Editors Are Exactly Like Parents, Not Besties

by Cat Woods

Give me an E! Give me a D! Give me an I-T-O-R!

What's that spell?

Help. Yeah, that's right. Help of the most amazing kind.

Last week, Matt Sinclair talked about the partnership between writers and editors. He stated that solid communication was the key to a successful project. As a writer who has recently worked with several editors on three shorts stories and one novel, I'll expound on this idea from the writer's perspective.

Here's the deal about editors: a good editor who shares your vision for a piece can strengthen your story in ways you never dreamed possible. As long as we understand that editors are not our friends.

Rather, editors are exactly like parents.

And just like parents, editors have a job to do. Namely, help us grow up and make something of ourselves. They cannot achieve this by sitting around youtube every night, eating pizza, painting toenails and gossiping about who wore what that day at school. Instead, they provide a set of rules to guide us toward our literary success. They are task masters, not besties.

Editors (like parents):

• Withhold dessert until we've eaten all our veggies. It's all about a healthy balance. Do we use all five senses? Do we have too many or too few characters? Is the front end of our story too action-packed with the back end fizzling out? A best friend would likely sneak us a cookie when our parents weren't looking instead of making us suffer through canned asparagus.
• Make us brush our teeth and shower. Editors force us to be presentable. Do people actually like our characters? Is the MC the strongest person in our novels, or does the fun-loving side-kick garner far more sympathy? Does our MC whine? Is he brute? Are they sensitive and strong and flawed and fun? In short, are they likable enough to carry reader interest through an entire story? Besties don't pay our dental bills. And as long as we don't stink too badly, they'll let us hang.
• Demand that we speak respectfully. Oh yes, because even in writing, our dialogue can be off-putting. Editors will provide an unbiased reaction to our character interactions and demand that we don't abuse the power of language. They'll make sure that what our characters say is believable and pertinent. They'll also help us pinpoint where we might get a bit preachy. This is not something a bestie would do. As you probably remember, best friends can smack talk nearly as well as we can. 
• Dictate that we clean our rooms. Editors will point out our piles of dirty laundry in the middle of the floor and will scavenge for those stray legos under the bed. They want our manuscripts clean and devoid of garbage that detracts from the writing itself: anything from typos to grammar to content and beyond. Not so, the besties. Because they like you and want you to like them, they may be more prone to shoving a toy behind the dresser than making us pick up every last marble off the floor.

"But what about my betas and critique partners?" you may be asking. "They are not parents, nor are they besties. Aren't they as good as editors?"

And that, my friends, is the question I pose to you.

Can beta readers provide the same quality of feedback that professional editors can? Is there a beta-reading threshold that can take a piece "only so far"? If you're a published--or soon to be published--author who has worked with both critique partners and professional editors, can you speak to us on the difference between the two?

Curious minds want to know.

Cat Woods has been editing her heart out this past year. Her short story, Annabelle, was published in SPRING FEVERS in February. Little League, another short, is due out on October 29th in the upcoming anthology THE FALL. When she's not editing, Cat parents her four kids (in the non-friend kind of way) and blogs at Words from the Woods.

Does It Really Take a Village to Write a Novel?

by Cat Woods

Think about that person in your life:

• The one who encourages his dawg to use your lawn as a canine commode.
• The one who leans on you to buy the Mother's Day presents and Christmas presents and wedding gifts and Easter baskets and ...
• The one whose contribution to group projects is her name at the top of the page.
• The one who "reluctantly" allows his children to spend the night at your house, night after night after freakin' night and never returns the favor.

Yeah, that one. The neighbor, sister, co-worker or friend who proudly proclaims that all great accomplishments in life take the work of a village.

Sometimes I think "village" is code word for "I'm lazy" and the people who say it are nothing more than the village idiots.

Yet, my writer-ego believes the opposite. It tells me that writers succeed because of the village, not in spite of it.

Five Awesome Reasons to Be Part of a Writing Village

1. It's dark and lonely in the writing closet—at least mine was. Any agents or editors living there before didn't leave a calling card ...
2. It's impossible to critique your own writing. No joke. I don't care how good you are, everyone needs an extra set of eyes on their work.
3. Networking, baby. It's hard to network effectively at a table for one.
4. You have to find the answers somewhere from somebody, so why not from other, experienced scribes?
5. Friendship. Pure and simple.

Five Awesome Gifts to Give your Fellow Villagers

1. Time.
2. Effort.
3. Honesty.
4. Expertise.
5. Friendship.

Five Awesome Writing Villages

1. AgentQuery Connect: Hands down, the best on the net. AQC boasts a robust writing community. It's free. It's fun. It's filled with advice on any topic. Did I mention it's the best on the net?
2. Society of Children's Writers and Illustrators: The SCBWI is all things juvenile when it comes to literature. When you join ($70/yr), you receive the inside scoop on the publishing business where kids are concerned. They host conferences, workshops, face-to-face critique groups and an online forum. I've been a member for eternity. But don't fret if you don't write for kids. Each genre has a professional organization dedicated to helping writers connect with the business and other like-minded scribes. Examples include: RWA and HNS.
3. Verla Kay's Blue Boards: Another juvie lit community that strives to provide a safe haven for writers penning scripts from board books to YA novels. The Blue Boards are free, but membership must be requested and accepted before you're given the magic key to the kingdom.
4. NaNoWriMo: I know, it sounds weird, but I met some of my dearest and oldest writing friends during the month-long novel-writing frenzy. We then created a tiny village in the vast ocean of cyberspace on LiveJournal. This group of wonderful ladies got me out of the writing closet and into the writing world. National Novel Writing Month happens every November. It's completely free and totally off the wall. Nothing motivates me to write like my fellow NaNoers.
5. Private writing groups: These micro-villages can go a long way in keeping us motivated while supporting our entire journey from start to finish. Often, you can find/create these groups after connecting with other writers on bigger writing sites. AQC, for instance, has a Want Ads section where writers can advertise.

Five Pitfalls to Avoid in your Writing Village

1. Never get more than you give. It torques people off and makes them want to burn down your house.
2. Never let your ego get in your way. Remember those village idiots I talked about earlier? Yeah, don't be one of them. As writers, we all have one end goal: getting our work published and into readers' hands. None of us are better or worse than our neighbor, no matter how much experience we have on our sides.
3. Don't build a wall. China's is crumbling, Berlin's is gone. Writing communities are places to explore and unite, not isolate and divide.
4. Don't be a jack of all trades. Writing communities are notorious for having so many fun alleys and shops that you want to get involved in the goings-on of them all. This is a huge time suck and doesn't really connect you the way you need to be. Instead, find a few niche areas that you can effectively and efficiently partake in and spend the rest of your time writing.
   
5. Whatever you do, don't poop on your neighbor's lawn.

Which writing villages are you part of? What is the biggest asset of your favorite writing village? The biggest drawback? How has your writing village played a role in your success as a writer, no matter how small or how great your feat? What tips do you have for writers as they embark on a journey to find a solid writing community?

Curious minds want to know.

Cat Woods used to be a village of one. After her closet door opened, she jumped key board first into a wide range of diverse and intriguing writing communites. You can follow her journey on Words from the Woods.

(Un)Healthy Writing 3: Codependency

by Cat Woods

My Dear Daughter + teen drama = great blog fodder.

For the past week, we've been discussing addiction and the difference between healthy behaviors and those not so great for long term success.

DD's newest question, "Can a person be addicted to her boyfriend?" got me thinking and asking a few questions of my own.

Can a writer be addicted to other writers? The psychology-lover in me says no. Humans cannot be addicted to other humans. We can, however, be co-dependent on them.

Co-dependency develops when two individuals form such a strong relationship they forego other healthy alternatives. They feed off each other's fears and insecurities, and often engage in self-destructive behaviors rather than risk severing ties with their significant others (i.e., the only people in the universe who totally understand them).

Teens are notorious for engaging in these all-inclusive relationships.

So are writers.

While some relationships are healthy, others can be devastating. Consider your circle of writing friends. It is very likely that a few individuals lead the way in both expertise and experience. They often become role models or mentors to other members. It is just as likely that your writing group has a handful of known Vivian Venters. These lively individuals rant about the injustices of the publishing business and lend an ear when you need to do the same. And just for filler, every good writing community has a newbie or two waiting in the wings.

At any given point, writers need every kind of writing relationship mentioned above. We need to be led and we need to lead. We also need to rant and rejoice—for ourselves and for others. These key personalities make for a healthy balance.

But what happens when a writer gets sucked down the rabbit hole into a co-dependent relationship with another writer? In short, forward progress will cease.

More importantly, what does a co-dependent relationship look like?

You may be co-dependent on your writing partner if:

1. You seek out certain individuals in private to complain about the injustice of the business—because your comments to other writers often go unanswered.
   
2. You find yourself spending more time complaining than writing.
   
3. Your partner complains more often than he writes.
   
4. You have been through a half-dozen writing partners and find that all of them are too mean/judgmental/stupid to care about your work. They just don't "get" you.
   
5. You seek out critique partners who lavish praise onto your writing, finding a mere typo here and there for you to fix.
   
6. You happily point out typos in your Writing Partner's work, but shy away from telling her you don't understand what you just read.
   
7. Your writing fears are vast and varied and you're sure you will never get published. Ever. Why don't you just quit now and stick to scrubbing toilets? When you state this to your WP, she tells you how stupid agents and editors are and offers no substantial plan to help you succeed.
   
8. When your WP complains of the exact same thing, you know in your heart your WP is right—his writing sucks—but you're afraid to tell him because he's your friend. He listens to you. He knows how mean agents and editors are. He gets that the stars are aligned against you. He is the only one in your corner who truly understands.
   
9. You haven't written anything substantial since you've found your writing "soul-mate", and may even have lost your desire to write.
   
10. You no longer want to get published because you believe in your work, rather, your desire to publish is motivated by the need to prove the agents and editors wrong. Double points if your critique partner encourages this logic.
    
11. Your relationship makes you feel isolated on one hand and cozy and safe on the other.
    

I know the above list sounds a bit cheeky, but I mean it in the most sincere way. Writing is a tough business. Few of us know exactly what the journey will entail before we decide to become writers. We can easily become disenchanted and blame our sour feelings on agents, editors and their constant rejections.

If this is how you feel, even slightly, please carefully consider your writing relationships. Are they healthy? Do you get positive reinforcement along with a dose of reality from them? Do you give the same in return?

How do you maintain healthy writing relationships? How do you deal with unhealthy ones?

Curious minds want to know.

When she's not separating dust bunnies from plot bunnies, Cat Woods can be found coaching speechies, raising children, mediating custody cases or blogging at Words From the Woods.

P.S. If you'd like more (Un)Healthy Writing tips, you can nab posts 1 and 2 on my blog.

Trust Your Betas, They Are Wise

by Mindy McGinnis

So I've got a monster under my bed. I shared a little bit about this monster on my personal blog, but today I want to extrapolate on the situation. The monster in question is a trunked ms. It's like an ex-boyfriend that you know has serious issues, but he's got a great voice so you keep taking his calls.



My goal last week was to give that monster ex-boyfriend an attitude adjustment, make him see his wrongdoings and wrangle him into good shape. In other words, he graduated from under the bed to in the bed. But don't misinterpret that last bit; it's where I do my writing.

This particular ms was suffering from some tense issues. Every now and then my 1st POV narrator wanted to slip into present tense while speaking about the past. I call it The Wonder Years Syndrome. In my head, it worked. But every one of my betas was like, "Dude, you've got a tense issue here." And I was like, "No, it's The Wonder Years Syndrome."

Yet that never seemed to be a sufficient explanation.

So I walked away from Monster Ex-Boyfriend and treated myself to a successful new relationship. But those bad apples are irresistible, and I ended up digging him out and applying that stern talking-to. And you know what? My friends were right. There is something not quite right about him, but I was too close to the situation to see it. I wanted to Wonder-Years-Syndrome explain away his issues, but after some time away they were glaring.

But I love the underdog. When I go to the pound I overlook the lost purebreds and take home a three-legged dog with asthma and leprosy. I applied a liberal dose of self-editing, and the ex is currently in the hands of a particularly ruthless beta, who will definitely let me know if there are any lingering problems.

And maybe this time, I'll listen.

Crit Partner 411

by Cat Woods

When writers talk betas and critters, they don’t mean fish and insects—though sometimes it feels as if critiquers just blow bubbles up our kiesters or try to get under our skin like a bad case of scabies.

So why bother? Because all writing needs a fresh set of eyes at various stages for various reasons. Which leads me to my point—betas are great, critters are fabu, but a complete team can make the difference between helping and hindering our writing efforts.

So what makes a good Crit Team? That, my fellow scribes, depends on you. A good Crit Team will motivate, support, lay down their lives for you and (gently) slap you in the face with a good dose of reality. Essentially, they are puzzle pieces who fill in the blank spots of our abilities.

How to Assemble a Crit Team:

DEFINE YOUR WEAKNESSES. Can’t spell to save your life? Got flat characters? Does your writing have more plot holes than a Minnesota tar road after the spring thaw? Description, grammar, dialogue, consistency? Name your downfall(s) and determine your biggest needs in terms of writing feedback.

CAST YOUR NET. Writers' conferences give individuals the opportunity to meet and assess critters face to face. Conferences off limits? Join an established and respected group in your genre (SCBWI, RWA, HNS) and get to know other members who share similar interests. This can be done on or offline. Hop on over to your library and see who else has inquired about a writing group. Newspaper ads can also work, as well as contacting your local arts council. You might be surprised what a little sleuthing can reveal.

Writers in your area fewer than June bugs in January? Join writing communities on the web. AgentQuery Connect is my go to, although I’ve heard that finding like-minded writers on blogs, twitter and facebook is effective as well.

INTERVIEW POTENTIALS. Make darn sure you know who you buddy-up with and what they have to offer. Not every aspiring writer—and potential crit buddy—makes a good critiquer. Some can’t keep to a deadline. Some want more than they plan to give. Some spell hangberger worser than you do. Others may impose their writing styles onto your work and get grumpy when you don’t follow their advice. Still more will let their green-eyed monster out of the box when red-lining your pages. And let’s not forget the back-patter who has more kind—and useless—words than your great grandma or the genre-challenged who just can’t understand why your chapter book MC doesn’t silently murder the bully in the middle of the night.

Other Tidbits You Might Want to Consider

Be up front about your needs and expectations. Discuss how things will work regarding swaps and what you’re looking for from each team member. Give your team a trial run. After the first swap, do you feel compatible? Like you gained anything useful? Like you had anything useful to give in return? If not, this is the perfect time to gracefully walk away and reel in another critter.

You get what you give. Be the kind of writing partner you expect from other Crit Team members. Do not over-extend yourself or partner with other members who have poor no-saying skills. If you want a heart-felt critique, give one first.

Be flexible. Understand that sometimes you may need to find a fill-in for certain projects or aspects of a project. If your Crit Team members do not have a crucial skill you need at a given time, don’t be afraid to reassess your needs and cast your net until you find someone who can.

Will a Critter really lay down their life for you? Tune in on Friday, June 3 to find out. Also, learn why you need a pair of big-girl panties before engaging in a critique swap and experience hands on what you can do with the feedback you receive. Even if it stinks worse than an unclean fish tank and makes you itch more than a head lice infestation.

How do you find crit partners? How do you assess whether you and your writing partners are compatible and the feedback effective? How, when and where do you swap? Spill the beans on what makes your crit team tick, or ask those niggling questions on the logistics.

We’ll all learn together.

To learn how to conduct yourself as part of a team, join Joyce Alton at Yesternight’s Voyage.

Need to gracefully break up with your crit partner? Nab some sample starters at Words from the Woods.