Your Story

            Last week I got to tell you all why Chelsea is a great critique partner. This week it is Beckie’s turn!

            Beckie is amazing at character consistency and reactions. I have a tendency to get so caught up in the plot when I’m writing that I accidentally forget to talk about my MC’s emotional state. Or I know I need my MC to stand up to the king, but the way I go about it is completely out of character for her. Beckie is always there to point out that perhaps my MC would be more distraught about being ripped away from her parents instead of joking around in the next scene, or that my MC would never sass the king that way!

            In one of my scenes, my MC reacts passively to what is going on around her, allowing peripheral characters to take the lead for awhile while she kind of follows along. Beckie wrote me a great note along the lines of, “Your MC is coming across as very weak right now. I know there is still a lot of story to go and she will probably grow more, but right now she is not shining. But at the end of the day it is your story and your characters. You know how you want it to go.”

            I really appreciated that she phrased her criticism such that she was telling me how she perceived the scene, but still acknowledged that it was my story and I should tell it the way that felt true to me. I had wanted my MC to struggle more during this section of the book, because I wanted to show her growing throughout the rest of the story. But I had clearly gone too far, and Beckie pointed out that some readers may not like my character (and therefore my story) the way I had written it. So I went back and made her a bit feistier (but not too feisty! Had to leave room for some character development). In the end, Beckie’s suggestions made the scene much stronger.

            I feel like I could write pages and pages about how my critique partners have helped my writing. But this will have to do for now J