I’ve been taking a critique group course at our local college. It’s part of their writing tract under personal enrichment in continuing education. I love reading everyone’s first twenty pages, and giving feedback – makes me feel like I’m returning the favor so many have done for me over the years. My motives are not totally altruistic though – I benefit from their feedback as potential readers. The first twenty pages are generally when gets put on Amazon as the sample, so they’re key to getting readers to hit the “buy
debradunbar
We’ll see how it works! In Devil’s Paw, I had a chapter by chapter outline with what was going to occur (high level ) in each. Things went pretty well until the first turn. A whole scene got changed, a bad guy got deleted, a sympathetic character turned into anything but sympathetic. Everything cycled back at the end, but a whole third of the novel was off the rails. LOL
Susan A.
I tend to write my books like you do, Debra. On this latest one I did actually write out every significant event, but many of the details have changed over the course of writing it. Sometimes characters I didn’t plan popped up and sometimes characters I’d worked so hard to create had to be cut. Heck, even some of the villians changed, which really threw me off but it worked out for the best. I think it’s good to have a solid plan going in, but to also be flexible.
I’ll look forward to your follow-up post!
debradunbar
Thanks! I’m really looking forward to it. Anything that can streamline my process would be welcome!
Junior
Very nice post. The groups and “brainstorming” definitely has its benefits. Reading other works is always fun, but more so when you make a suggestion and it works for the author nicely.