Speaker 1: This hair is really giving like your 8th grade production a footloose, you know? Welcome to another chatty sit-down author chatty talk video. Can I say chat more? I think that would be good. I have a couple of writer friends in real life, but like we don't often just sit around and talk craft and talk like those very niche specific things that you can't have that conversation with like your sister who doesn't know anything about writing. And so I wanted to talk about just receiving feedback on specifically like full-length novels. Because I have found it to be such a difficult thing for me. I think I would say I'm fairly inexperienced at receiving feedback. Like I've received very little feedback in my life that is not from people I like directly know. And I'm a little concerned about that. It's one of my goals for the year is to like make critique partners with people that I'm not previously friends with. Like someone I didn't go to school with or who isn't like my direct family. To give some context, I just sent a book to some readers, got some feedback, and then have just recently like read through all the feedback, talked through it with both of them. I am so defensive. When I am in like feedback conversations with people, they'll be like, well, maybe I think this character point was inconsistent. And then I will like speak a five paragraph essay about why they're wrong. It's just, it's very bad because in my head, it's so clear that like, oh, this is why that character did that. Or like, this is how the plot fits together. Like this is how, you know, it's so easy to explain away things. I'm like, well, you just didn't read it good enough. But I think what that kind of feedback can say is that like, well, I didn't do a good enough job highlighting the importance of that. Being able to decipher that kind of feedback is difficult because it's like, okay, well, is this something that I really need to change? Or does it point to a different, deeper problem? But I think it's an important conversation to have about like how to interpret feedback that's not from a writer, it's from a reader. I think for a lot of people, the only people that you have access to, to read your stuff are like people that you directly know. And so oftentimes those people are not going to be writers. But it's like, okay, so I have these two people who know me and are good friends with me reading this. And then my mom, who we love to see, Dana loves the books. And my mother does read a lot, but still like you literally, we are like we share genetic material. Like I don't think that can be totally unbiased, you know, who I appreciated their feedback and actually did give me a lot of feedback. But it was more difficult to identify what the problems were because they're not writers. So they're not looking like they don't know plot structure, most of the, or like in detail plot structure, or like conventions of genres and things like that, that a lot of like regular critique partners wouldn't know. If I had a comment overall, that was like, I don't love this character. It's like, okay, trying to figure out what that means. Like does that mean that? Is that a good thing? Like, do I want people to not like that character? Because it's often those morally gray people and I'm like, okay, well, I don't want you to think he's a great guy, but I want you to root for him. You know? So I'm like, and then trying to figure out where in the story that, you know, you know, like where, where in the story that problem is. The grammar police are coming for us, everyone. It's finally happening. I think a lot of times on author tube, I see people who are like, oh my gosh, my critique partner is like, oh, my very like, oh, I have all these critique partners that I send things to all the time. And I'm like, what? Who, who, we, who, who are you? What? One of my goals with author tube is to like meet those people and make those connections. That's like one of my motivating factors, but I'm like, there's a lot of people who aren't on author tube. And I'm like, where do you find the people? Where do you find the critique partners? Because sharing your writing with people is such like a, a vulnerable thing. It's like, this is a piece of me. Like I spent so many hours on this specifically like full length books that maybe you even got through a revision on, like, and then I think about those, like that person that I was, and still I'm potentially who didn't really have any writer connections. And I was like, where am I going to get feedback from? Yeah, you could like find an online critique partnership or like, uh, find a beta reader on a discord chat. Like there's just, there's a lot of resources, but I think me with my brand new, fresh first book I'd ever written, thinking that it was going to get published and like wanting that, like thinking of giving that to a total stranger online, who all I know is that they're like in this writing forum is so scary for a lot of, I would say maybe newer or more isolated writers. Like I live in the Midwest. There's not a ton. People don't meet. I'm trying to change that. But people don't like go out and meet people very often, especially with writing. Like it's like, this is my, this is my secret writing project that nobody else really gets and you know. So that's something I'm still struggling with too. Like I feel like the only people who read are people I know and I really do value their feedback and I think that they're being very honest with me, but I also think we all grew up in a similar area of the country. We all grew up with similar experiences with similar like genre tastes with similar like things that we like and things that we look for and similar levels of experience. Like back that I'm getting, like maybe there's this whole layer of feedback that I'm not even getting, you know. I think this video is just me being like, what's happening in my life. I think a lot of people don't get better because they're not surrounded by people who are better than them. That sounds so like, I'm just the best around. I'm sure that there are people around me who are more experienced and like have their foot in the industry and like have published books, but I don't know them. Like I don't know where they are. I don't know where, I don't know where to find them. But I think that happens with a lot of writers and so then you never hear anything with positive feedback. So then you're like querying in a vacuum, your little pieces that make a book that much better and like that can stand out above the crowd, you know, and stay in those query trenches and make the book different and make the book marketable. And like a lot of people are in similar spaces where it's like they only have the courage to show it to people that they directly know. Cause I don't think I can face the like strong criticism of people I don't know. And I know that that's something I need to work on because that's the only way, right? Like when you get an agent, hopefully Lord willing, um, they're going to have feedback and I need to be able to learn how to implement that feedback. And I think that's something that I'm really bad at right now is implementing feedback because I don't receive it enough. I need to become more comfortable with receiving feedback so that I can get good at implementing it. I'm just not used to like getting feedback and then like figuring out like, okay, here's what that means. Here's how I fix it. And so I think one thing I'm going to try to now I'm really just, this is like a self revelation moment. Like I need to get in some sort of consistent feedback situation where I'm like getting more feedback and implementing it regularly with writing specifically. But then it's also so scary. I'm like, somebody can feel like you're a random person. I have no idea who you are. Like I have no idea who you are. I have no idea. There's so many things with writing that need to become regular in order to like make it, you know, I think specifically in traditional publishing, I'm sure this applies to self publishing as well. But I think about that with like writing consistently with something that it took a lot of work to be able to do that for me. Like, like forcing myself to like actually finish a book is something that just takes a lot of practice. Like I had to do it like regularly all the time in order for it to become like, yes, I write all the time. Like this is a normal thing that I do. And the same thing with rejections, like I had to become really familiar with rejections in order to be able to handle it. You know, like those first couple, I was like, I can't do this. Like I can't face this much rejection. And then I was like, no, I just need to become good at receiving rejections because that's going to be a huge part of this industry that I want to go into. You know, learning how to do these things took a lot of practice and a lot of like exposure therapy. Like I would just watch a ton of like plot videos and like just watching people. Oh my gosh, before I wrote consistently, I watched so many writing blogs. I was like, this is going to be me. I'm going to write. I'm going to do all these things. I'm going to write all the time. Like I had this dream, you know, when I was 15 of like, or earlier than that. I think it was in like seventh grade of writing and I'm like, I want to be a writer. And like, I wrote this book over four years. Like I just like once in a while would write a chapter of this really bad dystopian book that was like kind of iconic, whatever. You come to this point where you realize like, if you really want to do this, you have to either like figure out how to self publish or you have to figure out how to pursue traditional publishing. It's like, not only do I have to love writing, but I have to love writing and be able to write consistently. You look at all these stats and it's like, well, in order to become a published author, I need to get a book deal, right? And then you go backwards and it's like, okay, well, in order to do that, I need to get a literary agent. And then it's like, okay, in order to do that, I need to query. And it's like, okay, in order to do that, there's all these stats about like, it's probably going to be your second book, like you need to be writing a lot more to be able to query a book. And it's like, you suddenly realize that this thing that you thought would be not easy, but like attainable has so many other steps to it. But receiving feedback is one that I don't think I'm there yet with because I just don't have a lot of access to like regular critiquing. And I'm sure that it would literally take, like I'm right up to that point where it's like, I know what I could probably do to get regular critique partners, but it's so daunting. There's this risk that like, well, maybe we won't be compatible. Like maybe this person's going to steal my work. Like maybe this person, we won't align on a writing level and then it'll just be awkward. And there's just like so many fears that I have about that. I would love to be a person who can just like write books and not care. I don't know how many of these people exist, but like, they're just really good at writing books and they just write books all the time and they don't worry about querying. They don't worry about publishing or marketing or presents or social media or doing major edits or getting feedback. Like those are all things that I find to be different skill sets than writing. This is another one of those like come to Jesus moments of like, okay, this is another thing that I have to figure out how to do. I guess what I really want to say, don't be intimidated, I think, by these new things that you realize you have to do. I think every time I come across one of these things, it's like, oh my gosh, I need to figure that out. Like the first time I watched querying videos, I was so overwhelmed that like when I went into a bookstore, I would like freak out. I would be like, this is too much work. Because in those early querying videos, they tell you like, read the backs of books. And so then every time I would come across a book, I would be like, holy shit, like, I can't do this. Like, this is something I don't know how to do. I know how to write a book barely, barely. I really didn't. Do I even still? We don't know. I just got so overwhelmed. And I was like, okay, let's take it back a step and say, okay, let me immerse myself in all of this querying knowledge. Let me figure out how to do it. And then I felt so much more comfortable. And then it was like writing a synopsis and I'm like, I can't write a, you know, like every new thing that you realize you have to do. And I feel like people don't talk about this mostly, maybe it's not something we need to talk about. And I'm just pulling things out of nowhere, constantly unpeeling more layers of all the things you need to know how to do. And I think it can be really overwhelming to receive all of that at once, which I think a lot of times we do. Like if you're going straight from a finished book to like trying to query it, and then you learn all of like, oh, you need to figure out how to do revisions, you need critique partners, you need beta readers, you need synopsis, you need a query letter, you need all these things. And then like, you see that and it's immediately overwhelming. Cause it's like, I thought all I had to do was write this book. Like that was hard enough. It might just be me. If so, like, thank you for being here. I don't, but I would say if you're coming upon one of those moments where you're realizing, like, I don't know, I didn't know I had to know that. And now that I do, it's very overwhelming. Get comfortable with it and decide, like, do I want to spend time doing this? Is the stress of figuring out how to write a query letter, like worth it to being published? And like, honestly, I don't mean for that question to sound like patronizing, like I feel like it's like, is it worth it to get your book published? Would you rather get your book published or not have to write one letter? You know, like I'm not trying to say that because I think facing those realities can sometimes be a wake up call of like, maybe I don't want this as much. Maybe I do just want to write books and that's okay. You can just write books. You can just do it for you. Learn what you need to learn and know that your future is still there. You know, it's still waiting for you. That's what I felt every time I would see like this, when I was first seeing like what a query letter was. And I was like, this is going to take me so long to figure out how to do and get good at. And like, so this is going to be another year that I'm not published. And I would, I would get so caught up on that. When I had not published a book coming out of high school, I was so upset. I was like, I'm never going to make it. Like, I thought I was going to be published by the time I got out of high school. And like the same thing with college. I can't wish away this time. Like, I can't just like spend all this time thinking about what my life could be like, I need to like do the things that I need to do and understand that that can take time. But like, that's going to be worth it, you know, comment down below if that made any sense because that's just kind of how I'm feeling and I'm really working on that community and it's hard for me. It's so hard to like talk to people. I don't know why it's so difficult for me, but I'm working on it. So we're kind of with me. She's inspiring. Okay. Goodbye. Like, comment, subscribe, all the things.