My Novel is finish.

The writing process, writing advice, and updates on your work in progress
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arvales12
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My Novel is finish.

Post by arvales12 » July 1st, 2012, 2:41 pm

Yeah, it is, finally, just tonight. Now all I have to do is to find an agent, my genre is Adventure-Fantasy, it has a 104k word count and I polished it over and over for like a hundred times during typing it.

Can anyone give me an advice on how to find a good agent because I really want to show my work to the world.

Sorry I was new here so yeah, Thank you again for those who will answer.

Feel free to ask me any questions, any questions at all...

Mark.W.Carson
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Re: My Novel is finish.

Post by Mark.W.Carson » July 1st, 2012, 3:40 pm

First, before you do that, have you edited it repeatedly? Have you gone through critiquing? Have you beta tested it?

arvales12
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Re: My Novel is finish.

Post by arvales12 » July 1st, 2012, 10:10 pm

Yes, I have edited it and I might go through that again today. About the critiquing, no, I haven't done it yet... :shock:

Where I should do that here?

Mark.W.Carson
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Re: My Novel is finish.

Post by Mark.W.Carson » July 1st, 2012, 10:14 pm

I would try to get to know people here, possibly make a post for a critique partner at some point. You can burn bridges with agents/editors fast if you send them things that are not close enough to finished.

You may think it is ready, but I have not met many writers who are good at evaluating their own work, even if they are great at evaluating the work of others.

Claudie
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Re: My Novel is finish.

Post by Claudie » July 1st, 2012, 10:34 pm

I have to agree with mark. No matter how often you go over your own stuff, fresh eyes will find new problems. And it's not a question of how good you are (even once you get a deal, editors and agents will demand you re-edit), it's just how this works. Evaluating one's own work is very hard. So if you haven't had a critique partner (or two or three), seek one out. There's a forum just for that in here, and I know a lot of other sites have similar feature. You can also look into local writer groups.

Make sure you get to know the people you exchange critique with (and be ready to critique their work, too). We've just had that discussion elsewhere, and it's been said it helps when two CPs are invested in each other's careers. Because they'll care about the quality of the critique they give, not just the one they receive. Since finding the right partner can be hard, one thing I often see is people exchanging "test critiques". They do it on a smaller number of pages to see if they're a match. And having more than one pair of eyes is useful because it helps distinguish what in the critique comes from your partner's personal style/experience/taste and what doesn't work/is awesome for everyone. When one person tells you they don't understand an action sequence, it might be them being tired as they read. When 2-3 say the same... you've got a problem.

Exchanging critiques can be rough on the nerves, but it can do wonders for your novel to have fellow writers look at it. Choose someone you feel you can trust. And someone you'll be able to communicate further with. :) And good luck!
"I do not think there is any thrill [...] like that felt by the inventor as he sees some creation of the brain unfolding to success... Such emotions make a man forget food, sleep, friends, love, everything." -- Nikola Tesla

arvales12
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Re: My Novel is finish.

Post by arvales12 » July 2nd, 2012, 1:09 am

Oh okay. So basically I have to find a critic partner then and send them my manuscript?

writersink
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Re: My Novel is finish.

Post by writersink » July 2nd, 2012, 8:50 am

arvales12 wrote:Oh okay. So basically I have to find a critic partner then and send them my manuscript?
Yes, and in return you would have to be ready to give them some really good critique back :) I'd recommend getting more than one: one person may not pick up on something dodgy which another person might. Plus, with just one person their advice may just be personal opinion. With two or more flagging the same thing you know you have a problem that needs to be looked at. It is terrifying sending off your baby to be picked apart by someone else, but getting a fresh pair of eyes could really help you.

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cheekychook
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Re: My Novel is finish.

Post by cheekychook » July 2nd, 2012, 1:00 pm

Yes, absolutely---Mark, Claudie and Writersink are giving you very sound advice.

Ideally you should find yourself a few critique partners (writers who will exchange your pages for theirs while you provide critical input to one another ranging from correcting typos to pointing out plot holes or inconsistencies) and a few beta readers (readers who preferably read your genre of books but are not necessarily writers---just people willing to read the whole book and give you honest feedback---these readers are likely to pick up on different things that a critique partner will).

Local writers' groups and forums like this (and other similar ones) are the best place to find critique partners. Beta readers can just be people you know (friends, co-workers, etc) who read the genre and are willing to give you an honest set of comments. Make sure you select people who will be doing it because they want to give feedback---you don't need empty praise from a friend who doesn't want to hurt your feelings by pointing out a problem, you want someone who's going to be willing to tell you where things need to be tweaked.

If you can't find enough people there are also sites that allow posting of chapters or in some cases whole manuscripts for critique by other members of the forum. This forum has a critique section but most people use it for posting opening chapters. Try starting there while you look for others to read your work. In the mean time start working on your query letter and synopsis and post those in the query and synopsis threads here (those will also need several rounds of edit).

Congrats on finishing your book, by the way. That's a huge accomplishment! But there's still a lot of work to be done before it'll be truly ready to go.
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arvales12
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Re: My Novel is finish.

Post by arvales12 » July 2nd, 2012, 1:35 pm

Hahaha, thanks guys. I really appreciate it. I'll be on the synopsis and query letters after I have a week of break because this thing took me almost two years because I didn't have any plot outline layed for it, but I think I did everything according to plan though...

Thanks again. And by the way, the sequel for this one already has a plot outline so it won't take that long anymore... :mrgreen:

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