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| Photo credit: markus spiske on Flickr |
So as a writer who blogs, vlogs, and tweets about writing and writing tips, it’s not really all too surprising that I frequently get questions about how to make someone’s MS better—questions that are really specific to that person’s WIP. And while I’m not at all that bothered by it, it happens often enough that I thought a post might be a good idea.
Because the truth is I can’t talk to you about your novel.
Writing is so super-crazy-subjective and so very specific to a case-by-case basis. And yes, of course there are general tips and techniques and strategies I can and do share, but there are always exceptions, too, and the only way anyone can really figure out what the best move is for your specific manuscript is to read it with a critical eye.
Only problem is most of the time when I get e-mails from lovely readers asking about their MSs, I haven’t read their work. So it’s really difficult for me to even begin to try to talk about whether or not something is hypothetically working, and I can’t really offer to look at it either because quite frankly? I need that time for my writing stuff and my CPs and betas.
So while I’m happy to point people back to blog posts that talk about general issues mentioned, I unfortunately can’t talk about any specific cases unless I’m critiquing something like in a Fixing the First Page post. And even then I can only talk about the first 250 words, which, in the grand scheme of a 50-100,000 word novel isn’t that much.
But I do what I can here, talking about writing stuff in general terms. And I try to listen to see what people are asking questions about, what people want to see more of, what I didn’t articulate well enough.
I don’t know if it’s enough, but I do know it’s the best I can do. And I hope it’s acceptable to you guys too.
Twitter-sized bite:
How specific can writing advice posts be? @Ava_Jae explains why the general usually works best. (Click to tweet)
