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The precis of the book is here:

Grip (a novel and a reflex)

If you'd like to submit a treatment for the cover of this book, or a sketch, or a concept that you can pull off after we say, "yeah sure", then click the submissions tab and follow the directions for submissions.  Name your price.  We like to giggle.

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Common Feedback

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Criticol is about feedback.  You send us a submission, we'll read it and tell you what we think.  It might take longer than we like, but we'll get to it.  On this blog we're going to start to post some of the more common feedback so you can consider it even before you send your manuscript to us, or anyone else for that matter. 

  1. It seems that the writer assumes the reader knows things that are not written. The writer knows what they mean, but the reader is at a disadvantage because they can only read the words that are on the page.  Readers cannot be inside the writer’s head.  The magic is using all the words required to bring them there.
  2. Sometimes words have meanings.  If you don't know what a word means, look it up or don't use it.  If you're using Word, all you have to do is right-click.  Homophile errors (using the wrong version of a word that sounds the same but means something else) are very common.
  3. The book is rife with pronoun confusion.  Every pronoun needs to be scrutinized.  As the chapters flip from one to another, they start with a pronoun.  I suspect this was on purpose to add mystery.  It isn’t mysterious, it is annoying to the reader.  If the reader is wondering “what the hell are they talking about?” in reference to the author, it isn’t a fun read - and they'll start skimming and you won't get them back.  Set the stage on chapter changes.
  4. Rushing the good parts.  Writers have a tendency to get excited when they reach the part that they have been working toward for so long and as a result they end up rushing it.  Others rush the build up to get to the good part.  Those writers tend to rush the whole thing.  A good editor knows when you're cheating and need to spend more time.
  5. Repeating the same word over and over like repeating was the key to winning some repeating prize awarded to people who can repeat the same word without noticing that they might have a propensity to repeat repeatedly.  This is often character names, or phrases in dialogue that writers find cool or think they add realism.  They don't, they add monotony. 
  6. Poor research.  Nothing bugs a reader more than knowing there is a factual error in a book, or even if something just doesn't seem right.  (Hey that model of gun only holds 5 bullets not 6.  Why don't they just use the teleporter again and get out of trouble?  Why fly all the way down that dangerous trench to drop the torpedo when dipping in at the last moment would do?)  Sure, it's fiction, but if it's set in a familiar environment, or if characters behave contrary to their motivations, your readers' unintended anxiety might be due to a failure of research on your part.  Depending on your genre, readers can be very sophiticated in their knowledge of the topic and environment.  They say write what you know.  The fact is, there isn't much preventing you from getting to know more.
  7. Overuse of dialogue tags.  Novice writers tend to overuse the he said, she said, he argued, she suggested, he shrugged.  If it's obvious who's speaking, try going without.   Your reader will enjoy the liberation from the monotony.    
  8. Telling when you should be showing.  Often writers will work themselves into an interesting corner and then cheat by resolving it by saying it is resolved in narrative rather than writing the scene.  It's a good way to skip the interesting parts of your story, and readers notice. 

Staying in the Moment

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Very often my writing style can be mood based - which can cause difficulty when I'm trying to write a novel that appears to have been written by the same person from beginning to end.  Because (unfortunately) I don't seem to be able to write a book in one sitting, I have found that creating a playlist of songs for that novel helps me form an association between those songs (I usually pick about 50) and the writing process.  I call them the soundtrack for the novel.  Each time I sit to write I play that same list.  If I go back to rework a  chapter - sometimes a year or more later - that playlist helps bring me back to the zone I wrote the original in.   Um, I mean in which I wrote the original - sorry Jackie.