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Advice for Writers
As someone who teaches writing, I get asked this a lot. I
have a whole textbook full of advice for academic writers. But I think the most
important advice boils down to five things:
1)
Make time for your writing. It’s easy to let
life pull you away, especially if you aren’t working full-time as a writer (and
even then). But making time each day to write is so important. If you don’t
take time to write, you just won’t. When I was writing Five Corners, I had a
rule that I had to write something, anything, every day. I wasn’t allowed to go
to sleep before I had written something. And I was able to stick with that rule
until my manuscript was finished. It really worked for me. Making writing a
priority is hugely important.
2)
Get your first draft completely done before you
show it to anyone else. Anne Lamott talks about the “shitty” first draft and
the first time I read that phrase I felt a sort of release. As writers we so
want our work to emerge on the page as beautiful, polished prose but the
reality of writing is that first drafts are horrid and not really meant to be
shared with others. Too often I meet writers who have stunted a creative work
because they’ve prematurely shown others their first few pages or chapters.
They get feedback before they are ready for it and often that feedback just
kills the project in its infancy. Why do we do this? I think it’s because we
love our work. We love our writing like a parent loves his or her baby. Without
seeing any flaws or ugliness we adore it. And we so want to share it with
others, after all why else would you write? But the time for sharing comes
after a significant portion of editing, which is my next tip.
3)
Spend most of your time editing your work. I
think the drafting phrase should be short and swift and painful. Get the darn
thing on paper in some format and then spend most of your time editing and
revising. I like to break the word “revision” down to “re” “vision” – seeing
again. It helps sometimes to take a bit of time off from a piece before jumping
into this phase of the writing process (but not too much time because it’s easy
to lose momentum and forget about your work). Revise, revise, revise. Writing
is rewriting as Donald Murray would say. So rework your piece and until you get
that little zing that tells you it’s good, it’s perfect, it’s done (by the way,
it rarely is done at this stage but it is done enough for you to share it).
4)
And now make sure you share it. I recommend two
kinds of audience: a) a fellow writer whom you trust and will reciprocate with
the reading of draft works, and b) a sample of your target audience – if
possible 5-6 readers who love the genre you are writing in. But don’t just give
them your manuscript and expect feedback. You need to provide detailed
instructions for what kind of feedback you want. So questions such as “Note any
places that felt awkward to you and why?” “If there were parts of the storyline
that you didn’t like, please tell me and why?” “Did you get confused in any
places?” I like to give 6-8 questions to my sample readers. Then comes the hard
part, listening with an open heart to the feedback that comes in.
5)
Most criticism is there to help you as a writer.
Let go of your ego. Don’t be one of those parents who believes his/her child is
perfect (he/she definitely is not – a perfect human doesn’t exist and neither
does a perfect manuscript). Instead listen to what your readers are saying and
then try to figure out how you can incorporate their advice. Sometimes the
feedback hurts. When this happens to me I sit on the feedback for a few days
before I make any decisions. Sometimes the feedback is not useful or you just
don’t agree with it. That’s fine, too. Take what you can use and toss the rest.
Remember this is your creation. Just be careful that you aren’t hearing just
what you want to hear to the detriment of your work.
BLURB:
Growing up in a sleepy village untouched by distant wars and
political conflicts, it was easy for Thia, Mina and Kiara to forget such
horrors existed in the Five Corners. That is until the dead child is found; a
child that bears the same strange birthmark that all three sisters possess. A
Mark their mother had always told them was unique to the girls.
Kiara’s suspicions grow as their Inn is soon overrun with
outsiders from all walks of life. Strangers, soldiers and Elders who all seem
to know more about what is happening than the girls do.
After Mina barely survives an attack in the forest, the sisters
are faced with a shattering secret their mother has kept from them for years.
As danger closes in around them, the sisters are forced from their home and
must put their trust in the hands of strangers. With more questions than
answers, Kiara finds herself separated from everyone she loves and reliant on
an Outlander who has spent too much time in army. She doesn’t trust Caedmon but
she needs him if she has any hope of being reunited with her sisters and
learning what the Mark might mean.
Excerpt 1
Kiara felt her
own mother watching her closely. She forced her gaze away from the small
lifeless form. Brijit murmured softly to the parents and then moved to Kiara's
side.
"Come
away from here, Kiara," her mother said firmly.
But Kiara
couldn't stop herself from looking back at the child, noting how someone had
twined a pretty scarf around her neck, concealing the ugly slashes that she
knew were hidden beneath the colorful material. The result of a blade taken to
vulnerable flesh. This poor girl had had no chance against her assailant.
Brijit tugged
on her arm insistently. "There is nothing more for us to do here,"
she whispered in a hushed undertone. "Let’s go and give the family some
peace."
Kiara felt a
sudden wave of shame wash over her. She suddenly wondered what she was doing
here?
Don’t try to deny it, she told herself
vehemently, you know why you’re here.
She had seen
the Mark on the child's shoulder. She resisted the urge to rub her own shoulder
where an identical Mark was hidden beneath her tunic. It was something she’d
believed she only shared with her sisters. But this child proved different.
And there was
no question that this child had been assassinated.
AUTHOR INFORMATION:
Cathi Shaw lives in Summerland, BC with her husband and
three children. She is often found wandering around her home, muttering
in a seemingly incoherent manner, particularly when her characters have
embarked on new adventure. In addition to writing fiction, she teaches rhetoric
and professional writing in the Department of Communications at Okanagan
College and is the co-author of the textbook Writing Today.
Twitter: @CathiShaw
Tumblr: http://themarkedones.tumblr.com/
Buy links for book:
BARNES AND NOBLE: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/five-corners-cathi-shaw/1117922571?ean=9781939156242
GIVEAWAY:
a Rafflecopter giveaway
This product or book may have been distributed for review, this in no way affects my opinions or reviews. COPYRIGHT © 2014 LIVE TO READ
Posts
Hi Cathi, I followed the links for reviews you left me yesterday: I was glad to see Five Corners so well received by Ailyn at Piece of My Mind blog, but sady the one from Epic Reads is missing. That said, however, I'm intrigued by the prospect of each sister having her very own hero and the simultaneous telling of their adventures. I look forward to reading more. Thanks for the info!
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