Indie Scriptorium-What does it take to become a writer?

Step Two–Writing to be read.

A reader is your audience. Your job as a writer is to give your reader the best possible experience of understanding and enjoying your thoughts, experiences, ideas, and creativity.

To turn your written piece into something that others will read, understand and enjoy requires two further steps, critiquing and editing. You will also need a computer and an understanding of how to create a word document or someone who will help you with this task.

When I first started out writing, I did not understand the need for critiquing and editing and wrote a massive novel of 180,000 words on a typewriter, and then did not know what to do with it. A kind person read it and pointed out that it was too long, overly complex, had too much explanation, didn’t read well, and contained far too many grammatical and spelling errors. I became totally dispirited and deposited my tome in a bottom draw where it still resides today.

Since then, I have written hundreds of small pieces of written texts. Some were essays for study, work projects, small exercises in writer’s groups and short stories for competitions. I have learned from these the craft of writing. I have improved my style and continue to improve. This is a process that never stops. I am learning every time I write, critique and edit.

I am now writing novels to be published with Indie Scriptorium and they need to be as close to perfect as possible. Getting feedback and then editing your work is as important as writing it in the first place and can take up more time and effort. But it will be worth it.

Let’s start with critiquing. What is a critique? My Collins dictionary defines a critique as a “Critical essay” and many people view a critique as a negative criticism of something as it comes from the word critic. But I like the Oxford Languages definition on Google “Critique–a detailed analysis and assessment of something.”

When writing, you want a detailed analysis and a fair assessment of your work. As a writer, you need encouragement and constructive feedback, so it’s important to look for the strengths of the writing as well as the improvements required.

It is difficult to critique your own work. When you are writing for a reader, you need another set of eyes. A trusted person, or persons, who will give you their honest opinion about what they liked and what they didn’t. What worked and what was confusing, what was difficult to understand, or lacked pace and interest. Getting feedback is essential.

I have a lovely friend who reads my first drafts and tells me if she enjoyed the story and the characters. I also have writing friends who give feedback about the plot, characters, writing style, research used, word usage, sentence construction and grammar. Writing groups can provide good feedback, but I would suggest that you ask one or two members to become your critique partners and then share your work fairly amongst yourselves. Writing groups can be too supportive, you need a balance of encouragement and critical evaluation to improve your writing. I also employ a professional editor who provides me with invaluable feedback.

Google-How to find a Critique Partner and there is a plethora of articles that I suggest people read before approaching another writer. Some Writing Organisations will provide critiquing services for a fee or will help you match up with another writer. Entering competitions can provide you with some excellent feedback, especially if the judges are readers. I have found a questionnaire a useful way to gain feedback from readers as it focuses their attention on what aspects of your writing you need to improve.

Critiques strengthen your writing. Reviewing someone else’s work strengthens your writing and leads you to the next step: editing. (To be covered in my next blog in July)

And in the spirit of critiquing, I welcome your feedback for this blog.

Elsie King © 2022

Feature photo: Laptop © Stock Photo