Feedback on Your Novel Can Be So Motivating
Photo by Benjamin Voros on Unsplash
A week before Christmas I had a Zoom call with a book coach in training. I was serving as a practice client for her as she completed her practicum on a full manuscript evaluation.
Kenda read the whole draft of my middle grade zoo mystery, which is about 250 pages or 60,000 words. Her feedback included detailed comments and questions on the first 20 pages and an editorial letter.
Her editorial letter provided that big picture view that’s so hard to give yourself about your own work.
Things she thinks are working well included some interiority—helping the reader feel what the main character was feeling. That was a pleasant surprise. We writers don’t always know what we do well!
Kenda also wrote, “Your overall pacing for this story is spot on. The timing of red herrings and reveals for the mystery threads are well placed and create a building of tension in the story.”
Hurray! That’s one thing that I definitely could not tell was working without getting feedback from a smart reader. I know so many things the reader does not know—especially regarding the mystery plot and what characters are doing when they’re not “on stage”—that it was interfering with my ability to see if the story was working the way I wanted it to.
One thing I thought was not working, which was confirmed by Kenda’s read, is where the story starts. The first draft begins with Edgar the raven at the zoo. Instead, it needs to start with my main human character. Kenda had some good suggestions about how that might work.
Another thing that wasn’t working was the ending. Although Kenda wrote that I “do a beautiful job of resolving all the mystery threads,” she felt like she was left hanging with the emotional plot. What happens with Jazz and her mother?
Kenda also spotted an issue that I suspected was a problem but hadn’t addressed yet—providing a clear arc of change for Jazz and for Edgar, my two main characters. Solving this for Jazz will be simpler, because the pieces are already there. They just need to be rearranged and brought to the foreground.
Edgar, on the other hand, needs more thought. I’d been thinking of him as a character who doesn’t change much because he’s technically an adult. But the feedback from Kenda and our subsequent conversation has made me reconsider how much he could and should change. I see now how that will both enrich his character and the point of the novel at the same time.
Without Kenda’s feedback on this, I doubt I would have come to the same conclusion on my own.
Another helpful point about character arcs was this: If my goal for Jazz and Edgar is to be equal main characters (it is), “then we also need to see how their character arcs affect one another.”
Ooh, this sounds challenging.
Kenda suggested an exercise in mapping out these details in relationship to the plot of the story. The purpose is to see how their arcs intersect with the plot and either oppose each other’s or support each other’s and then intentionally amplify those. This is tricky to describe in the abstract, so I’ll see how it goes and report back.
This isn’t everything I learned from Kenda, but it’s certainly enough to be getting on with.
After the New Year, I dove back into my revision by focusing on a new first chapter with Jazz in the opening scene. I fussed around with that for a couple of days before I realized that starting with a new final scene might work better for me.
And it did. A new ending scene flowed onto the page. Once I have a draft of it done, I’ll go back to that first scene to see how the opening scene and the closing scene can work together.
Overall what I got out of working with Kenda was a specific plan for what I need to revise before I’m confident enough in it to send to my agent. I love having a plan.
If you’ve taken your novel as far as you can by yourself, then it may be time to seek a professional’s feedback.
Full novel evaluation for past clients, newsletter subscribers
For the last few months, I’ve been thinking about offering a whole manuscript evaluation. This experience confirmed how valuable that can be.
A manuscript evaluation from me will include the following:
An editorial letter that details the manuscript’s strengths and weaknesses, with the weaknesses grouped in categories from most significant to less, plus specific suggestions about next steps to guide your revision
Detailed comments and suggestions (but not copyedits) on the first 20 pages to help you see where a reader has questions or where something is beautifully done
A one-hour Zoom call to discuss my feedback with you and help you plan your next steps on the manuscript
Price
.035 cents per word, using the word count feature in Microsoft Word
Minimum of 20,000 words for a partial manuscript
Special offer through March 31, 2024
For past or current clients, a 20% discount (for work I’ve seen from you before, a 25% discount)
For newsletter subscribers, a 10% discount
Timing
I’ll need two weeks to read and respond. We can schedule a Zoom call for the end of that period.
Contact
Please email me at bookcoach@micheleregenold.com about your interest and my availability.