Take Your Story For A Test Spin

I started thinking about this one a while ago, as I read a submission from someone that said they had been working on their manuscript for 6 years. Now first of all, don't get me started on the 6 year thing. That is a story and a blog post for another day. I want to take this to a completely different angle. As I read this writer's story, I really questioned why they would waste his or her (see how I keep this a neutral) time on this project that never, in this lifetime or the next would ever get published. No, this wasn't one of those long shots that might get published. It was downright awful. I wanted to scream. Didn't someone tell you this was bad from the beginning? Obviously not.

So the question I had was simple - When do you take your story for a test spin? When is it that you get some feedback on the project to see if it has what it takes to "make the cut?"

In my humble opinion, the answer is the moment you get the concept in your head. Not after you start writing it. Not half way through it. Not when it is finished. Before you start. Of course, this does link into my continual argument for plotting not flying by the seats of your pants, but you already know my approach on that one. It is crucial that you get some feedback early on, before you waste a lot of time on a project that will fail.

I know that some of you that follow this blog say that there is no wasted writing, and for the most part, I do agree. Sometimes you have to flush that garbage out of your system before you get to the good stuff. Still, unless you have unlimited time to write, your time is precious and you need to use it wisely.

Published authors already get to experience this when they begin drafting proposals for new projects. They contact their agent, they talk to their editor and discuss different ideas they have for projects. The idea is to find the write story for the market right now. Unpublished authors can do the same thing and unfortunately, fail to do so.

That advance talking that you do with other writers or friends is a chance for you to not only see what they would like to see in a book, but also a chance for you to start fleshing out the idea before you dive into the project. During these discussions, you may find a better direction to take your story, the readers may provide you some answers to points you have been struggling with. Simply put, there are a lot of great things you can get from this.

The next point I would recommend getting the feedback is after you have the first three or so chapters. This is where those contests come into play. I have to stress, there are a lot of times that contests don't provide you the right type of feedback due to who is reading your project in the preliminary rounds; but, with that said, sometime you do get some interesting comments. Send it out and see what people outside of your critique circle have to say. Send it to a couple of contests and look for patterns. If you see the same comments from a couple of people, that should tell you something.

I think what I want you to get out of this is get feedback and get it early on. If you wait until the project is too far along, it will take forever to fix the problems. Overhauling a partial is easy, the full manuscripts are tough. (Got it Leslie).

Have a great day and write well.

Scott