Inkabout L. Darby Gibbs

Science Fiction & Fantasy author

E-books

Advice: A Writer Needs Feedback

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Every writer knows that the only way to get that book, story, poem, etc., done is to write. We also know that the only way to improve is to get feedback, honest, no holds barred feedback.  I teach creative writing, and I tell my new students every year that I will be considerate but honest.  They will know what the strengths were in the piece as much as where growth is occurring and where it is needed.  Every writer needs this and for some, like myself, it is hard to come by.

I am a teacher, and since I want my students focusing on what I am teaching them and not on me, I don’t advertise that I am a indie writer.  I have told only a couple people in my family and just one friend.  I know they’ll keep my writing activities secret.  But where does that leave me for feedback: well in a very limited space.  I have become friends with several writers, and those connections has been helpful because they know what I mean when I say tell me everything so I can get better.  They want honest feedback from me, and I want the same from them.  And it has been worth any uncomfortable feeling I might get from seeing the flaws pointed out in what I thought was a pretty thorough job (repeated numerous times)at line and context editing.  I grow as a writer each time they supply feedback and each time I give feedback.  It would have taken me years of personal distance to be able to give that kind of critique myself.  I don’t want to imagine waiting five years to be able to look at my own work with the necessary distance and increased knowledge in editing, drafting, plotting, etc. needed to actually see what needs to be improved.  That’s five years of embarrassment of having my work out there that I would get all in one fell swoop that could have been avoided by getting straight feedback from another writer or a professional editor when the work was “finished.”

So sure a writer writes, but a WRITER GETS FEEDBACK is even more important.  I published my first book with minimal feedback (those two family members).  It wasn’t long before I had a nagging feeling that perhaps I had overlooked aspects of the story or not edited as well as I thought (even an English teacher needs an editor, nobody can look at their own work without bias, certainly not after reading it one hundred times).  So I took it off publication, sent it to a writer friend (she sent me hers as well) and we traded feedback.  I am still working on it and hope by Christmas to have it back published again.

All this post really is saying is writers need feedback.

In Times Passed: under reconstruction

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I thought I should mention that I have pulled my first book (In Times Passed) from publication because I feel it needs redrafting.  Certainly, I did not have it in mind to publish my book and then remove it, but as time went by, I began to feel that the whole story was not there.  So, as noted on my Books & Projects page, it is back in edit, under remodel, reconstruction, etc.

A fellow author agreed that sometimes this is necessary, and she encouraged me to feel good about my choice.  She found herself making a similar decision some time back regarding one of her books.  Like me, she wanted her work to be at its best.  So the first in my series of Students of Jump books is on temporary hold.  Likely, the second in the series will hit publication shortly after this first gets back on the e-book shelf.

End of the Month of July Sale at Smashwords

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The last days to purchase my book at Smashwords are here.  

Anybody who knows me knows I hate this stuff.  But if I didn’t mention again that my books are on sale at Smashwords (half price, making each just .99) and one can download them in any of the popular formats for ereaders and computer eBook readers, I will be berating myself in a few days.

I can just hear it now, “Really, you couldn’t plug your books just once more.  It is not like you have been creating traffic jambs on the internet with your broadcasting efforts to sell your book.  One time really?”

It wouldn’t be pleasant. So, one more time: I have two books, In Times Passed, a time travel novel that can stand alone from the series it begins, and Gardens in the Cracks & Other Stories, an anthology of short science fiction stories.  See my books page on this blog or follow the links for details.

Really one dollar.

Today I wish I was perfect, and probably tomorrow, too

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It is hard to believe, but I am close to publishing my second book at Smashwords.  This work is an anthology of shorts stories, Gardens in the Cracks & Other Stories. They are loosely connected by the “world” they are all derived from in that similar technology and history are imbedded in each.  The title piece (“Gardens in the Cracks”) and another short work (Scrapper, a novella) have some characters in common as well as time and general locale.  The remaining stories developed out of experiments of one sort or another: repeating motif, what if, narrative from a secondary character, and such.  I think all writers will agree, the editing is the hardest part.  I have gone over them so many times looking for every error I can.

Besides the fact that I write recursively and therefore edit constantly as I write, I am now on my fourth line edit of this work.  I can say that turning on the feature that checks grammar and mechanics in a word processing program can be the most annoying and beneficial experience.  I found myself examining nearly every sentence and defending or correcting innumerable aspects of my writing.  Frequently, the program would highlight a word or two and state “if you are using this to mean…., then you are correct.  But if you mean…., then….”  I can’t say how many times I said, “Can’t you tell?”  Every once and a while I was glad it did not let a single questionable word by, as I had in fact used a word incorrectly.

Dialogue can play a large part of a fiction work, and in an effort to sound like the genuine article, my characters often speak in phrases or are not necessarily grammatically correct.  So I was reminded on a regular basis that I had fragments of sentences or slang where I intended them to be.  This still was a benefit as I noticed that some of my characters did this more often than others, and I had the opportunity to decide if this was a characteristic I wanted for the individual or if it was too heavily used.

The fine tooth comb that I am using now gives me a headache, but not using it would be worse than a headache.  So off I go again scraping each sentence free of error.  This is one of those times when I really wish I was perfect.

Comfortable on either end of the reading see-saw

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I have become quite technology heavy.  I use quite a bit of technology in the classroom just in the process of my teaching (i.e., two computers, one projector, one Mimeo, one iPad, scanner, digital cameras [still and video], and loads of advanced software. Don’t even ask what I have my students working on).  At home, well, minus the projector and add one e-reader, and a couple of more computers, and that will be close to how technology bound I am.  Of course, some of it is not new tech (I take real good care of my stuff), but it’s in active use.  Oops, forgot the phones.

My point is this. I have owned an e-reader for more than a year now and my mother-in-law wished to get one. We talked about mine and the ones she was considering (I took more than a year to make my decision, she took about the same).  Now we both have e-readers, different brands, and find we quite like reading e-books.  It doesn’t really matter which one you get as long as you can read the way you want to.  I have checked out quite a number of blogs on e-readers, and really if you want it to reduce the amount of books you have in your house (this was the main selling point that got my husband onto pushing me to buy an e-reader) than any crisp-screened reader will meet your needs.  The rest is just bells and whistles with attendant price tags.

This week my mother-in-law gave me her copy of The Help in paperback. She enjoyed it and thought I might like it. She bought it before she purchased her e-reader.  I felt much at home leaning back on the daybed in our computer room holding that book in my hands.  It felt good, so maybe holding a hardback or paperback has some pull yet with me, and it is an entertaining book, but she has never given away a book to me before. The Help is a big book, and it is going to take up space, which may be what prompted her to share.  I know she won’t be handing me her Kindle anytime soon, and I am not lending out my Sony either.  But I think I can shift back and forth between my pencil, pen, keyboard, tablet, paperbacks, e-books, transparencies, and projectors with comfort for some time to come, and there is probably a little space yet left on my bookcase in the hallway.

see-saw