By Alicia McLachlan.
Even though I’ve been
writing (with varying degrees of commitment) for over fifteen years, I have
only recently started to send my pieces out for feedback. For so long, the idea
of sharing my writing terrified me; it felt egotistical to think my writing was
good enough to put out into the world. On the flip side, I was also halted by
the fear that I would find out that I was, in fact, a terrible writer; that I
should give up. Because I enjoyed the act of writing in and of itself, I
decided doing just that was enough for me.
Then, at some point in the
last year, I was inspired to write more. I had previously only ever been struck
by that creative spark on rare occasions, and often during busier times in my
life where I simply couldn't see my ideas through to any sense of completion.
Now, I seemed to have more stories to tell, and I miraculously had time to tell
them. So off I went. But if I was going to put more energy into my hobby,
shouldn’t I be doing something with the results?
I used to think that
critiquing was about telling someone that their creative endeavour was either
great or terrible, throwing in some 'hows' and 'whys' for justification, and it
ended there. Like in film and book reviews, the finished piece was presented,
and a critic's entire job was to decide whether it was worthy of the general
public’s time and money. Because the piece was already finished, the creator
really had no chance to respond to the critique. Of course, they could publicly
"defend" their work if they felt so inclined, but if the judgments
were valid, their opportunity to improve had passed.
There’s one vital
difference, though, between a critic and a critique partner. With a critique
partner, it's about sharing a work in progress. It’s not their job to tear you
down. They want to help. Critique partners are there to help improve your work,
offer suggestions that intend to strengthen the piece and to encourage you to
keep going. Any perfectionist (like me) should be able to appreciate such a
concept.
I became a critique partner
by accident. I had become a fan of a particular author in the world of fan
fiction, and I reached out to comment on how I felt her latest effort could
easily function as a stand-alone piece, if only she hadn’t borrowed the names
of pre-existing characters from another writer's published novel. She mentioned
that she had toyed with the idea of “scrubbing” the piece—removing all
references to the source material—and I (along with many of her fans)
encouraged her to give it a try. I then volunteered to beta read her finished
draft, not knowing what I was signing up for. As it turned out, helping her
work through her editing process was exhilarating. Not only was it a pleasure
to cheer on a fellow writer, it also revolutionized how I approach my writing.
For starters, smaller SPAG
(spelling, punctuation and grammar) edits I suggested educated both of us on
some lesser-known rules of the English language. I don’t feel like I learned
nearly enough about this in school, and so whenever a particular phrase looked
strange to me, I looked it up and often found myself surprised by the results. Of
course, I don't recommend relying solely on random Internet searches to be your grammar guide,
but it was a great place for me to start since this area isn't my forte. I've
since found some valuable resources and started to expand my vocabulary and
experiment more with syntax.
Larger discussions about
whether or not certain plot elements would impact the entire story were even
more fascinating. At one point, I fought hard with the author to keep one
particular character trait intact, but she insisted on changing it. Her
reasoning was to further separate her character from the source material,
particularly how her two main characters related to each other. I didn't think
the change was necessary, as the characters were already wholly original in the
"alternate universe" story she had written, as was the setting and
the plot. In fact, she'd only borrowed names and minor touches from the source
material. This character trait, however, was a major detail that, although
similar to the book, seemed woven into her story so deeply that I was worried
the whole thing was going to unravel if she tried to change it. But of course,
she turned out to be right, and I have never been happier that someone didn’t
listen to me. Her solution was inspired and blended so easily into other already
existing elements of her story that I now can’t imagine it playing out any
other way.
That instance, along with a
handful of others, helped loosen up my attitude toward world building and
backstory. I have always been extremely detail-oriented in this department,
probably too detailed in that it often hinders my progress for getting my
stories finished, especially considering I'm not a fantasy writer. But the fact
that she was able to change something that seemed so profound in her main
character's philosophy made me realize that perhaps I was focusing too much on
the wrong things. Since that discovery, I've been able to take a step back from
my backstory drabbles and concentrate on progressive character and relationship
development and forward-moving plot.
Watching my friend take the
editing process in stride and approach her work with a critical eye motivated
me and helped me realize that I could do the same. My ideas were no longer so
precious that I couldn’t bear to have someone suggest changes to them. I
learned that it’s simply part of the writer’s journey. I already understood
that no written product should ever go out for public consumption without a few
fresh sets of eyes reviewing it—the increasing amount of SPAG and fact-checking
errors in the age of the 24-hour news cycle and constant information
consumption has made this a huge pet peeve of mine. But before I began
critiquing, I used to believe that someone reading over my writing was meant to
be a human spell-check and nothing more. Now, I can appreciate that much more
can come from the process and that it will strengthen the end
result in far more significant ways.
I felt like I was going
around in circles with a particular piece and really had no idea where to start
with the revision process. I needed a new perspective to help jump-start the
process, and I finally had the confidence to put the work out. Even though my
draft was far from polished (and not even finished), I didn’t want to lose my
motivation by waiting any longer. From some of my earliest critiques, I've
discovered some of my strengths include my voice and my world-building. It's
encouraging that my hours of hard work had paid off in those areas and that I
possibly do have something worth pursuing more seriously. I need to work on my
structure, but I had already suspected that going in. What I didn't know, and
what my critique partners have guided me with, is how to go about my structural editing. Suggestions both big and
small from a number of partners have amalgamated into a whole new approach I
plan to take with my story, and thanks to their constructive feedback, I'm
excited by this new challenge. I'm ready to dive back in, as opposed to feeling
dejected or wanting to quit altogether.
I haven't shared any of my
pieces with the author who started this whole crazy critiquing adventure for me
yet. I still feel like my writing isn't quite polished enough to
"match" her level, and she's also busy querying right now. But it's
no longer out of the question like it had been before when the very idea of
sharing my creative output with her (or anyone) was too intimidating. One step
at a time. I have started to develop numerous other partnerships, testing the
waters until I find the best match or two. No matter who I end up building a
long-term partnership with, I already know that I'll be in good hands and that
I'm far better off now than I was as a lonely and untested writer a year ago.
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About the Author: Alicia McLachlan
Alicia is an aspiring screenwriter. After
attending film school, she maintained a writing hobby on and off through years
of traveling and various customer service and office administrative odd jobs. Now
settled down and writing full time, Alicia's own life is pretty simple—she likes to keep the drama on the page
for her characters to work out! Her specialty is exploring all kinds of
contemporary relationships in a dramatic real world, but she’s keen to give
comedy and suspense a try too, and she is also starting to play with narrative
fiction in addition to her first love of screenplays. She takes inspiration
from her ongoing travels, people-watching, and the often hard-to-believe
stories that emerge from the world around her.
You can follow Alicia on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AliciaMcLachlan. She loves chatting with
other writers on the craft and business of writing.
