Support for Indie Authors discussion

Emory wrote: "But I’m worried the ending of my first novella was a bit rushed or flat and I would hate for readers to tune out of the series before I’ve had a chance to pull them in. "

if you're worried that it may be rushed or flat, it probably is. I would suggest unpublishing it until you have had a chance to get some feedback on it.

Okay. I read the first page or two off of Amazon. I would strongly encourage you to unpublish it. What you published reads like a rough draft. It needs a lot of work.

I understand that itch. We owe it to our readers to make every attempt to make our book the best it can be before we hit "publish". When you think you're done, ask yourself if you would honestly pay money to read this book. If not, you're not done, yet.

I will echo what Dwayne said about making it the best it can be, and I think you've already recognized the need for other pairs of eyes on the task. IMO the author is too close to the work to see what needs doing, and some independent views are a vital part of the process.

The route you are trying (offering a free read in return for feedback) may work, but I suspect it will get mostly brief and high level comments. If you are serious about getting feedback you might try exploring some critique groups. It's a big investment in your time but IMO well worth the effort.

You pulled the book before I could see it, but based on the comments, I'm betting that, like most of us, no one told you that the writing techniques we learn in school are primarily nonfiction, to prepare us for the needs of our future employers. That's why we were assigned so many reports and essays, and so few stories.

But writing fiction is a profession, one for which they offer four year university degrees. The thing to remember is that your reader has been seeing nothing but professionally written and prepared fiction since the first grade, so their expectation is that your work will be written with that professional skill-set. And doesn't it make sense that if we are to compete with the pros we need to know the kind of tricks they take for granted. and invest some time, and a few coins on our writer's education?

The problem is, as Mark Twain defined it: “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”

So a bit of digging in the library's fiction writing-section, to work on those "just ain't so," issues would be time well spent. My personal suggestion is to seek the names, Dwight Swain, Jack Bickham, or Debra Dixon on the cover.

But here's the thing to remember: You've demonstrated the desire and the perseverance needed to write a novel. That's great. And the problems aren't a matter of talent or potential, or the story. It's that you can't apply the tool you don't know exists to what you don't recognize as a problem. And like every other field, for ours, craftsmanship is a matter of "becoming."

So hang in there, and keep on writing. The world needs more people who, when asked why they're staring at nothing, can honestly say, "Working."

I admire you for taking direction. I've seen people storm out of workshops, and that was with good feedback. They just didn't think it was good enough, I guess. :)

Yes, it's tough to hear your work isn't good enough. We all have to go through it, though. We're all learning. We're all growing.

Emory, you have the beginnings of a decent book. It needs work all around, spelling, punctuation, tone, etc. Give it some time. Nurture it. If you want me to look at it again, I will. I would like you to work over a couple more drafts, first.

Jay wrote: "You pulled the book before I could see it, but based on the comments, I'm betting that, like most of us, no one told you that the writing techniques we learn in school are primarily nonfiction..."

You lose that bet, Jay. Nothing about Emory's book said "non-fiction". It was clearly fiction. It read like a rough draft. It could be worked into a good novella.

I swear you copy and paste this response to everyone you encounter.

What's funny is that even when the material was no longer there and nothing to critique, the overly-familiar lecture appeared anyway. :)

Jay wrote: "The first five lines of Dwight Swain's, Techniques of the Selling Writer says:

You need to know only four things in order to write a solid story:

how to group words into motivation-reaction units;
how to group motivation-reaction units into scenes and sequels;
how to group scenes and sequels into story pattern;
how to create the kind of characters that give a story life."

Yes. This is what I learned as far back as Jr. High. Then High School. Then college. Yet, you continue to assert that no one learns how to write fiction in school. It's not true and I will be deleting your posts from now on when you make this false claim.

Dwight Swain does not bring anything new to the table. In fact, I've actually checked out one of his books and I think he's a bit of a flim-flam artist, leeching money out of desperate writers. Kurt Vonnegut once said, (paraphrasing) "Every character should want something, even if it's a glass of water." That's it. Simple. The book of Swain's I've tried to muddle through says the same thing, only he takes about eight pages to say it. Swain is a lot of fluff, in my opinion.

Emory wrote: "I had this nagging feeling once I published that I may have jumped in too quickly. This time I’ll be sure I take the time to get some feedback and critiquing so that I can publish a novella series I am proud of."

I'll confess I did this once, too with my only non-fiction book. I was in a rush to finish it, hit publish and did not look back, despite that nagging feeling I'd rushed it way too much. Earlier this year, I got brave enough to read it again and WOW it was a mess. So, that was one of my big projects over the following three months (it's a short book) - cleaning up a book that I never should have published in the condition it was in. So, the advice I gave is some I learned the hard way. If you feel you have rushed something, you probably have.

I'll peek in to add another voice for what was said already. If there's a feeling that something was too rushed, that something does not work well enough, or anything else, it'll most likely be justified.
I am currently in the sixth draft of my to-be debut. I've already cut maybe 20% and rewritten/reworked another 50-60% during those drafts. It's maybe a bit extreme but it shows that I've found the doubts legitimate in many cases - and working on these weak points gave me more ideas that led to more edits to (hopefully) make the story better.

Jay wrote: "So let's take a poll: "

Do this elsewhere. Maybe even start your own group. I'm tired of you hijacking threads with your rants and your lectures.