1) I'm going to read what I have written aloud to my workshopping group. One chapter or 6 pages at a time (whichever is less). I will gather feedback. I will learn. I will take notes on what I learn.
What I have learned, re-learned, reinforced, and should make efforts to ponder seriously so far:
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| Confusion = BAD |
- Ask - Which dialog is CRITICAL to the character, story, style, theme, etc. and which can be summarized by the narrator?
- Ask - Would your character actually SAY THAT? Word choice is critical when character building.
- Narrator, Writer, Characters are different "people." Keep them clear for the reader.
- Know if your character is trustworthy or not, and make sure your reader knows too.
- Don't unintentionally confuse readers.
- BE CAREFUL if you want to intentionally confuse or misdirect readers.
- Structure may come later, but whatever the structure ends up being, make sure that your readers want to read and keep reading from the very beginning.
2) Once I've read the WHOLE DRAFT I will ask myself the following:
- Do you LIKE this novel?
- Would YOU read it?
- Does it say something important?
- Are you still interested in working on it?
3) Then after that, I'll decide if I want to do something with it...in full awareness and acceptance of the fact that no matter what, I had a FANTASTIC experience participating in NaNoWriMo, and everyone who thinks they might have a novel in them should absolutely join the fun!
