......again! Why? I recently got my NWS Report back. 10 pages of excellent advice - I'm eternally grateful to the reader for taking the (enormous) amount of time she/he must have taken to provide so much information on my MS.
The MS was one of my "Roman's" aimed at HM&B. In a nutshell she said she liked the story; that I wrote dialogue well, and write good sex scenes ( ;0 ). However, there were a few major elephants in the corner namely:
1. I have "craft" problems. I need to seriously look at conflict and character. Reading through her comments she's absolutely right of course! Duh on my part. Way too much external conflict and not enough internal conflict. Oh how many times have I read this - and then duh - *I* ignore it. (Sigh....) But having gone through my MS I can see where (hopefully) I can "repair" it. It's going to need a total re-write mind - but the story, I hope, should be all the better for it!
2. Embarrassment alert - Maybe I should keep this one to myself - but hey - I'm in a sharing mood. The other elephant in the corner that the reader picked up on was grammar and punctuation! When I went through my MS, I couldn't believe how many times it was marked for grammar and punctuation mistakes. Ye gads! Why do I have such a problem with the (dreaded) apostrophe? (Hangs head in shame).
So. Enough rambling. It's back to the drawing board. I need to make some serious changes to the MS. Make my hero less of a nasty character - even though he is bitter and twisted and wants revenge - and give both H/h much, much more internal conflict. Wish me luck peeps! Caroline xxx
I wouldn't be embarrassed Caroline :) There's no shame in learning and I often don't pick up on obvious mistakes because I've been working too closely with a piece of writing (see there's always ALWAYS an explanation ;) )
ReplyDeleteLots of luck with the drawing board! You can do it!
Issues with punctuation are easily fixed - read your mss backwards before submitting! And if you have trouble remembering the rules, grab a good grammar and punctuation guide and bone up on them.
ReplyDeleteI'm notorious for not being very sympathetic about that kind of thing - but then, I was brought up by a man who was chief sub-editor on The Times. I knew where to place the apostrophe before I knew how to tie my laces. My father used to copy-edit my homework every night and was extremely unamused by my errors. It was a kind of Dickensian childhood. :-o
Gosh, no wonder I'm odd!
Fabulous though to get such a detailed report back. Sounds like you've had some great feedback, I hope it works out for you.
The person that neer made a mistake never did anything. Keep your chin up.
ReplyDeleteAt least you have some great advice on where you can improve your manuscript, Caroline. I know I have often asked someone to read a story, that I thought was finished only for them to find areas for improvement that I really should have picked up on. But it will make your next one (and this rewritten one) all the better!
ReplyDeleteThanks Lacey, Jane, Colette and David. Kind words much appreciated. And Jane, any chance I can "borrow" your dad? He would lick my grammar into shape in no time! LOL. Caroline x
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