You never know everything there is to know about writing. You’re getting closer to success when you figure out you never will.

I grew up the child of two English teachers, one high school level and one college level. I imagine you can guess I wasn’t allowed to say “ain’t” and was expected to get the “and me/and I” distinction correct from about second grade. They edited my thank-you notes and Christmas list. I spent every free minute reading from the day I learned how to turn a page. I knew all the big words. I knew how to pronounce almost 75% of them. I knew everything.

And then I didn’t. Despite having achieved perfect grades in elementary school reading and spelling, I came in second in the middle school spelling bee. I didn’t know as much as I thought, or not, at least, as much as Christine Ecker did. I shook that off, though. I learned to spell the word I’d missed and moved on, recovering my confidence a little more every time somebody told me I was a good writer.

I’m here to tell you I knew nothing when I started writing fiction. Yes, I knew how to use quote marks and action verbs and to vary my sentence length and all the rest. It’s rare that I find a misspelled word in a manuscript, though I can tell you I did on Monday.

But I knew nothing about writing fiction. I thought I did, and I wrote two manuscripts before I realized it. Not surprisingly, the third one is better. I didn’t understand how to add depth to a character. I didn’t know how to write a riveting first sentence, first paragraph, or first page. I didn’t know how to keep a main character from veering too far into unlikable. I didn’t know how to walk the line between enough dialogue and enough narration. I didn’t know how much internal monologue is too much. I’d never thought about dialogue tags.

I had only the vaguest understanding of chapter structure, of narrative arc, of character journeys. I thought acts were only for plays. I didn’t see the problem when I added a character I needed at the 80% point. I assumed readers wouldn’t mind if I took a few pages to introduce the characters before I made anything happen to them. I didn’t understand that a main character has to have agency: she has to do things and not just watch things happen to her.

As if I needed any more icing on the clueless cake, I didn’t even know all the rules of mechanics I thought I did. I didn’t know to leave off the comma when a subject is the same in two clauses. I’d been fuzzier than I thought on when to use single quotes and when to use double ones. I used a lot fewer action verbs than I thought.

Keep learning. I’m only now beginning to understand all I don’t know. The universe of what I don’t know about writing shocks me with its enormity. The fact that I can see that now gives me hope that I’ve made progress.

Just keep writing.

I’ve said this on Twitter before: you cannot write a book without a critique partner (CP). A critique partner is a person who will read what you’ve written with an eye toward helping you improve it. Here’s a short list of people who read your work who are NOT critique partners: your best friend who never tells you when you have spinach in your teeth, anyone who says “I don’t really read a lot,” and your mom. 

I have a lot of critique partners (CPs for short). It’s a lot of work to critique someone’s work properly, but you have to put in the time if you want someone else to do the same for you. (And you can learn a hell of a lot from reading other people’s writing.) My CPs are genius savior rock stars who easily number among the most important people in my life. If you plan to write anything (book, blog post, random email), take this advice if you take no other advice: GET A CRITIQUE PARTNER.

This post is about how to critique for someone in the most effective way. There are good ways to critique, and bad. Let’s talk about that.
First off, a proper critique generally doesn’t tell the writer that the manuscript is wonderful, perfect, better than J.K. Rowling, don’t change anything. This is not helpful. Or likely to be true. Almost all manuscripts can be improved. If you suspect that your writer friend wants only that kind of praise, tell her to send it to her mom or the friend who ignores her spinach-teeth.

Consider where in the editing process the manuscript you’re about to critique is. Is this the very first draft? If so, this is not the time to correct commas or make sure her Game of Thrones references are italicized. So much will be changed that there’s no point in worrying about this now.

What to look for in a first draft:

• A riveting beginning: does it start in the right place? Is there somewhere else that might be better? Are you confused by the action or bored by the lack of action? Are you confused by the number of characters introduced? 
• Pacing: Does the overall action keep you turning pages? Are there slow or draggy spots? Is there a scene that goes by so fast it makes your head spin? Are there unnecessary scenes that do nothing to move the plot?
• Character: Do you like the main character? Can you root for that person all the way through? Are the secondary characters fully developed? Do you want more? Do their interactions make sense?
• Dialogue: Does it sound natural? Does it either forward the plot OR develop character?
• Structure: Does the timeline work? If there are alternating timelines or POVs, do they work? Do they balance reasonably? Are they distracting? Do the different POVs sound like different people?
• Conflict and Tension: Is there conflict? In every scene as well as overall? Is there anything the author needs to do to up the tension or sustain it? 
• World-building: Does the setting make sense? If it is real, is it consistent with accepted reality and knowledge? Is the history accurate? If fantasy, is it consistent with the rules the author has made? Do you feel like you understand the rules the author has made?
• Continuity/Errors: Is the main character using a cell phone in 1992? Is someone playing baseball in December? Do anyone’s eyes change color?
• Consistent grammar problems: Are there examples where the author clearly does not know a particular grammar rule? 
• Ending: Is it satisfying? Is there a climax or does the story just sputter to a halt? 


If you find fault in any of these areas (and you should—a perfect first draft is rare as a unicorn), you are not doing anyone a favor if you keep silent about these things. BE HONEST.

There are ways to say this that are better than others. First: THE PRAISE SANDWICH. Point out what works. Add comments in line where you laughed or cheered or particularly enjoyed. Is a particular line that struck you as poetic or lyrical? A scene that you loved? Say so. This serves two purposes: first, it will make your friend happy and reassured that she hasn’t written the worst thing ever. Second, it will make it more likely that she’ll keep the good parts when she revises. 

When you point out what doesn’t work, suggest alternatives. Don’t say you hated the ending without telling her nicely what about it didn’t work. It’s even better if you suggest a way that might be better. She may not take your suggestion, but you might have helped her come up with yet another way.

What to look for in a later draft: 

• All of the above things. It’s still better to point these out before it goes out as a query or to an agent or to an editor, rather than not pointing it out at all. Sometimes well-intentioned revisions in one area can mess in a negative way with another area. She might have fixed the beginning but killed character development. 
• Now it’s time to catch the line-edit-y things. Punctuation. Spelling. Typos. Paragraphing. Quote marks. Italicization. Here’s an aside: I don’t see myself as a line editor for my CPs when I read their work. They will correct these things on their own. They all know as much about mechanics as I do or more. If I see things like this, I’ll point it out, but usually by the later draft stage, they’ve fixed most of this. 

After you send it back: Write an overall letter to let them know your thoughts. Think Praise Sandwich. Even if you don’t know what it was that bothered you about a particular section or character, say that you were bothered. Offer to bat ideas back and forth. Then be available to do that. Brainstorming with someone who’s read your work is invaluable.

An important thing to remember when you’ve critiqued a manuscript is that you have no right to expect or demand that all your suggestions are taken. In the end, the manuscript belongs to the person who wrote it. You are only volunteering your time to help them. 
​
Bottom line. Critiquing is all about the Golden Rule. Do Unto Others As You Would Have Done Unto You. I don’t send off my manuscripts to people to tell me they are wonderful as they are. (I have a mom for that.) I want them to help me make them better. I will never know everything I need to know. I want honesty with a dash of kindness and encouragement.

This probably doesn’t come as news to anyone reading this, but the holidays are slow in publishing. Slooooow. Glacial. Watch-icicles-form speed. There’s a good reason for this. Agents and editors frequently work in New York, which, in a lot of cases, is far from their hometowns, and they travel home during the six weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. Like you, they have family obligations, holiday parties to go to, kids out of school far more often than usual, and a killer list of non-work tasks to accomplish. As a matter of course, most read their queries and requested/submitted materials at night. When nights are spent trimming a tree, going to obligatory cocktail parties, or baking cookies for the office exchange, there’s a LOT less time to read manuscripts. I know this sounds crazy, but many would prefer to actually talk to their families during the holidays than read your manuscript. I know, right?

Bottom line: expect no activity in your writing-related email box until the middle of January. I’m sorry, but that’s the way it is. Some agents and editors will surprise you and get back to you during December. Some like to clean off their desks before they leave to go home to Des Moines or wherever. Take all gifts like that as gifts. Appreciate, don’t expect.

What should you do to kill the time? Staring at your calendar or your inbox is not productive. It will induce panic and twitchiness. Trust me: I tried that last year. It didn’t work.

Instead, here are twenty things to do to distract yourself.
*Volunteer. At a food bank or a school or a charity or anywhere at all. Call them. They’ll be delighted to fill your hours.
*Find somewhere to ice skate. Fall down a lot.
*If you celebrate Christmas and decorate, try to incorporate a book theme.
*Bake some cookies. Eat them all.
*Bake more cookies. Give them away to unexpected people: the mailman, your child’s teacher, the receptionist at your work.
*Call your parents. Tell them you love them.
*Go for a hike outside of a city. Find somewhere with a view. Take deep breaths.
*Go to the mall and watch the children on Santa’s lap. You can see the full range of emotion written on their faces and those of their parents. It’s a character goldmine.
*Go to a concert. Any concert. Any kind. Music is good for the soul.
*Watch Love Actually. Greatest holiday movie ever.
*Listen to the Hamilton Broadway Cast recording. Discover that you are extremely interested in the life of Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, who you vaguely remember is on the ten dollar bill. Cry.
*Stay off social media for a full twenty-four hours. Pretend you’re a time-traveler. Marvel at how much time you have to read.
*Talk to your own family. You’d be surprised how interesting they can be.
*Read. Challenge yourself to read four books in your genre before New Year’s and one far outside your genre.
*Swap manuscripts with someone. Help her get ready for January, and she’ll do the same for you.
*Put money in the Salvation Army red bucket. Add a note.
*Outline an idea for a book you will not allow yourself to start until January. Feel the thrill of germination when you can’t write it.
*Do three kind things for other people every day. Vary it up. Hold doors. Pay for the car behind you at the drive-thru. Give big tips. Say something nice to someone you don’t have to speak to.
*If you live where it snows, go out and play. Catch a snowflake on your tongue. Make snow angels. Throw a snowball. Then drink a hot beverage.
*Build a fire. Be warm. January is coming. I promise.

Sometimes writing, revising, and attempting publishing is so hard it feels like trying to bend a spoon with your mind. In theory it’s possible, but maybe only for those with superpowers. I’ve written before about the waiting, the self-doubt, the impatience, and the pain of the rejection. All of that is real. This post is not to diminish the difficulties of the writing life.

I went on vacation recently to Nantucket. I’d never been before, and I’d always wanted to go. I love islands, and the ocean, and historic preservation, and Nantucket is a perfect Venn diagram of all of those things. It is also one of the places where the threads of my family tree begin. Years ago, I survived a brief but expensive addiction to Ancestry.com. Go ahead. I dare you to walk away once you start. It turned out that some of my ancestors on my father’s side had settled Nantucket, and begun its whaling industry.

Until the discovery of petroleum in the mid-nineteenth century, whale oil from sperm whales was big business. Whales also produced stays for corsets and ambergris for the manufacture of perfume. It was the oil, though, that sent all the ships out of Nantucket Harbor. It lit houses in lanterns and candles, and lubricated the machinery of the world’s factories.

Sailors on whaling ships signed onto a ship and left home for up to five years. By the early 1800s, whales close by in the Atlantic had been overfished. Ships went further and further from home – to the coasts of South America and as far as Japan. Catching and killing a whale meant riding out in a rowboat with nothing but a harpoon and a long knife and riding the back of a creature much larger than the boat. Once harpooned, the whale would bolt, taking the attached rowboat on a hair-raising out-of-control ride of miles at speeds comparable to a speed boat until the whale was tired. Then they had to use the knife to kill it. Once dead, the whale would be towed miles back to the ship with no more power than four men at the oars, raised on scaffolding on its side, and harvested right then and there. It was nasty, smelly, filthy work of days with no sleep and little to eat.

Once the oil made it to the barrels, the ship would go off, in search of more whales. The men occupied themselves with shipboard tasks, scrimshaw, and letters home. Mail was rare and spotty, and most of the time, the sailors had no idea whether their pregnant wives had given birth, whether their parents had survived another month, or whether their houses had burned down with whole families lost. I’m sure they worried about these things, however.

For those of you who only dimly remember Moby Dick from high school, I recommend reading Nathaniel Philbrick’s In the Heart of the Sea for some insight into the history of whaling, and how even something as hard as that can get a thousand times worse. A movie of the latter, starring Chris Hemsworth, is coming out in December.

I came back from Nantucket in awe of the toughness of that life, for the sailors as well as their families, for my own ancestors who survived generations this way. My life, by comparison, is both easy and good. I can write and edit and fret in my warm house, clean and dry. My family is close by. I have as much support as I need.

I’m not saying the writing life isn’t hard. I am saying that sometimes it’s good to go out and get a little perspective. Try it.

Some days are easier than others.

Publishing is all about the waiting. You wait for the words to flow. (They tend to flow best when you’re driving, when your parents are talking to you on the phone, when you’re at work, or when a kid is demanding that you come and examine what he has built from Legos.)

You wait for responses from agents or small publishers on your queries. Sometimes this wait is minutes, more often weeks, but sometimes it takes much, much longer. No joke, I got a rejection in May 2015 for a query I sent in January of 2014. I had high hopes for that one, too.

If you’re lucky enough to be agented, you wait for responses from editors and updates from your agent, who is swamped and busy and trying to carve out approximately fifteen minutes of personal life per week, but is still probably 2000 queries behind.

If you get a book deal, you wait for the cover, for the blurb, for the new title, for the publication date, for the readers to find you. Then you wait to find out if you have another book deal.

It goes on and on. I’m both terrible at waiting and great at it. On the days when I show a real talent for waiting, I’m Zen. No eastern philosopher can spout more platitudes than I can on those days. I read—both published books and my friends’ manuscripts. I scroll through Twitter. I play touch football and go hiking. I cook and I enjoy it. I even examine the Lego creations with real non-faked interest.

During those days, the Zen days, I’m a delightful companion. I’m fun Mom. I’m loving Wife. I can say heartfelt supportive things to my fellow residents of Waitingville. I can write long stretches of my work in progress and read them and think they are wonderful.

It’s the other days that are not so good. The ones where I. Can’t. Stand. It. Another. Minute. The ones where I feel like storming the castle and demanding answers, in shouty caps with lots of exclamation points. Those days my kids know that I’ll let them watch way too much TV. My husband, with whom I go for a walk every evening, decides to go for a solo run instead. I eat too much and none of it is healthy. My online friends manufacture all kinds of refreshing outings in dark caves with no internet after they’ve tried fruitlessly to remind me that I signed on for this, that I knew what I was getting into when I first decided to pursue traditional publishing.

Fortunately for me, the Zen days outnumber the Not-Zen days. Just know, though, that when you have the Not-Zen day—and you will, if you’re trying to be published—you’re hardly alone.

I’ve been hiking many times with my husband and family and I love it. I’m a terrible athlete: I ducked and avoided the ball in softball, never managed to hit it in tennis, and can well recall my body screaming “Stop!” whenever I ran. I’m good at hiking, though. Miles disappear under my feet in the silence of the woods. The quiet is broken only by the regularity of my own breathing in time with my steps. Woods are good for both conversation or introspection, whichever mood strikes.

Most hikes are designed to take hikers over a mountain or three. After all, the views are better up there and the views are the carrots that take so many people up so many vertical miles. On occasion, the view at the top is so spectacular it takes your breath. You sit down, crack open your water, and feel glad to be alive. A lot more often, however, the view is only of a more distant peak. When that happens, there’s nothing to do but keep going if you want the spectacular. Hiking back down the mountain without reaching the true summit seems ridiculous, pointless, impossible, even.

Publishing is like that.

The first peak is finishing that novel, the one that 95% or whatever of people want to write but never do. You’ve done it. You’ve typed “The End.” Your word count is reasonable. Your concept is hooky. Your parents brag about you. Your spouse looks at you as if you were an eleven when you were only a ten before. Celebrate that view, but there’s another peak in sight.

The next one is finding an agent. I’ll be honest: this hike is twelve thousand miles long, or it seems like it. The trail rises and falls often, tiring you out and making you think about going home for dinner. Every time you decide to, though, there’s a little glimpse through the trees and someone you know waving at you from the top of that next peak.

A lot of hikers bite it during this part. Sometimes you have to write more than one book. Sometimes you have to write more than two. It’s a hell of a slog, but if you hang in there, learning and working, it’s achievable.

Even after that, there are plenty more peaks: getting a book deal, getting a second book deal, completing revisions to an editor’s satisfaction, meeting deadlines, and keeping away burn-out. Nobody ever reaches the end: there’s always another mountain in the distance.

I’ve learned, in both hiking and publishing, that good endurance is a must. It’s not a walk in the park. It’s the whole damn Appalachian Trail. Bring water and food. The only thing stopping you from reaching the spectacular is your determination and your feet. Take care of them.

Okay. So funny story. I’m at RWA in New York. Nine lovely ladies who are fellow alumnae of 2014’s Pitch Wars meet to sing karaoke in a bar. Because we love her, we invite Brenda Drake, who brought us all together and made this spectacular singing extravaganza possible. She is SO AMAZED by the level of our vocal entertainment that she CAN’T STOP HERSELF from making us mentors because we were so awesome. Or because we so badly needed to be doing something else.

So I get to be a mentor! Last year, I was an alternate with a terrific mentor (Kara Leigh Miller) and I got my lovely and amazing agent, Sarah Younger, with my Pitch Wars manuscript. I write women’s fiction and romance for various ages. I’m also a full-time lawyer and a full-time kid chauffeur (I write half my words at their lessons and practices). I’ve been writing for years, have a copy editor for a father and an English teacher for a mother, and some of the most amazing critique partners in the business (ALL of whom are also mentors in this contest). 

And I want your Adult manuscript!!!

What I’d love for you to send me:
 

• Women’s Fiction of all kinds. I love most of the tropes. I especially love the kind described as having “heavy romantic elements.” If you’re not sure whether your book is WF or Romance, I’m your girl. If your hero is more Beta than Alpha, I’m your girl. If you blush when you see a half-naked man on a cover, I’m your girl. Favorite authors: Liane Moriarty, Anne Rivers Siddons, Allison Pearson, Emily Giffin, Jane Green, Jodi Picoult, Mary Kay Andrews, Rainbow Rowell.
• Romance. I love the sweet and a little sexy. There are other mentors better suited to the super sexy. I don’t do erotica. I’ve read it, I blush, I giggle, it’s a mess. I love old school romance. Small towns, big cities, whatever you have. Except dinosaurs. Do not send me your dinosaur romance. 
• Commercial fiction: I devour bestsellers. Recent-ish books I loved: Cartwheel, The Circle, Gone Girl, The Royal We, Water for Elephants, Seating Arrangements, The Kitchen House, anything by Pat Conroy.
• Time travel: I love books that use the device of time travel without being about the workings of the time travel. I’m not a fantasy/SF reader. I’m open to other magical realism where the emphasis is on realism and not magic. See: Outlander.
• Historicals: I was a history major. I travel to see historical sites and museums. I actually read all the plaques in the museums. Favorite periods: American Civil War, Titanic/WWI, Colonial America, UK from 1550 to 1800 (yes, including Scotland. See: Outlander), Gilded Age, British India, anything Canada. Extra points for an unusual period/setting.
• Thrillers: As much as I love Love, I also really enjoy a good serial killer. Extra points if you have a book with both love and a serial killer. I love Gillian Flynn and fiction that reads like true crime. I’m good with legal thrillers too: because I am a lawyer. Make sure your lawyer characters follow the rules or if they don’t, that they recognize the risks.
• Retellings of Classics: Send them all — Jane Austen, Shakespeare, Greek myths, fairy tales. Love all of that. I’m a major Jane Austen dork.

A note on diversity: I want it. I do not want diverse characters who are present only to teach me something or to allow you to say you have a diverse book. I want diverse characters who act like people and who are neither offensive stereotypes or sterling, saintly examples.  I'm not a fan generally of saints: never yet met one.

There are many amazing books in the world that are not at the top of my TBR pile. Life is short, and there are a lot of books.

Please DON’T send me (because I don’t read enough of these to be able to help you):

• Science fiction
• Fantasy
• Horror
• Military/Spy/Conspiracy
• Erotica
• Paranormal other than as described above
• I’m not allowed to accept YA or MG -- Please don’t send that!

Okay. If I get to work with you, my plan is to help you do the following:

     Get your plot holes filled.

• Pace your novel to flow and keep an agent reading.
• Make your dialogue sound real in the mind of the reader.
• Make sure your characters live and breathe, even when they’re off the page.
• Fix your writing/mechanic issues, if you have them. I’ll be honest: if you have major issues in this area, I’ll likely pass. You should review your manuscript for this before submitting.

I’ll read your manuscript and send you back an overall critique with my thoughts on all five of those categories. You’ll need to put on your big kid pants before you open that email. I’ll also send back my in-line thoughts on the little stuff. Then you fix. We talk. We email. We argue. Then you fix some more. I’ll read what you’ve fixed. I’ll critique. We’ll polish. And it’ll be amazing. 

One caveat, and this is a big one: If you can’t handle criticism, don’t submit to me or anyone. If all you want is for someone to tell you what an amazing writer you are, you’re barking up the wrong tree. This contest is for people who want to IMPROVE. 

That’s what we’re going to do. And I can’t wait!