Manuscript assessment -- overall, a positive experience
Hmm. Out of a sort of masochistic curiosity (along with a profound anxiety that I'm deluding myself about my writing talent), I sent the first 12 chapters of my novel to a professional manuscript assessor. Luckily, she was quite encouraging, and enclosed several pages of very helpful comments that I need to digest for a few days before deciding how, and indeed whether, to incorporate each one.
I'm comforted. The assessor did not tell me, "This needs a complete rewrite," or "You should go back and study grammar and spelling." (One of the advantages of spending a couple of decades tightening up and cleaning up other people's writing is that it has made my own writing fairly close to technically flawless, if I do say it myself. Problem is, technique is only one aspect of good writing.)
So: once I finish the play and the poems I've committed myself to, perhaps I'll get back to the novel....
posted by Laura E. Goodin @ 10:50 AM (permalink)
3 comment(s)
3 Comments:
The polish of good editing certainly does help give a sense of professionality doesn't it. But from the look of it, Clarion will give you the experience of 6 tutors and 16 other writers critiquing your work for 6 solid weeks. And if they don't think you have the talent, they would no doubt make that clear. So you should be a lot more confident of your capacity as a writer after that.
I'm told that some people don't write again for a solid year after Clarion, and some never write again at all. So we'll see what six weeks in the crucible does to me. Will I be refined, or consumed?
Interesting.
So what are you planning to do to make sure you go into the fire and come out again in better shape?
Perhaps the answer is to adopt a Clarion lifestyle as far as writing goes for the entire period before the workshop starts. Or for 2 days of the week during that time anyway. Or perhaps it is a matter of using the "Clarion members" yahoo group afterwards to continue the intensive critiquing process afterwards.
Have you heard of anyone who was unable to write the necessary 6 or so stories during Clarion, apart from those who got too sick etc?
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