The Red Ink Experiment - What a Workshopped Piece Looks Like
I my previous post I promised to share what a ‘workshopped’ piece looks like, and the time has come. The story I tossed out there is one I quite like in theory, but cringe at in execution, so it made the perfect Red Ink Experiment. I got the benefit of a lot of incredibly helpful feedback, with the knowledge that there would be plenty of recommended changes to showcase the Fiction Workshop’s abilities.
Elsewhere on Steemit, there are people who shall remain unnamed blogging about how you don’t need to have good grammar, spelling, or punctuation to succeed as an author. These people explain they have secret knowledge of how to make big bucks self-publishing. Reading between the lines - and glancing at their wallets - it seems the secret is to convince other Steemians you have a secret, and they only have to send you some SBD to become privy to it.
Seems legit
You don’t have to create error-free, well-structured, marketable fiction to self-publish. And with Steemit, self-publishing is a few clicks away. You can even have your Steemit-posted original works hosted in the lovely, professional online library Steem Shelves, where the links won’t be buried after a week and all of your followers can easily browse your works.
But if what you want is error-free, well-structured, marketable fiction, the place to make that happen is the Fiction Workshop. In my post Tips for Fic Part 4 - Work(shop) that Thang!, I explained folks should be prepared for honest critique. Will some kind things be said? Likely. But the real improvement doesn’t come from flattery, it comes from critique. To prove you can both survive and benefit from a brutally honest critique, I offer my Red Ink Experiment in all its bloody gory.
There are some screen grabs here from the Word Doc @rhondak sent me separately, but you can view a PDF of the full Google document with its markups directly at this link. You’ll notice some comments are nice, most are what I need to fix, and there are edit suggestions ranging from rewording to comma placement. When six or seven people have at your work, they won’t agree on everything, and as the author, I might not take every single bit of advice. But the amount of feedback, the number of readers able to catch errors and say how the story reads to them, is invaluable. Many thanks to those who participated in this by offering their time and talents: @rhondak, @carolkean, @gmuxx, @geke, @jean.racines, @cosimo, and please I'm so sorry if I missed anyone but sometimes it's hard to tell who's in the Google doc!
^^^Rhonda immediately identifies my number one failing: long-winded openings
^^^She generously suggests a rewrite, not expecting me to copy it word for word, but so that I can see how it can be done
^^^Often there is encouragement to ease the discomfort of the critique
^^^Some suggestions are general, others specific, but all are helpful
Thank you so much for reading! Don't forget to Upvote, Comment, and Resteem!
Please check out my recently posted fiction:
Restoration
Peace
Let us Gather by the River
Or laugh and learn with my Tips for Fic series:
Part 1 – The Writer’s Guide to Getting some Action
Part 2 - Show me yours, I'll Show you Mine
Part 3 - Cover your - um - Content
Part 4 - Work(shop) that Thang!
Part 4.1 - Work(shop) that Thang! [with Google Docs]
Click HERE to learn more
This is awesome! The number one piece of writing advice I'd offer to anyone is to have someone else review your work and be open to their honest feedback. This is a perfect illustration of why that's so important.
Also -- spelling and grammar mistakes can have a huge impact on an author's credibility. I'm happy to see that other writers still recognize that.
Thanks! We'd love your expertise in the Workshop. It's a great group of people; you should pop in sometime! There's also an English Grammar and Spelling channel in PALnet Discord where we do proofreads for people.
This "red ink" special is a wonderful idea. And again--everything you said in the post is spot on. People will always be able to self-publish B-list work. Easy peasy. But for those of us who strive hard every day to produce A-list work, it's a whole 'nother ballgame.
In the late 70s and early 80s I read slushpile for Asimov's SF Magazine and then for Amazing Magazine. The slushpile is composed of all the unsolicited manuscripts sent into a publication.
Here's a photo from that time period. Barry Longyear proudly holding a copy of Asimov's with a story by him listed on the cover. We're at a SF convention and he's standing with me in my booth. Sorry for the poor quality, I've lost most pictures from that time.
Some were well crafted, some were in red ink, handwritten, on yellow legal pad paper, and some were just unfathomable!
We worked with the new authors as best we could. But we always pointed out one thing that was good and then showed them what needed improvement or just plain deletion.
One of the most useful tools for an author is to simply read your writing out loud or better yet have someone else read it out loud to you.
Give it a try! All kinds of awkward phrases become so obvious out loud. And dialogue, you really need to have it flow like real speech. How better than to hear it out loud.
All you writers out there @jrhughes has great tips and guides! I just read through a couple of them!
I am following, resteeming and eagerly waiting for more! Also will be checking out the fiction workshop!
And keep on writing!!!
Wow, thanks @madlila, what a cool pic! You are so right about reading aloud. Even in my real-life job, which involves summarizing legal documents and such, I tell the crew to read their work aloud. They never listen lol. So many people will have whole words just missing and I know if they read it out loud they would slow down and catch that.
It sounds like you would bring a lot to the workshop, maybe even how to write better dialogue (which I need lol). We would love to see you there. I'm going to check out your blog now but be sure to give me a holler if you come by PALnet :)
This is a great article! And I do want to come in and participate in the fiction Writers Workshop. @rhondak is awesome!
She is indeed! Hope to see you there sometime!
Don't forget link to finished piece for those hooked on story from excerpts... Like me!
You're too kind! I will be reworking it in the near future I hope. Picking up the pace and maybe changing the tense.
Nice post @jrhuges. Keep leading the way and allowing us to share in your journey.
Thanks Jason, it's great to have you at the workshop!
Great stuff, happy to have my input and good on you for putting it out here.
I'm happy to have your input as well; thanks for all you do at the Workshop and elsewhere at PALnet!
This post has been ranked within the top 80 most undervalued posts in the second half of Jul 29. We estimate that this post is undervalued by $8.56 as compared to a scenario in which every voter had an equal say.
See the full rankings and details in The Daily Tribune: Jul 29 - Part II. You can also read about some of our methodology, data analysis and technical details in our initial post.
If you are the author and would prefer not to receive these comments, simply reply "Stop" to this comment.
@jrhughes, I find what you are doing to be extremely helpful to me. You not cover excellent topics for writers but also present them very well. As always, a pleasure to read and learn from your posts. Thank you! <3
Thank you @sandzat, it's a pleasure to work with you on this platform and in the Workshop!
This post has been resteemed by @minnowsupport courtesy of @gmuxx from the Minnow Support Project ( @minnowsupport ). Join us in Discord.
Upvoting this comment will help support @minnowsupport.