HERE’S SOME MONEY…TELL ME WHAT I ALREADY KNOW

HERE’S SOME MONEY…TELL ME WHAT I ALREADY KNOW

How many times have we as writers heard a friend or fellow writer say, “I don’t want to send this to a publisher because I don’t want them to change a single word?”  I found out a long time ago that I did not write on stone tablets with a chisel.  My words were inspired, but they were not INSPIRED if you know what I mean.  I’m open for suggestions, especially if you’re willing to pay me to accept them.

We need someone to read our work and tell us what we are missing or the mistakes we made.  I tell my screenwriting students that any scene you have to explain, doesn’t work.  It’s the same in a novel or short story.  Your reader may say, “On page 23 she was a blonde and on 96 she has raven hair.”  Mistake?  Not in your mind because, you tell them…”Remember on page 49 she went to the beauty salon and had her hair dyed.”  Did you say so?  Probably not, but you saw her in the shop getting her hair done.  You’re not going to be standing in the editor’s office reading over his or her shoulder when they see the change in hair color so you can explain it.

But here’s where the problem comes in.  We finish the book/screenplay and want to sell it but we know it needs work.  There are multitudes of ads in all the writer’s (not riders if you were paying attention) magazines for people who will read and critique your work for a fee.  Sometimes for a very large fee. Are they worth it? Maybe but only if when you get the critique back its new information for you. Don’t pay to have someone tell you something you already know. 

Dear Writer, your protagonist seems a little cardboard, not well thought out. I don’t like him and I certainly don’t hate him enough to want him dead.  And I really don’t like the way she killed her husband. I mean who water-boards someone while they are sleeping? Wouldn’t they wake up? Even using warm water like she did.

You read the letter with the accompanying bill that is far more than you will get as an advance and say to yourself…”Yeah, I thought I needed to work on giving him a little more reason for her to kill him. And I thought the water board was a nice idea and a stretch, but I wanted to try it anyways.” You knew it wouldn’t work and if you sent it out it would get rejected, so you just paid someone to tell you something you already knew.

If you are an editor and you read this, don’t get me wrong. I think editors do a great job and I’m fortunate to have a great one at my publisher for my books and my manager can find things in my screenplays that I swear were not there when I sent it to him. If you need an editor, let it be when you have had several reads of your work, not only by friends and family, but by members of your writers group.  Don’t let Mama read it because she’ll tell you it’s perfect and you’ll be tempted to tell the publisher she said so when you send it out.   Get some serious feedback.  Get the piece as perfect as you can and then if you want paid help for formatting and professional details, go for it.

Don’t water board yourself.  You’ll have to trust me on this, but it’s not fun.