#And then chapter length is just something I consistently agonize over anyway

[coralhoneyrose]

Plot twist, I think I'm going to split this chapter of PtLY in two after all??? In which case the new chapter will probably be ready Friday...?

I feel a little guilty because it's only ~6K words long and I worry that compared to my usual chapter length that will be a disappointment, but...we're sitting in a weird zone where if I DON'T split it, then the last chapter will wind up like 17K, and that's so much. Also I have the first half p much done and still need to write a bunch of the second half so I feel like I might as well put out what I have if it stands on its own? (and also I know 6K isn't actually that short for many fic chapters, I just apply skewed standards to myself)

I'm *also* worried about publishing this particular set of scenes on their own because of the particular nature of the content and knowing it's not everyone's cup of tea. And so for people who want to skip those parts, this chapter will have even *less* to offer them but 😭 probably just gotta remind myself that I can't please everyone and to keep my focus on publishing the fic that I most want to.

[rev3rb]

Omggg I was totally wondering about Ferid & Crowley too, but didn’t bring them up bc there’s so little info about what they’re up to rn. I truly get not wanting to get too deep into theories about it, especially with Rigr himself acknowledging the climax of the story, I got no clue to whether quite a few of the side characters are gonna come back into play. I’m hopeful we’ll get some more scenes with them for closure’s sake at least before everything is wrapped up.

Also, I’m super glad you brought up Yu’s personality. When I see other ppl talking about it, it’s usually just criticism of him being too happy-go-lucky, but I totally agree with addressing it from the perspective of a coping mechanism. I definitely wanna see how Yu and Mika are affected by being together again in a new way. And how Mika’s gorgeous demon sword power is gonna stack up against the 1st.

Oh and thank you for once again assuaging my fears about the well-being of the characters lmao. I love these little check-ins. Your feedback never fails to help me process the chapter better and get me more invested in the story <3

Aw, that's really sweet anon! I'm glad you enjoy my little rambling thoughts. <3

That's the whole reason I left it as a crossed-out line. I wouldn't be surprised if they were yet again left as a sort of deus ex machina and are currently doing something to help further the plan off-screen, but *shrug* who knows. Then again, Ferid was left as a head last we saw. He'll... probably(?) be whole when we see him next? Idk

What I want to know is where Narumi is. WHERE IS HE?? He went with Kimizuki and Yoichi and then dropped off the face of the planet. At least with other characters that have disappeared, we kind of saw them go their separate way. Narumi just faded out of existence. You and I both hope that everyone will get a proper wrap-up.

Yeah, I've seen that too, and I mean, it's fair to complain about, but I really do think it's a coping mechanism. If you track Yuu's character progression across the series, Yuu did genuinely become a more happy-go-lucky person after he reunited with Mika. However, it wasn't to the degree it is now. That was a very sudden change that didn't appear until after Mika died, and if you compare it to his optimistic moments prior to that death, these moments feel almost forced now. I'd have to go back and check if it's consistent, but the actual text lends itself to this idea a bit too, at least in this last chapter. The more over-the-top moments are in a different text font. It's not something I really noticed before this chapter, but I couldn't not notice how often it was used here. The only time Yuu wasn't really using it is when he was talking about family, which all that talk is just typical Yuu. I don't want to get into a full breakdown because that would be long, but here's some "quick" analysis. Yuu has developed a sort of twisted belief that everything will be okay as long as he has his family with him. Losing the (arguably) most important member of that family broke Yuu. We can see how it tore him apart. Yuu was at his absolute lowest when Mika died. He was so hurt that he was ready to die too. He only came out of that when he heard Mika could be saved, and the second he heard that, he smiled while tears streamed down his face. He hasn't stopped smiling since really. Yuu hasn't properly acknowledged what happened to Mika in a serious way since then either. You don't ping pong personality-wise like that unless you're repressing how hurt you actually are. I suppose it could just be absolutely terrible writing, but Yuu lives for other people. Mika dying showed us that. He's also shown us countless times that he doesn't think his own personal pain and suffering matters so long as his family is happy and safe. This wouldn't be the first time he brushed off his own pain and suffering to help someone else. The only difference is that this is emotional rather than physical, and that kind of pain is very hard to brush off. Emotional pain doesn't heal instantly like physical pain does in OnS. We see it with how much Guren is still suffering and agonizing over his friends' deaths. Forcing a smile and saying everything will work out just makes sense for Yuu, after all, he has to be strong for others right? There's so much else I could say, but again, I'm trying to be conscientious about length.

Anyways! I too am excited to see just how powerful Yuu is now. Probably ridiculously powerful.

[hardlyfatal]

gary’s writing workshop: lesson 1: kintsugi, or how to make all criticism constructive

The tough thing about writing is that you have to be bold enough to think your work is worth reading by the public, and also have the humility to accept criticism so that you can improve and be better. You need to be strong enough not to crumple like a used tissue when you receive negative feedback.

The primary, inescapable truth about writing: you won't get better until you acknowledge and accept that you need to get better. That's it. If you think your writing is flawless, you're wrong. If you think you've done a perfect job, you're wrong. If you think there's no way it can possibly be improved, you're wrong.

That's not to say it's bad. Just that it's not perfect, that there is always going to be more you can do to tweak it closer to the ideal. To get there, you have to think critically about your work, instead of through a veil of trembling sensitivity and frail ego. You can't be defensive, but approach it with the knowledge that, despite the discomfort or even pain, the process will make you stronger and better. Kintsugi!

There are two kinds of negative feedback, and two classes of people you’ll get it from. The first kind is when something is factually, empirically wrong. Problems with your SPAG1, anachronisms, and continuity fall into this category – there’s no arguing with “you spelled something wrong” and “people in the Middle Ages didn’t say ‘okay’ “ and “in chapter 1 you said X but in chapter 2 you said Y”. Either it happened or it didn’t.

These are valid criticisms and must be considered and addressed. Yes, even if the person saying them is a complete dick and puts it in the cruelest possible terms. Just because they're a cruel dick doesn't mean they're a WRONG cruel dick. The only thing you can do is correct it. I personally tend to thank them, because even if they’ve been dicks, they still did me a favor in pointing out an error. I improved because of them. That’s worthy of thanks. Kintsugi!

The second kind of feedback is subjective, because you’ve failed to satisfy the reviewer’s expectations in some way. Maybe the story’s premise doesn't do it for them. Maybe they hate the trope you've modeled the plot around, or how you're presenting the characters. They think your pacing is too slow and things need to be snappier. Your dialogue is stilted. Maybe they simply don't like your style.

Where things are matters of opinion – and choices of trope, issues of awful dialogue, and dragging plots are opinion – you need to really, honestly look hard at them, without a veil of ego and self-protection keeping you from seeing what's going on. Why would the reviewer say the dialogue is awful, or that the plot drags?2

It could be that what they consider a lagging pace is merely their impatience to get to the payload; they want to see the fight/smut/revelation scene and all the world-building or slow burn romance is no more than dawdling on the way to the fun stuff. OR it could be that you’re rehashing the same shit three times and need a kick in the pants to see that it only needs saying once.3

Regardless of what conclusion you arrive at, you’re going to have aha! moments, bursts of clarity for issues that you couldn’t perceive on your own but needed someone else to present them, or different wording or metaphors or whatever, in order to see what the problem is. These epiphanies can be hard to cope with. You might feel chagrin, disappointment, irritation, even anger. They’re all valid emotions, and you’re allowed to feel them. Just don’t drown in them. Give them a few minutes to run their course, and then move on to address the situation. You don’t have time to mope forever, you’ve got more chapters and stories to write.

On to the classes of reviewers you’ll have. One class is that of your readers. It can be frustrating to receive valuable feedback after you publish. If it’s a SPAG issue or something likewise easily dealt with, it’s NBD – you just make your correction and hope no one else noticed. If it’s something stylistic, you shrug and move on, as not everyone will appreciate your writing ‘personality’.

If it’s structural, however, it can be devastating, because the entire story can hinge on something you have now learned is problematic. It can even kill your inspiration and motivation to continue the story. That happened to me about eight years ago-- someone pointed out a major issue that I had somehow just… missed. I was over 70,000 words into that story and I just couldn’t manage another word of it, after that. Talk about disheartening.

This type of thing is what makes the second class of reviewer, the beta, so incredibly valuable. You should always take seriously any feedback and advice provided by a beta. If you’re lucky, you’ve found someone who isn’t afraid to really give you the business. You want to root out as many problems as possible before you publish. A good beta is worth their weight in smut.

But it’s one thing to cope with the embarrassment you might feel to have a reader point out an error, and coping with that from someone with whom you’ll be having an ongoing relationship. With a reader, you can just take their criticism and apply it and move on; your contact with them will always be somewhat limited so your discomfort is fleeting.

A beta, however, is someone you have to speak to again, at length, after they’re pointed out what a dolt you are (though probably in far nicer language). It can be daunting to continue dealing with someone who has caught you with your pants down, so to speak. Writing can be very self-revelatory, and when we put it out there and it gets pooped on, we can feel vulnerable and rejected.

But… we are not our writing! We are not our plot holes, or our wonky grasp of SPAG, or our tendency to tell rather than show, or our aversion to ‘said’ as a speech tag, or any of the other million problems we can have as writers. When our betas tell us something is wrong with any of these, fortunately, it’s not a statement on our quality as people.

And, just like who we are as people, nothing we write is over and done forever. Everything can be fixed, tweaked, improved. In this digital age, even after publishing, the story isn’t set in stone. We can always nip in there after the fact and tidy up, twitch it into position, repair what isn’t working. Kintsugi! So what is Kintsugi, anyway? And why does it pertain to us? It’s the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum. Philosophically used, it treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object instead of a method of disguising it. The cracks and dings become beauty marks instead of flaws, because of the story they tell.

In terms that mean something to us in particular, it’s Jaime’s stump and/or gold hand. As people who love him in a particular pairing, and are fans of his character in particular, we see the stump and/or prosthesis as a symbol of the agonizing redemption process he has undergone, and how he had to break before he could be fixed.

Similarly, we can approach our flaws with an open heart, as opportunities for growth. We can be eager to find them, because we know we’re going to conquer them and improve because of it. We can breathe through the discomfort and embarrassment knowing we’ll come through it stronger, both as writers and as people.

Example:

Just today, one of my betas, the unsinkable Mikki, came at me with a contention that I was writing Brienne OOC.

(Note: She was her usual lovely self, not hostile at all – this is just a timely example of dealing with subjective criticism and how to consider and absorb it. But do keep in mind the “sometimes even assholes are right” thing from above.)

At first, I thought, “She’s expecting Brienne to be different, but I’m choosing to adapt her for a modern setting, so of course the character won’t be identical to her canonical self.” So I replied that I was writing her differently because, in the modern AU I’m writing, Brienne hasn’t had the same life experiences that, in canon, resulted in her being far more humorless, touchy, self-ashamed, etc.

Mikki replied with a very insightful analysis of how Brienne’s personality was formed, and how those core characteristics can come through in modern-day!Brienne, albeit in a softened format according to the gentler treatment she’s had in my story. I saw immediately that, put this way, Mikki was entirely correct, and that I’d been going about it without enough depth and consistency.

I don’t need to revamp anything drastically, but to add details here and there – mostly just introspective bits that will add to the characterization in the end, and make her feel more Briennelike. These bits won’t be obvious or attention-grabbing, they won’t change the story significantly, but they’ll contribute to the overall quality.

The upshot of this is that Mikki knows she can tell me when she perceives a problem because I'll take her seriously and won't freak out on her. And I feel comfortable not only receiving her critique but also entering into a discussion about it instead of just blindly accepting her advice and accepting when I'm shown the error of my ways.

Homework:

Think about past incidents of negative feedback. If you’ve had criticism given, even in a hostile way, consider that at length. Are you able to brush off the dross and see the gem hidden beneath? Can you discard the rudeness and find the message hidden within it? Focus on the message, not the delivery.

Once you find it, examine it. Is it pointing out a factual error, or is it subjective? If it’s subjective, is it just because you’ve disappointed their expectations, or because there is valid criticism? Write your response out, if you feel that will be helpful to clarifying your thoughts. 

Endnotes:

1 - SPAG = Spelling, Grammar, And Punctuation.

2 - In future lessons, we’ll be going over many topics – among them natural-feeling dialogue and the matter of pacing – in hopes that you’ll have something to compare their criticism to, gaining the ability to discern whether or not you do have problems with these issues or the reviewer is just a crackpot.

3 - Academic writing is nothing like fiction. Many nonfiction writers have problems with this transition, because they’re used to writing an intro to the premise of their article/paper, then describing the subject at length, then summarizing it all into a tidy package. If you’re coming from academic writing, and someone is telling you your pacing needs work, there’s a strong chance the reason is because you’re trying to write persuasively, when your focus as a fiction writer is to write descriptively. You don’t have to persuade the reader of anything, here, just paint a word-picture for them.

© 2019 to me