Gail Anderson-Dargatz  

Resources for Writers

On Revising

Journal and PenIt’s often hard to see our own work clearly, especially when it’s freshly written. After the first rush of writing, our prose either feels like the best thing ever, or complete crap. The truth is usually somewhere in the middle: it’s good but needs work.
 
So, how do we gain distance from our work so we can see it for what it is? In the long run, that just takes experience, but in the short run, there are several things you can do to gain perspective on your writing.
 
Join a peer critique workshop or create one. The best thing you can do is seek out critique from an educated, well-read reader or another writer in a peer critique workshop, especially if that workshop is led by a more experienced writer. That peer critique workshop format is the basis of most creative writing BA and MFA programs out there, and for good reason. It’s hard to see the apprentice pitfalls in our own work, but easy to see it in the works of others. Learning to identify elements of craft and critique the work of others helps us build self-critique and editing skills.
 
Shelve the manuscript for a week or a month. When you come back to it, the work will often feel like someone else’s.
 
Take your manuscript on a trip. A change of scene often offers a new perspective on your work. Sometimes just taking your manuscript to a cafe helps.

Enlist the help of an alpha or beta reader. An educated reader can offer feedback on your manuscript. If you don't have a friend to help you out here, consider a beta reading service like the one we offer.
 
Read the manuscript out loud. Or, even better, have a friend read it out loud. If you don't get a friend to do that, then consider using a text-to-talk app on your phone or laptop. The flat automated reading voice has a way of really highlighting mistakes. Note each time you or the reader stumbles, not just over a word, but over a concept. Is the dialogue going too fast, or is it too full of chitchat? Is there enough conflict in the scene? Does your character now seem like the same one you pictured as you wrote them? I think you may be amazed at how just reading your manuscript out loud changes how you view your own writing.

Mark up your manuscript as you go along either by hand or using the review (comment and track changes) function on Word. Really challenge yourself here. Make your goal to find and circle at least five things, big or small, on each page and make note on the manuscript of how you’ll fix these problems. If you're making the markups by hand, your manuscript should be truly messy, looking a lot like the spider drawings I use to brainstorm.
 
But don’t make these changes to your manuscript yet. Let the ideas stew for now (this is one place where procrastination is useful!). A bit of time away always gives us a new view on our work.

All these tricks above are about learning to step back, and view your own work as if you are reading someone else's, with a critical eye.

Resource Categories

Blogs on Craft

On the Building Blocks of Fiction

Tips on how to craft vivid scene that allows the reader to experience events right along with the characters.

On Finding Your Big Idea

Insights into the writing process and what a writer's day really looks like, as well as perspectives on research and writing from real life.

On Getting to Know Your Characters

Advice on the many ways you can make your characters come alive on the page for both you and your reader.

On Deciding on Point of View

What is the best perspective from which to tell your story? Writers discuss how they made choices on point of view and voice.

On Choosing Your Situation and Setting

Writers talk about how they use situation and setting to build story and convey emotion.

On Developing Conflict and Structure

From how to work in different genres to finding the real story, writers offer good advice on building conflict and structure.

On Revising

Tips on how to gain distance from your work and to how to re-imagine your next draft.

On Publishing

Writers offer practical advice on the business of writing and promotion, and on the importance of finding a writing community.

On Making a Living as a Writer

Writers offer words of wisdom on living on less.

On The Writer's Life

Writers talk about their life as a writer.

About Gail

Gail's novels have been national and international bestsellers and two have been short-listed for the Giller Prize, among other awards. She works as a developmental editor and mentors writers from around the world.