Meandering on Monday with Janet Lane Walters #BWLAuthor #MFRWAuthor #Reading #Writing #Thoughts

 Meander 1 - Reading - After the flurry of new books I'm back to reading old favorites and filling in the spots of an author I stopped buying in paper. I'm reading Mercedes lakey Vlademar series again and am enjoying visiting old friends.

Meander 2 - Thoughts - On Critiquing - Am reading manuscripts for a contest and am having difficulty in knowing how to let the authors know their word needs help. This can be difficult as there is no give and take between us. I try to read once as a reader and a second time as an editor. The second reading is the one where I can find and point out problems. The first one had character flaws and the second one as far as I can see has no plot. There is one more to go. I can understand how an editor feels when she faces a new manuscript. There's hoping for the wonderful story and there's the let down. I can see why geriatric rejections are sent.

Meander 3 - Writing - Incal is moving forward. Have finished four chapters of the final re-write and there are eight to go. Takes almost a week to do each one but hopefully the finished product will be wonderful. Then I can start something new. There are three scheduled fornext year and I don;t know what they will be.

 

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Meandering On Monday with Janet Lane Walters

The first meander is about a book gone live after many years of being available for strange prices on line. Nurse Karen Comes Home was released many years ago by Avalon a company recently purchased by Amazon. This was the fourth book I ever wrote and one for which I received a strange acceptance letter. As I read the first few paragraphs, I thought the book had been rejected. After telling me what they didn't like in books, they purchased the rights to publish the book. So I signed and the book was released with very few changes but only in hard back and purchased mainly by libraries. I am glad to see it live again since it shows my progress as a writer.

Meander two is about critiquing.  I've been doing this for years and the one thing I've learned is you don't re-write another person's story. Sometimes the persons doing the critiquing instead of saying what troubles begin by saying "You should write the story this way." That's not your story and you know it. I am able to disregard this kind of talk but newer writers sit down and start to rethink their story. I try to tell people how the story hits me. Things like what you've read sounds too much like back story, something you as the author need to know but the reader doesn't at this point in time. Or look at your character again. Is he or she acting in character or are you forcing the character to do something not in her nature. What a good critique doesn't do is try to turn another writer's story into a story that goes the way they believe it should go.

Meander three is about my own writing. I have moved beyond the rough draft of the story into the one that's looking at the plot and trying to make some of those plot holes disappear. Probably there will be some left but they will change when working on Character and Setting drafts. At the end of the rough draft something changed and I had to put hints toward reaching the new line in the story make sense. Rekindled Dreams will be finished before the year is out. I am also working on Amber Chronicles to fill in the pieces of the story that weren't written when I began. How did Emme end up on another world is where I am now. There will be one more complete story to be written and I must see if I need to put in connectors between the stories so it can be released at around 70 to 80,000 words. I will see what will happen.