Truths about Peer Editing by Unisse Chua

Source: Flickr

The epic National Novel Writing Month is finally over and you now have a novel that you would not want to go back and read again.

 If that's how you feel, think of why you joined NaNoWriMo in the first place.

Do you love to write? Do you wish that you could somehow publish your diamond-in-the-rough novel someday?

No matter what your reasons are, you wrote a novel. But. That novel is currently a novel written for the purpose of getting to fifty thousand words. Quantity over quality.

Book publishers would not want a wordy novel that lacks spice and has spelling errors.

Whether we like it or not, the novel we wrote just last November is still an unpolished diamond.

Let's polish our novels, but how?

"I don't want to reread the novel I've written. It's too depressing."

One way or another, if you really want that novel published by 2012, you have to make yourself read that novel and start using red ink to remove sentences and start revising your first draft.

But there is a way for you to avoid reading your novel.

Get a peer editor.

We might not be famous writers just yet but we all have friends or even NaNoWriMo writing buddies to help us.

Getting a peer editor is a really great idea if you want first hand comments about your novel and other writing, for that matter. Having someone else give their own insights to your novel is a good thing because you get to see how readers would react to it.

Even Jeff Goins, a writer, thinks that getting you a peer editor is the secret to great writing!

Where do I get myself a peer editor?

First of all, you joined NaNoWriMo, which has participants from all over the world! Ask your writing buddies on WriMo to help you edit your novel and maybe offer to edit theirs as well. Make a new friend. It won't hurt.

A peer editor is not hard to find. Your friend might be a real bibliophile, so why not try asking him or her if it's alright to spare a few hours checking your first draft. Just remember not to kill your friend if he or she gives you really harsh criticisms.

Anyone can be your peer editor. Your mom, dad, best friend, lover - even your little sister or brother could tell you a thing or two about that novel you spent a month mooning over.

Harsh comments equal good comments.

I am also a participant of NaNoWriMo and along the way, friends have been asking to read the novel I've written so far. I don't believe that I'm a good writer just yet but having friends wanting to read and comment on my unfinished novel made me want to write more.

NaNoWriMo is also not the first time I've attempted to write a novel. I've written quite a few unfinished drafts lying around in my computer's hard disk for months and years and I have also asked friends to give their review.

I have this friend who could really get a job as a grammar police if it exists. He found a number of errors in my writing and gave me really good comments but I felt a pang of hurt every time he corrected me.

It's okay to feel hurt when people criticize your work. It will help you grow and mature as a writer. Don't hate your friend for giving you harsh comments because these comments will provide you the best first-hand feedback.

 Unisse Chua is a twenty-something undergraduate Computer Science student from Manila who loves photography, writing and travelling. She started writing stories back when she was fifteen and still writes up until the present. She started a travel blog called Little Girl Travels to put all things she loves into one place. You can follow her on Twitter @sushixuni, on NaNoWrimo (sushixuni), and her personal blog, Little Girl Blogs.

Got Block? Try a WEDGE by Janece Herrington

Well, here we are smack in the middle of NaNoWriMo 2011.  How are you doing?  I don’t know about you, but I’ve barely kept up with my daily word count, thanks to a few thousand extra words clocked in during Week One!  Thank the NaNo Gods!

Week One is honeymoon time with the whole NaNo experience.  After anticipating November 1st for months, our fingers fly over the keyboard, plots thicken up nicely, and our characters are so well developed, it’s like they’re on steroids.   Updating word counters and statuses across the Social Networking universe hourly, we want everyone know:  We’re IN it, man!  We’re DOING this thing!

We Are On FIRE!

Enter Week Two - notorious for sending Wrimos into panic mode when they realize they’ve run out of plot, and still have 30,000 words to go.  I should know.  This is my 5^th NaNo! Whether we’re Plotters or Pantsers,  Week Two is when many of us go from “FLOW” to “SLOW” faster than you can say “Is it December yet?”

Suddenly, we’re staring at blank screens, the clock is ticking, and our word count hasn’t budged in hours.  Maybe days!  We’ve used every adjective known to man (and then some) in our last paragraph, and now we’ve got - nothing.  Nada.  Zilch!

Ugh! What happened?  We were doing SO well, then without warning, our Muse goes into hiding and NaNoWriMo feels a lot more like WORK, and a lot less like fun.

WRITER’S BLOCK

Two words sure to strike fear into the heart of anyone who’s ever put word to paper.

The BAD news is, almost every writer will experience writers block at some point, and it has nothing to do with ability or desire. 

The GOOD news is – especially for us Wrimos - we’re going for PROGRESS in November, not PERFECTION.    They may not be the best words we’ve ever written, and we might type the very last word at 11:59 p.m. on November 30. But the goal here is to just FINISH, blocks be damned.

So what’s a writer to do when they hit the proverbial Block Wall?  Try the WEDGE:

WANDER away from your story for a while literally (take a walk, go for a ride, or watch a movie) and figuratively.  Suspend your original plot and try something different.  For example, your MC could step into a Time Machine and meet up with a historical figure.  Or an alien.  Whatever! Wandering may not sit well with you Plotters, but it will get you writing again.  And THAT’S the whole point.  You can always edit later. 

ENLIST help from writing prompts.  There are some great books available, as well as card decks. But you don’t have to spend money - make your own!  Cut some index cards in half, and write a word or phrase on each one.  “Take a Road Trip” “Kill off your MC”  “RUMBA!”  The point is to have fun with it!  Then shuffle the cards, pick one, and get writing! 

DRAW from real life.  Did you have lunch with a friend today?  Maybe and your squeeze got into a fight, or you just found out you’re adopted.  Real life is great fodder for word count.  Who knows?  Maybe the ‘nice guy’ that stopped to help you change a tire is really an ax welding murderer who’s looking for his next victim!

GUT IT OUT.  I know, I know. This one doesn’t sound sexy, but perseverance DOES pay off.   It might seem like you’ve run out of ideas, but if you’ll just stick with it, the words will come back. So what if it’s not the next Great American Novel? (NO NaNoWriMo novel is at first!)  You’ll eventually find your voice again, if you don’t give up.  Just ask Ernest Hemingway or J.K. Rowling.

EASE UP ON YOURSELF.  No, really.  Try not to stress so much about it.  We’re going for word counts here, not trying to solve world hunger.  Just do the best you can for now.  If you write only 50 words today and not a one makes sense, so what?  Beating yourself up is a recipe for more blockage.  Try again tomorrow.  Just don’t give up!

Janece Herrington is a native Southern Californian who grew up in the 60s addicted to reading, listening to the Beach Boys, and playing “journalist on the street” in the beautiful port town of South Shores.

Mother of two and grandmother to one, Janece works full-time as the Marketing Manager for a national property management company.  She’s been blogging since 2005, and considers creative writing her ‘real job’.  Her blog is The Wild Pomegranade.

A featured contributor on SheWrites.com and WomenWriters, Women Books, Janece has published several articles on Green Home building and the upcoming Baby Boomer Retirees. She is currently working on her first novel.