Hey guys!

Today’s bit concerns the creative process and stumbling blocks you come across. In this case, intelligent criticism. See above for one tiny example of a deluge of information.

Wow, did I luck out!

How did I get lucky? Someone just tore the shit out of my Russian POV narrative in my latest upcoming novel. How is that good? 

I’ll explain. 

This person has intimate personal knowledge of modern-day Russia; all I have are anecdotes, historical facts, and maps. While I can craft a (hopefully) engaging and entertaining narrative, I have never set foot in Russia (and for the foreseeable future, I won’t. It sucks to be a hostage). This leaves me vulnerable to some obvious blind spots.

Due to amazing serendipity, I came into contact with my latest beta- yet another highly intelligent and thoughtful lady. These people have blessed my life. I’m unsure what I ever did to deserve these encounters, but this keeps happening. It’s a damn good thing, and if you write, you’d be well advised to cultivate these relationships. 

No one knows everything. People who claim to have such knowledge display the opposite and set themselves up for failure. 

Therefore, having subject matter experts within reach is FUCKING INVALUABLE. People with deep, personal knowledge of a given arcane or cultural setting are must-haves when writing fiction. Yes, I get it that I write fiction, specifically pulp fiction. But I try to make mine a cut above. Not because I’m cool, but because I’ve read too much stuff where I do know a little about the given subject, and I’m like, “What the fuck?” 

If it’s too bad, I’ll just quit reading. 

As an author, this is highly undesirable for several reasons. 

First, critical acclaim. A few one-star reviews are inevitable. There will always be haters. It’s part of the job. However, if you fudge too much, be prepared for a flood of the little bastards. This is failure. Avoid it. 

Second, there is the almighty dollar. If you lose readers, you get less money. While profit is not my chief driver, money is nice to have. Last year, I was in the black for the first time, and I’d like to keep it that way.

Finally, there is personal pride. I do not write under a pen name. My work has my given name on the cover. It’s mine. I try not to make crap if at all possible. A book is a professional product! It’s not a finger painting from first grade; by the way, it is not a slam on first graders, but I think you know what I mean. Your book is an indelible expression of your hard work and imagination. Don’t know about you, but I try to put my best foot forward.

People like this latest beta, and the work SHE put into a thoughtful critique is flat-out awesome. You almost can’t pay people to do this type of thing; a paid expert won’t give you the same detail or passion!

Therefore, for my writers in the crowd, do strive to get betas. The more feedback, the merrier. This 100 percent keeps you from falling on your ass and making howlers. 

Of course, no book ever will have no mistakes. Attempting to make the perfect book, in fact, will lead you to creative paralysis. Creative paralysis ends in no book. You don’t want that.

So, mystery beta, many thanks for dumping cold water all over my Russians! 

I read her input this morning with delight; while I won’t follow all of her suggestions, I will certainly fix the shit that I think sucks. And yes, there were MANY of those. She bled all over my prose; I was amazed at the thoughtful and thorough work she put into my Russian arc. She even wrote me a mini editorial letter! Holy cow!

If you can’t tell, I love intelligent criticism; this comes from both my professional past and a great class I had in college.

Oddly enough, that class was Philosophy 101, which many consider a throwaway gen-ed requirement. Foolish, IMO.

In that class, I was exposed to Russell’s Rules. See Number Eight below.

“8. Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent than in passive agreement, for, if you value intelligence as you should, the former implies a deeper agreement than the latter.”

I liked this back then, and I’ve always remembered it. 

In my professional career, teamwork was big, too. You’d think everyone in the service would have soaked that up, but this is not the case. I’ll tell you how I did stuff, and it worked out pretty well.

OK, so I’d get some sort of mission, right? I’d come up with some bullshit plan on the fly, and then I’d call in my key guys and tell them my thoughts. Well, my original plan never survived this phase unmodified, and that was almost always good. When the revised plan was hatched, it was my job to present it to the total team. More feedback, more mods. Then, we’d step out and start doing whatever.

Guess what? The plan would change some more, often to an unrecognizable extent. By the end of mission, sometimes successful, sometimes not, what had been put out the night before and what actually happened were two different things. A critical part following the mission was post-mission feedback, which led to plans changing again on the next trip out the door. 

The cycle never stopped.

And so it goes with my books; I guess I’m not surprised. 

But sometimes I am, and I thought I would comment today on a very welcome delay and modification.

Food for thought.

Cheers,

J