Writer In Motion Update

We’re near the end of week 3 for Writer In Motion and it’s been a crazy week. Lots of design work done, some code digging, and a back yard overrun by blackberry bushes that I’ve been slowly hacking away. So far I’ve uncovered 2 dead bushes, a lot of Oregon Ash saplings, and more tree spiders than I care to admit. Thankfully they’re all harmless and take care of the bugs, but boy have some gotten big.

This week has left me little time for much else, but this morning I’ve got my coffee and I’m ready to dive in. The Writer In Motion team gathered all the writers into two spreadsheets, read every story, and matched folks up based on their stories and writing styles, and I hear there was a white board and some zoom calls involved. Anyways, shout out to the amazing S. M. Roffey and S. Kaeth for pulling everyone together.

My two lovely critique partners for the week, Dan Koboldt and Jeffrey Ricker have tackled my story with a jackhammer and an axe, plus my longtime CP S. M. Roffey also took a bat and knocked a few things around.

The Consensus

One of the things about feedback from multiple people is everyone sees the story differently. We call it subjectivity in the industry, but as the author this can really cast a lens of clarity. Or in my case, have dividing opinions.

I’ve blurred this image out a little to protect the innocent, but as you can see I have an edit letter (this was fantastic!) and three very strong sets of notes. Because Writer In Motion is all about transparency of process, here’s how I’m gonna roll.

• Remember that busy week I mentioned earlier? It’s still happening, but I have already read through all my notes. The funny thing is, I agree on some level with all of it—even the conflicting parts. I can see how each would benefit the story in a different way, so it will come down to me choosing a path. But it’s been really nice to step away and let all those thoughts absorb into my skin as I work on website builds.
• I’m taking the morning off to tackle my edits. My first step will be to fix the small nuances and revise all the places where my three CPs were in agreement. A lot of writers will say tackle the big stuff first, and in the case of a novel I agree, but for a short story with a tight deadline, tackling the small things first will clear the clutter and give me a stronger visual of the big things.
• Once I’ve got all the agreements and hooray comments out of the way, I’ll be leering hard at where the disagreements are. Why does one writer love a line or plot point while another wants it gone? And more importantly… does it serve this story in the best way?
• And as I work on those revisions one thing I’ll be mulling in the back of my head is what the focus is for this week’s revision. Is there a strong mood present, a theme, or even an idea? This is the string I’ll tug on as I add another layer to the image blend for this story.

The revision will be up sometime tomorrow, then the story will be shipped off to my next round of CPs, and of course a certain editor I love to play traitor with demanded (yes, demanded) I send it to her too. Carly’s been gutting the novel where Braygen appears as a secondary character and quickly shoulders his way into the spotlight, so I can’t wait for her to finally get a peek inside his head. And probably make me rewrite the book again… kidding.

Until tomorrow!