragement, and Edi (for Edification). Can Optimist survive the writer’s life?

Thank you readers for returning every week to be a part of our blog. We are thrilled you are here. It’s been fun to get to know some of you through the comments and visiting your blogs and websites. We’ll spread some more reader love in Sept when we have our second anniversary.

Every now and then you have a week when you find all kinds of great information and interesting articles. It’s been such a week for me. For instance, a few weeks ago I was cursing Microsoft Word (I really should try Apple’s Pages program since it’s on my computer) because it kept changing what I was typing. Elsa Neal and the Blood-Red Pencil authors wrote a blog “How to Stop Word Messing with Your Manuscript.” Great Stuff. And it looks like Elsa is offering a Word 4 Writers course as well. I don’t know anything about it, but now you have the link so you can check it out yourself.

Then I found a guest blog by Robb Grindstaff (doesn’t he sound like a wizard from Middle Earth?) on Helene Young’s blog/web site. Here Robb discusses the 3 Ds of writing this week – Dialog, Description and Despair. Interesting, huh? It doesn’t hurt that he starts out talking about how cool AVATAR is, the movie my husband worked on.    Looks like the article will be in three parts Monday, Wednesday and Friday this week, so take a look and see if there is anything you can take away from it.

The theme of Writer Unboxed that caught my eye is one I try to keep in mind fairly regularly. (And yesterday was one of those days I really needed to keep it in mind!) Have More Fun is advice you can’t get enough of in my opinion. Your joy is the reverse osmosis filter for your writing well. You need it to keep your well overflowing with fresh water. Hmm, maybe I’ll have to talk about this more later myself.

A friend of mine suggested last week I check out the Write It Sideways blog. I quickly found an article I liked on organization called “6 Organization Tips for Disorganized Writers.” Maybe you’ll find it useful, too. What I found most interesting is that the author, Suzannah, is very organized at work but not so much at home, and her writing is somewhere in the middle. Hmm, something to think about in my own life. She’s also got an article called “5 Reasons Fiction Writers Should Blog” if you’re blogging or thinking about blogging.

Speaking of blogging, Christina Katz of Writer Mama fame wrote “15 Aspects That Might Need Your Attention” about things you need to check and possibly fix on your blog site.

Now that I’ve shared some interesting posts with you, I guess we should all get back to our writing! Enjoy your writing and enjoy your week!

The kids are out of school, we’ve had a few days of down time, fun time, relaxation time. Now it’s time for them to settle into their own fun and let mom get in some large amounts of UNINTERRUPTED writing time. Yes?

Well, not for me today. Today, mom’s internal volcano erupted. I don’t remember what happened, but whatever lit my fuse this morning was small and insignificant and left my children thinking “Mom’s gone crazy!” Or at least, that’s what their faces peeking around the corner looked like they were thinking.

You see, not only is summer made for kids, but it was also made for writers.

I want my time. My writing time. UNINTERRUPTED.

And to that end, I’ve come up with a plan. <rubs hands like a mad scientist>

1. Keep them busy with outside activities.
I’ve already got the summer activities plugged in the schedule. Swim lessons, music camp, VBS, vacation. Took me forever and was as complicated as figuring out my university courses back in the day. Having activities to look forward to lets the kids know they will get out of the house and you don’t have to be their sole source of entertainment.

Here are some activities to get you thinking:

Camps: science, music, dance, theater, community, summer school, local colleges,VBS, Scouts, Girl Scouts, church camps

Recreation: pools, water parks, zoo, aquarium, beach, parks, YMCA

Building/Craft programs: Lowes, Home Depot, Lakeshore Learning, Joanne’s, Michaels, Hobby Lobby

Movies: Many theaters offer early morning kids movies for cheap.

Playdates/sleepovers

Libraries/museums: summer reading programs, summer enrichment programs

Teach them classic outdoor neighborhood games: capture the flag, kick the can, water fights, blow-up pools and sprinklers etc.

Teach them classic skills: knitting, sewing, woodworking (swapping with other moms/dads)

2. Have writing tools ready for on-the-go opportunities.
Hello AlphaSmart! Haven’t seen you since last summer. Since buying a laptop I don’t use my AlphaSmart like I used to, but if you prefer typing to pen and paper, this little beauty works great outside during swim lessons.

Keep a well-stoked tote bag: genre books for research, a how-to writing book, notebook, pens, printout of your WIP, iPod to block out everyone else (even if you don’t listen, just put the earphones in your ears so you are less approachable by other chatty moms—don’t they know you have work to do?)

3. Keep a list of Independent Home Activities
I wrote a whole blog on this during NaNoWriMo one year. Over 30 Ways to Keep Kids Busy so You can Write. (A list of everything from LEGOs to perler beads.) and another blog called 25 Ways to Write While Distracted. Yes, I think about these things a lot.

4. Create INTERRUPT CARDS.
Explain to your kids that when you are on the computer you are not playing. You are writing and you need to concentrate. Now, just telling them this will not work. If anything it will only make them more curious about what you are doing and/or aware that you are not paying attention to them.

But I’ve created a new tool to help with this. While researching the workbox system, an organization tool for homeschooling, I came across this great tip. Don’t know what they are officially called, but I am calling them INTERRUPT CARDS.

Make 3 cards decorated however you want (maybe with a pic of you and the child) and give them to each child. This is their ticket to come and ask you a question or tell you something or show you something. Once they have used all their tickets they are no longer allowed to come and tap you on the shoulder. Or stand there staring at you. Or say your name.

If they are out of cards, they have to wait until you step away from the computer before they talk to you again. Up the ante and offer something extra for unused cards: readaloud time with mom, a game, extra Wii time, etc.

I think this is brilliant! I tried using it on my husband just now as he came in to talk to me. He just laughed. But he did leave the room.

Sidebar: If you want to know more about the workbox system, check out the official site here http://www.workboxsystem.com/ and then samples of how homeschoolers have used the system here: http://heartofwisdom.com/blog/workbox-directory/ I’m sure if you are not a homeschooler, you can glean lots of great ideas to organize your summer from these creative ladies. Instead of putting curriculum in the boxes you could put in games, etc.

5. Blow everything off and go for ice cream.
Some days are just not going to go as planned. Instead of blowing your temper, change things up and go out for a treat. (This is summer, after all.) Try writing again when you get home.

UPDATE: Here’s what happened one week later: The Summer of Great Writing

I’m laughing as I type this blog. You know that Stephanie and Shonna and I were really trying hard to overcome our procrastination issues this past month. Steph and I seem to be the worst at procrastination. (I don’t know what Shonna’s bad at – I’m beginning to think she’s an alien because I can’t think of any of her faults right now!) But Steph and I both made a point of typing up our blogs early, getting them queued days ahead of time, sometimes having a blog ready two weeks early.

Then, when Anti-Procrastination Month was over,  Stephanie got lost in the middle of her busy life on Monday. And I woke up Thursday morning (your Wednesday afternoon) to an email from Shonna asking if I was okay because I hadn’t blogged yet. My first response – Oh, crap!!!

LOL!

I find it hilarious that Stephanie and I can only seem to keep up a front for anti-procrastination. The month apparently didn’t have any long-term effects on the way we work. Because here we are acting like we usually do – what? my blog is due today? but I have, like, four days left till – oh, wait, if yesterday was Sunday then today must be Monday and oh crap!

LOL!

I hope you don’t mind all the laughter on my end. It’s me coming to grips with the possibility that I’m just going to have to figure out a way to work with my personality quirks instead of trying to change them. I am a huge proponent of self-improvement, don’t get me wrong. But sometimes you have to stop for a minute and ask yourself how much energy you’re wasting trying to push a boulder uphill. Maybe you should see if there is another way to reach your goal.

If I’ve learned anything from the past month, it’s what I’ve thought about in the last ten minutes since Shonna emailed me: borrowing from Peter to pay Paul is not a long-term solution. I accomplished a lot last month. Many things were vitally important like finishing my taxes. But in the end, I found myself on Sunday morning realizing I had eight days to finish four projects for school, all of them 40-50% of my grade in the class. That gave me two days per project to finish them. (They were all started, but none were complete.)

So I spent the last four days finishing two of the projects – and feeling quite good about it. I rarely checked email or Facebook. My husband took over all the household tasks. I only took time to take a shower in the morning and make a peanut butter and jam sandwich at lunch, then run to class at night. I worked hard and I was so impressed with myself!

Until this morning. When I realized I was still borrowing and stealing time, juggling more things than I apparently had time for, and fighting off the effects of that lifestyle – a knock-me-down cold.

So what have I learned? See me grinning and chuckling again! I don’t know!! I did great last month only to find I started out this month already out of time! All I can tell you is – thank God I’m in the mood to laugh about it instead of whine and curse. LOL! Because I don’t know how else to get through it!

How about you? Please, someone tell me you’re the same way! LOL! I don’t want to feel alone in this. Have you tried to change and found that some parts of you simply are the way they are? Have you found ways to work around them and still achieve your goals? I wish I could get God to send me a message of some kind telling me which things aren’t going to change that I just need to work with, and which things I should take the time and energy to work at because they really will improve with effort. LOL!

While I wait for your replies, I’m going back to the homework. Four days to finish two projects. I know I can do it! So long as there is nothing else I forgot that I procrastinated about! 

          It took me years to discover, or at least admit, the value of routines. As you have surely picked up on if you read us regularly, I am pretty much a free spirit. I like being free to choose what, where and when to do what I want to do. I don’t like being a slave to a clock or to a schedule. Or maybe a people person is a better description. I rarely turn down an opportunity to spend time with others. Every one of my grown children know that I will stop what I’m doing to have a conversation with them. They need only skype or call and I’ll make the time to chat or talk. Only occasionally do I tell them I’m busy and need to talk later.

          The peace to do that, though, came only once I embraced the structure imposed on me (some self-imposed, most life/husband/others-imposed). I think I’m now a fairly disciplined and structured person. (As long as you don’t compare me to my husband . . . or ask him to verify what I just said. LOL) It is because I discovered routines actually make spontaneity easier, more fun and much more guilt-free. Once I realized that, I embraced structure with all the passion of my all-or-nothing personality, even as I’ve bent it to my people-first, spontaneity-loving personality.

          Structure helps me be productive even while feeding my penchant for spontaneity. Routines, the right routines, allow me a freedom not present in an I-can-do-anything-I-want kind of day. When I fashion my daily activities and responsibilities into routines, I can act without thinking, do without a lot of decision-making, create without any guilt. When I fashion those tasks I want to accomplish into steps or actions that are done every day, in the same way, in the same order (although not always at the same time-I’m not a clock watcher), I get more done, I have more fun experiences and I’m much more content. When I jettison my routines, decide to wing-it and take each moment as it comes, I miss so many opportunities and lose facets of enjoyment, even in the creative moments of the day.

          No, I do not like, nor do I do well, when every moment of my day is structured or when I have a lot of time-sensitive activities in a day. I need a balance, a free-flowing, amorphous structure that can change and adapt to my emotions, desires and what’s going on around me. I need a schedule that easily adapts, retains its form even as it flexes to accommodate changes.

          Over the years, I’ve had a lot of such routines. When the children were young and we first started homeschooling, our schoolday started with a bible story, a reading lesson, a math lesson, and story-time. Every day, once the first activity was started, it was easy to do the others. We did much more than those activities, but that was the routine that kept us on track. (That and the weekly routine of getting together with another family for school activities once a week.)

          My morning routine is actually my most established one. Some might even call it a rut. It serves me well, though. I’m not a morning person, not by any stretch or contortion of imagination. When I get out of bed, my mind is still sitting on the edge yawning and stretching. No matter how awake and refreshed I feel. The no-brain-needed routine of makeup, hair and clothes ensures I am ready for the day by the time I leave my bedroom. (I tacked feeding my cats to that routine so the poor things would be sure to get fed. )

          Routines establish a base, a foundation of structure, but they can be as unique as each personality. Just as two houses can have the same floor plan, but look totally different, so routines can be modified and supplemented . Your routines of life will not look like mine. In fact, my husband swears I have no routine. But I am up and dressed every day, the house stays reasonably clean, meals are prepared with regularity, we rarely run out of anything essential to daily life and we always (well almost always) have clean clothes to wear. I engage in multiple volunteer and social activities. I know with one glance at my calendar what new activity I can or cannot add. He is right, though, to look at my days would be to see a lot of activity, much of it unique to the day. That’s the way I like it. Just like the piles on my desk that look like clutter, but whose contents are solidly in my mind, so is the schedule of my daily activities solidly ensconced in productivity-producing routines.

          Most of the time.

          What routines keep you on track? Or maybe you need to create one that will get you making progress during this month of anti-procrastination.

Just to give you guys some ideas on what kinds of things you might want to catch up on during May’s Anti-Procrastination Month, I thought I’d share with you my list (in no particular order).

Work on the category romance that I want to finish and send out by August 1. Yeah, the one I’ve barely even looked at since school started in March.

Choose which magazine to send the article to that was rejected yesterday by Writer’s Digest, then get it out in the mail.

Submit a piece to the Christmas anthology that I’ve been meaning to submit to for weeks. (Oh, and actually write the piece!)

Catch up on all the readings that have been assigned this semester for all of my classes.

Read the Margie Lawson “Defeating Self-Defeating Behaviors” lecture packet that I started and didn’t finish in January.

Take the time (what time?!) to work on meta-tags and other promotional items for Routines for Writers.

Continue to research for the superheroes book, and the new angels/demons story that I’m writing for class.

That’s the short list – for now! LOL! And it doesn’t include all the “regular” or “household” items that need to be done – like choose and buy an anniversary present for my husband for our 20th anniversary next week! Eek! LOL!

The big question when I make a list is – how in the world am I going to get this all done? Well, I was praying for wisdom this week and what do you know – God really does use email! I subscribe to a daily email from Motivation in a Minute and yesterday’s email had this quote from Amy Jones:

To do twice as much in half the time, you can’t approach your goals haphazardly. A well-thought plan will keep you clearly on track towards your goal; and the methods of planning are as varied as our personalities.

I have a tendency to think that there is plenty of time to get everything done. But experience has taught me that optimism alone is not my friend. I need a plan. One that is too structured will make me crazy and I’ll quit sooner than later. A plan that is nothing more than a To Do list won’t help me stay organized and disciplined enough to get the most important items done first. (And since I’m now convinced I will die with a long To Do list with many items not crossed off, getting the most important ones done is crucial to my emotional well-being!)

Do you remember several weeks ago I told you about my new routine – My First Five? It’s been working! There are only so many things I can remember to do at once. And when I’m feeling overwhelmed, I need to know what the next thing is that I should do. Just one. So the First Five helps me prioritize. What I need to do now is create a Next Five, and a Next Five after that. I got my First Five done yesterday morning without any problem, then I watched a taped TV program later while I ate lunch and somehow the day just fell apart after that. Today, I did my First Five then looked at my list and put a bullet next to all the things that had to be done today. That didn’t work as well as I’d hoped either. Because I also did several things that didn’t have to be done today. So starting tomorrow, I’m going to organize my To Do List into groups of five items. I’ll let you know if I get more work done.

One last thing – yesterday I heard about a software program called Freedom. It’s sort of a time-lock for your Internet connection. You can set it for any amount of time up to eight hours and during that time you won’t be able to access the Internet or send and receive email. It’s $10 and is available for both Windows and Mac. I think it’s hysterical that I’m actually going to spend money on a program that will force me to focus! (Why can’t I do that by myself??) I’ll let you know during the month how it’s working.

If you do better with a little accountability, tell us what you want to get done next month! We’ll encourage you to keep going and find a routine that works for you. Happy Writing!

P.S. Remember, Mona Hodgson will be our guest on Tuesday to celebrate the release of her book, Too Brides Too Many. Join us!

One of the issues we (and I mean me for sure, and you maybe) face as writers is trying to figure out how to get our work finished and what to do while we’re waiting to hear back. As I was thinking about it, I stumbled across all kinds of articles and posts online. I thought you might like to see some of them.

My friend Paula Roe has a great article on how to use Document Maps in Word. I learned something about this a long time ago and never used it. Looking at it now I’m thinking it seems like a perfect way to create and organize a novel.

Kylie Griffin, one of the members of my new family, Romance Writers of Australia, has three great posts on rejection letters and what you can learn from them (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3). She tells us how we can read into the responses we get and improve our writing even with rejections.

I haven’t heard of Neil Cross, but I love his post On the Peculiar Torment of Writing Outlines. Whether you’re a plotter or a pantster, I think you’ll find something useful.

The Blood-Red Pencil blog has a great post listing more than a dozen resources for crime writers. Even if you don’t write crime fiction, you might be able to use information on guns or poison or police or other things in other kinds of stories.

The Writers Store has great articles from all kinds of writers and writing teachers. This week I read one on a new archetypal structure. It’s different, interesting, another way to look at stories, and the author explains how it differs from the Hero’s Journey.

I’m journaling about my writing habits and routines (or lack thereof) to see what I can learn about myself, to see how I can work with my strengths and not just against my weaknesses. I hope to make some interesting discoveries. If I do, I’ll share them with you.

Mark your calendar for Tuesday May 4 when Mona Hodgson joins us on her new book tour! Two Brides Too Many will be available at your favorite bookstore that day.

Finally, a reminder that May is Anti-Procrastination Month at Routines for Writers. I added the capitalization to underscore how important this is to Shonna and Steph and me! LOL! Next week we’ll talk about what we’re going to do to catch up, and how and why. We’d love to hear what you need to work on next month.

Flylady (who has taught us a lot about routines) sets aside Wednesday as anti-procrastination day. The day to do all the things you’ve been putting off doing.

Well, the crew here at Routines for Writers has decided we needed to set aside a whole month for us to get caught up.

Is there anything you’ve been putting off? Finishing your NaNo novel? (That was 6 mos ago!) Taking a class? Reviewing notes from a class? Doing your backups?

Now is the time to start making your list. Get ready to join us in May.

Take Charge of your Feedback

We’ve been talking about getting your work out. Inevitably, with getting your work out, you will get critiques back. I have a love/hate relationship with critiques. While I really want the feedback, I initially feel the sting of imperfection. So, to make it easier, this is what I’ve learned to do:

Step one.

Read through all the feedback. Twice. Then close the document and sleep on it. You don’t want to rush into a revision right after getting feedback. You’ll need a clear head to weigh through the comments and suggestions and decide what you need to do. Remind yourself that you asked/paid for this advice. Your critiquer’s job is to find as many problems/potential problems as she can and, even more importantly, to open your eyes to your own story.

Step two.

Compile all the positive comments. If you have multiple critiques, put the good comments together into one document, print it out and keep it in your writer’s notebook or with your current project’s papers. You will be happy to have some good news to look back on when you get to some of the more difficult areas.

Step three.

Start with the easy stuff. (a) See what questions or comments you can cross off because you don’t have to make any changes. For example: I write historical fiction. Often, in my critiques, I get questions on slang or other period facts. In my drafts I’ve started footnoting these facts so I will remember that I’ve already done the research and don’t have to look them up again. (b) Grammar and mechanics. Take care of all those missing commas, run-on sentences, etc. But don’t do it blindly. If you can make mistakes, so can your critiquer.

Step four.

Now it’s time to get into the meat of the critique. If you are coming off of a contest where a score sheet was used, all the better, because you can use this sheet as your game plan. Often, it is divided into sections like plot, characters, etc, so you can work on each section at a time. If not, you can work your way comment by comment, or make up your own categories to follow.

Take your time going through the critique. Don’t make a change just because someone said you should. First, ask yourself what you were trying to convey. How did the critiquer understand or not understand it?

According to Stephen King, in On Writing, the editor is always right. So if your critiquer stumbled on something in your text, take it seriously. You may not make the change that is suggested, but maybe the one that is implied. For example, if the comment is: “I can’t see this character doing this.” Maybe instead of deleting that action, you have to make a change earlier in the text to make this character more believable.

Step five.

File the critique. You may want to look back on these notes during another revision. If your critiquer pointed out some common habits, on your next book you can do a preemptive strike on those. Oh, better idea. Start a new document listing your common habits. Your own pre-critique style sheet.

Happy rewriting everyone!