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Critique and the Query that Wouldn't
Dec. 16th, 2013 01:59 amIn my experience, an author who wants to improve, especially and author who wants to be professionally published in today's publishing industry, needs to develop both a thick skin for critique and the ability to know when your critiquer is right (most of the time) and when they're so far off base they're in the wrong ballpark.
I use an online forum to get crituqes for my query letters, pitches and synopses, because my meatspace friends all have jobs and lives and aren't, right this very minute, devoted to working on a query letter, whereas people in query letter forums are generally devoted to working on their queries, and if everybody plays fair--crits others, gives return crits to people who critted them--it works quite well, despite the oftentimes huge disparity in writing skill and publishing experience. I kinda love it, and I enjoy (for a certain definition thereof) both critiquing and giving critiques. Up to a point.
( Anger is a legitimate response, but what we do with that anger matters. Also, lots of opinions behind the cut. And writerly rambling. )
In short: critique ettiquette, I have feelings and opinions about it.
For now I've paused work on my query. I still feel like I have a good draft, it just needs a few tweaks, and I need to seriously consider several things one of my later critquers said.
Also, I had no idea before I started asking for query critique HOW MANY people would be confused by the fact that one of my main characters is a unicorn. Everyone who crits the query seems to assume that either a) she's a unicorn in human form, or a human with unicorn magic, or otherwise somehow human-shaped, or b) if she actually is no joke a unicorn, she must not be a main character and should be removed from the query.
SERIOUSLY. I am fairly certain I wouldn't be having this problem if she were almost any other kind of mythical creature. Which, admittedly, is part of the culture I'm talking back to with The Novel, but still. It never occurred to me that anyone would question her being a unicorn.
I use an online forum to get crituqes for my query letters, pitches and synopses, because my meatspace friends all have jobs and lives and aren't, right this very minute, devoted to working on a query letter, whereas people in query letter forums are generally devoted to working on their queries, and if everybody plays fair--crits others, gives return crits to people who critted them--it works quite well, despite the oftentimes huge disparity in writing skill and publishing experience. I kinda love it, and I enjoy (for a certain definition thereof) both critiquing and giving critiques. Up to a point.
( Anger is a legitimate response, but what we do with that anger matters. Also, lots of opinions behind the cut. And writerly rambling. )
In short: critique ettiquette, I have feelings and opinions about it.
For now I've paused work on my query. I still feel like I have a good draft, it just needs a few tweaks, and I need to seriously consider several things one of my later critquers said.
Also, I had no idea before I started asking for query critique HOW MANY people would be confused by the fact that one of my main characters is a unicorn. Everyone who crits the query seems to assume that either a) she's a unicorn in human form, or a human with unicorn magic, or otherwise somehow human-shaped, or b) if she actually is no joke a unicorn, she must not be a main character and should be removed from the query.
SERIOUSLY. I am fairly certain I wouldn't be having this problem if she were almost any other kind of mythical creature. Which, admittedly, is part of the culture I'm talking back to with The Novel, but still. It never occurred to me that anyone would question her being a unicorn.