The Locals
Dec. 6th, 2004 10:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pjthompsonAh, this is serious. I've started serializing my new novel to my local readers. Reactions to chapter one have been very positive. This must mean Night Warrior really is a go.
None of my locals are writers, which is a cool thing. I get straight reader reaction from them. And even if they are my friends, they usually tell me when they think things have gone wrong—quite forcefully at times. They take this beta reading thing seriously, and their help has been invaluable to me. I'm lucky to have three such intelligent and engaged readers to filter my first drafts through. (And none of them read this blog, so that piece of suck up is just because.)
I guess I'll start posting chapters to the 'shop soon. I want to build up a bit more steam first. Also, my historical research is ongoing and I'm always reluctant to put the work seriously out there unless I've got the milieu down. For one thing, all those niggling details are what make a historical setting feel real and I find that if I saturate myself with the details of the past, it's richer, more real to the reader. Still, I feel like the emotional substratum and the plot of this novel are pretty solid and once I've internalized those two things, integrated them into my psyche, it's almost impossible not to start writing. I reach a critical mass inside my brain and it must be written down. Even if the research lags behind.
I also want to get some more crits finished before running this thing through the 'shop. Most of the crits I'm doing these days are offline—that's how far behind I was. But it's been a good opportunity to get a little closer to equity. When I was pumping out a new chapter of Shivery Bones every two weeks, I built up a lot of debt because most of my regulars were not posting as fast as I was. God Bless you everyone, if you're listening. I appreciate all your help.
I find it fascinating how different the reactions can be between my non-writer friends and my writer friends. After the locals have their say, I usually post to my workshop. Sometimes chapters the locals loved get torn to shreds on the 'shop. Sometimes just the opposite. Both sets of input are valuable. One gives me a "non-technical" reaction, the emotional response; the other helps me with the hard work of turning the writing into a serious piece of craft. But it's still fascinating when the two camps disagree.
I'm sure there's a profound lesson there somewhere, but I can't quite see it at the moment. I don't know what it means, if it simply means that different sets of readers have different requirements for fiction. I suppose it could be tangential to the fanfic discussion that's heating up LJ these days: readers have different needs from writers and editors. But I wonder if that's true? All writers and editors start out as readers, after all.
In terms of the fanfic discussion I can't say as I agree that slash is the wave of the future. But I do agree that most literary fiction reads like a plotless ramble, while most genre fiction lacks emotional resonance. Finding books that have both bright, shiny sentences, enthralling plots, and a clear understanding of the way real humans feel things is sometimes tough. The writers who do it for me are Connie Willis, Kage Baker...There are others, but unfortunately my brain is refusing to work at the moment. I'm sure I'm forgetting someone Really Obvious.
None of my locals are writers, which is a cool thing. I get straight reader reaction from them. And even if they are my friends, they usually tell me when they think things have gone wrong—quite forcefully at times. They take this beta reading thing seriously, and their help has been invaluable to me. I'm lucky to have three such intelligent and engaged readers to filter my first drafts through. (And none of them read this blog, so that piece of suck up is just because.)
I guess I'll start posting chapters to the 'shop soon. I want to build up a bit more steam first. Also, my historical research is ongoing and I'm always reluctant to put the work seriously out there unless I've got the milieu down. For one thing, all those niggling details are what make a historical setting feel real and I find that if I saturate myself with the details of the past, it's richer, more real to the reader. Still, I feel like the emotional substratum and the plot of this novel are pretty solid and once I've internalized those two things, integrated them into my psyche, it's almost impossible not to start writing. I reach a critical mass inside my brain and it must be written down. Even if the research lags behind.
I also want to get some more crits finished before running this thing through the 'shop. Most of the crits I'm doing these days are offline—that's how far behind I was. But it's been a good opportunity to get a little closer to equity. When I was pumping out a new chapter of Shivery Bones every two weeks, I built up a lot of debt because most of my regulars were not posting as fast as I was. God Bless you everyone, if you're listening. I appreciate all your help.
I find it fascinating how different the reactions can be between my non-writer friends and my writer friends. After the locals have their say, I usually post to my workshop. Sometimes chapters the locals loved get torn to shreds on the 'shop. Sometimes just the opposite. Both sets of input are valuable. One gives me a "non-technical" reaction, the emotional response; the other helps me with the hard work of turning the writing into a serious piece of craft. But it's still fascinating when the two camps disagree.
I'm sure there's a profound lesson there somewhere, but I can't quite see it at the moment. I don't know what it means, if it simply means that different sets of readers have different requirements for fiction. I suppose it could be tangential to the fanfic discussion that's heating up LJ these days: readers have different needs from writers and editors. But I wonder if that's true? All writers and editors start out as readers, after all.
In terms of the fanfic discussion I can't say as I agree that slash is the wave of the future. But I do agree that most literary fiction reads like a plotless ramble, while most genre fiction lacks emotional resonance. Finding books that have both bright, shiny sentences, enthralling plots, and a clear understanding of the way real humans feel things is sometimes tough. The writers who do it for me are Connie Willis, Kage Baker...There are others, but unfortunately my brain is refusing to work at the moment. I'm sure I'm forgetting someone Really Obvious.