The Journal: The Good and Bad of Critique

In today’s Journal

* Quote of the day
* Today’s “Of Interest”
* Today and tomorrow
* Of Interest
* The Numbers

Most of the items in today’s “Of Interest” are all about selling ebooks. Don’t miss those. There’s a ton of good information at those links.

The last item in “Of Interest” illustrates why inviting critique on your work can be a bad idea. In fact, it can be detrimental to your work. The simple fact is, some critiquers go too far, and how screwed-up your work can become depends on how much you trust your critiquer.

I recommend you read the linked post and my comment that follows it. Then make up your own mind.

I almost wrote a topic on critiques and critique groups today, but I’m not in a good mood so I’ll only say this:

If you DO use critique groups or critique partners, Question Everything.
If you don’t like confrontation, then question it silently, but question it.

Don’t take any advice on your writing at face value. And maybe most importantly, Don’t Allow Others to change the intent of your words/sentences/paragraphs/story. Only you can convey the picture that’s in your head. Only you.

Today I’m dealing with a physically distant family issue and that’s taking up most of my brain power.

My WIP is stalled. Tomorrow I’ll open it and back up a bit to see whether the character will tell me why it’s stalled, maybe where the story veered off in a wrong direction.

Or I might just read back a bit, then write the next sentence and see where that leads. If neither of those work, I’ll tank the story and either recast it or start something new. Either way, I won’t devote a lot of time to messing with something that isn’t working.

We’ll see how it all turns out. Right now I want to get this out to you for the “Of Interest” stuff below.

Talk with you again soon.

Of Interest

See “Deliver Your Ebook Sales” at https://authors.bookfunnel.com/help/delivery-actions/.

See “BookFunnel Adds Buy Buttons to Landing Pages” at https://the-digital-reader.com/2019/03/24/bookfunnel-adds-buy-buttons-to-landing-pages/.

See “How to Sell a Book from Your Author Website” at https://www.authorwebsiteinabox.com/2019/08/10/how-to-sell-a-book-from-your-author-website/.

See “Email Marketing Integrations for Authors” at https://www.mailerlite.com/integrations/authors.

See “What to Consider When Selling eBooks on Your Website: Pros, Cons and Tools” at https://www.authorimprints.com/selling-ebooks-website-pros-cons-tools/.

See “Is That Me in Your Novel? When Life Imitates Fiction, and Vice-Versa” at https://annerallen.com/2020/02/life-imitates-fiction/.

See “Writing tip 13b: Trust Blind Luck” at https://prowriterswriting.com/writing-tip-13b-trust-blind-luck/.

See “First Page Critique – The Wildfire Pathogen” at https://killzoneblog.com/2020/02/first-page-critique-the-wildfire-pathogen.html. Jordan Dane writes some helpful stuff, but then messes up (in my opinion). I even left a comment for the benefit of Anonymous Writer to maybe help alleviate what Jordan wrote.

The Numbers

Fiction words today…………………… XXXX
Nonfiction words today…………… 450 (Journal)

Writing of Algae Prime (SF novel?)

Day 1…… 2421 words. Total words to date…… 2421
Day 2…… 3312 words. Total words to date…… 5733
Day 3…… 2205 words. Total words to date…… 7938
Day 4…… 0578 words. Total words to date…… 8516
Day 5…… 1440 words. Total words to date…… 9956
Day 6…… 2243 words. Total words to date…… 12199
Day 7…… 1832 words. Total words to date…… 14031

Total fiction words for the month……… 2706
Total fiction words for the year………… 68250
Total nonfiction words for the month… 1500
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 32760
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 101010

Calendar Year 2020 Novels to Date…………………… 2
Calendar Year 2020 Novellas to Date……………… X
Calendar Year 2020 Short Stories to Date… 3
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 47
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 8
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………… 199
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31