Beginnings are such delicate times...
Jul. 13th, 2004 12:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jhetleyJust to steal a phrase.
Writing puzzlement -- our email critique group is currently auditioning for a few new members, due to General Attrition wreaking his usual havoc. So I'm reading through some writing samples this morning, trying to decide who is worthy of joining our exalted ranks, and I ran across a conundrum.
Two aspirants sent us _middle_ excerpts from novel-length work. Now, middles are important, don't get me wrong, but reading them out of context weakens them considerably. We don't know the characters, we don't know the settings, a lot of stuff _should_ be shorthand by that point and meaningless as stand-alones. Neither submission did anything for me. And one of them was a rough draft, apparently, because of **insert scene here** notes.
Whatever happened to "Put your best foot forward." Or "You never get a second chance to make a first impression." I'm not looking for perfection in our group. We couldn't offer perfection any help. Hell, a Great Writer would give me an inferiority complex and I'd probably retreat into a cave and contemplate my belly-button lint.
But why not show work that's as good as _you_ can make it, before asking for help? And why not show the opening, the most important part of any work? Submitting to an editor, the first couple of paragraphs had better be damned good. You get leeway for a couple of pages on a novel, but if you haven't hooked that "first reader" by then, you're done. On to the next manuscript in the endless slushpile.
15.2 miles, 1:04:13
Writing puzzlement -- our email critique group is currently auditioning for a few new members, due to General Attrition wreaking his usual havoc. So I'm reading through some writing samples this morning, trying to decide who is worthy of joining our exalted ranks, and I ran across a conundrum.
Two aspirants sent us _middle_ excerpts from novel-length work. Now, middles are important, don't get me wrong, but reading them out of context weakens them considerably. We don't know the characters, we don't know the settings, a lot of stuff _should_ be shorthand by that point and meaningless as stand-alones. Neither submission did anything for me. And one of them was a rough draft, apparently, because of **insert scene here** notes.
Whatever happened to "Put your best foot forward." Or "You never get a second chance to make a first impression." I'm not looking for perfection in our group. We couldn't offer perfection any help. Hell, a Great Writer would give me an inferiority complex and I'd probably retreat into a cave and contemplate my belly-button lint.
But why not show work that's as good as _you_ can make it, before asking for help? And why not show the opening, the most important part of any work? Submitting to an editor, the first couple of paragraphs had better be damned good. You get leeway for a couple of pages on a novel, but if you haven't hooked that "first reader" by then, you're done. On to the next manuscript in the endless slushpile.
15.2 miles, 1:04:13
