Leaves

Year Six -- Week 25 -- November 17, 2003


To separate the trees from the forest you can wait for the leaves to drop, or ask a friend for help.

Every writer reaches a point where they lose perspective on a story – it could be the characters, the plot, the setting, or just a handful of words to create a falter in confidence. And that’s why feedback from trusted friends and family is such an important part of the process.

I am amazed that anyone would take the time to read an early draft. It’s a huge commitment, and it’s a great sign of friendship that I don’t take for granted. But feedback is tricky.

There’s an old adage in the advertising business – 50% of all ads are wasted, the trouble is, it’s hard to know which half. If a writer gets a 50% feedback hit rate, that would be a hall-of-fame response. Twenty-five percent would be good in my book, but it’s the writer’s job to figure out which twenty-five. And that is what the art of processing feedback is all about. It’s a skill that requires time to develop, and yet it's not spoken about much in the workshops I've taken.

Here’s what I’ve learned:

There is no right or wrong and there is no perfect solution.

Today’s answer becomes tomorrow’s problem.

Choose readers carefully and understand where they are coming from. Knowing who they read will help you sift through the comments. Often someone’s feedback is rife with the person’s bias.

To determine a person’s bent, I put them on a literary scale that ranges from black to white. Grisham is on the left, anchoring black, and Updike is on the right, holding down the white. I place LaCarre and Hiassen somewhere in the gray. Atwood and Sebold are creamy white – Clancy is jet black. I chose colors over a numeric scale to avoid judging writing styles.

I also put my work on this scale. The novel leans to the black, the short stories lean white. Often the comments I dismiss are those that attempt to push the piece toward the wrong color.

Also beware of readers that have just read a new book on writing, or one’s that have recently attended a workshop. Typically the hot topic for them will be the focus of your feedback -- I call that a pot luck critique, sample carefully.

Having several readers will also flush out the bias, but make sure you haven’t assembled a group of clones modeled after yourself.

When the same issue comes up from several people, that’s a good indication you should take the comment seriously. Fight the temptation to think they’ve all got it wrong, but don’t instantly cave-in either. They may have all cocked it up, and that’s what makes writing such a challenge. Ultimately, your gut has to make the call.

Someone at Squaw Valley this summer said don’t be afraid to kill your darlings. A darling is your favorite scene, a phrase or paragraph, something you fell in love with during an early draft that now has lost its purpose. It typically takes two or three readers to flag it before you’ll realize, and even then it’s damn hard to delete.

Phasing in readers is also important. And that’s where I am this week. I can’t believe that some of my readers have stuck at it for five years. I’ve recognized them on this website in the acknowledgment section, but it doesn’t hurt to thank them again – Mom, James, Karin, and Paul in particular -- thank you. And of course, Joy.

Unfortunately they’ve been along for the ride so long, they’ve lost as much perspective as I have. And that’s why this week I asked two folks from Squaw Valley to take a look at the novel – Michelle and Jim.

They were fresh and untainted and not bound by the early drafts. And their comments will help put the final touches on “The Sound of Money,’ but first I must sift through the feedback for those jewels of relevance.

I also spent the weekend raking leaves, which you may have noticed, provided the inspiration for this week’s photo. Now that they’ve all fallen, I can see the trees clearly in my backyard. In the case of my novel, it’s my readers that help separate the trees from the forest, and that's the secret to keeping them in view year 'round.

PS. Thanks to Danette, Phil, the Princess of Darkness and Denny Kingman for their help on the short story Weekend Number Five.