A minor bummer, writing-wise

[Orrex]

I recently got back in touch with a friend I hadn't seen or corresponded with in over a decade. We didn't have a falling-out or anything; we just wound up living on different sides of the country, and so on.

Anyway, he's been an aspiring writer for a long time, and many of our conversations back in those days involved whatever he or I was writing at the time.

I got a look at the novel he's working on now, a massive tome near completion. He hopes to start shopping it around to publishers in the next month or two.

So...


It's horrible! Flat characters, bland plotting, drab action, and utterly lifeless prose! There's nothing to recommend it unless we think of it a story that he's telling off the top of his head, rather than as a novel he's been working on for years!


How do I tell him?

Do I tell him?

Do I accentuate the positive and de-emphasize the negative? Will that help him?


What's a friend to do? I could let the publisher reject him and leave it at that, but I know that he's going to ask my opinion, and I don't think that I have the heart to tell him.



Maybe I can just lie low for another 12 years until this all blows over?

[yellerpup]

1. In "Bird by Bird" Ann Lamott

writes about receiving a harsh critique from a friend that changes the tenor of their relationship forever after. As I recall, she recommends that friends be friends rather than critics and I agree. Chances are, your friend wouldn't believe you anyway so you are better off letting the "pros" rip his work apart. You are much more valuable as a friend when you are there to pick up the pieces after you friend gets his first rejection letter. Unless, of course, you can "fix" his book before he shows it to anyone else and providing he will let you. LOL.

[valerief]

2. Yellerpup is right. It's better he thinks you're stupid or talentless than

cruel. Leave that to someone who isn't a friend.

[SheilaT]

3. About the best thing for you to say is

something like: "Oh, it's not exactly the kind of book I normally read, so I'm probably not the one to try to judge." Hopefully the first half of the sentence is reasonably accurate.

The other thing you could try is asking him questions that might steer him in the direction of recognizing what's wrong:

"Do you think it really moves the plot along effectively when Steven, your main character, spends two chapters trying to decide which tie to wear to his mother's funeral?" You get the idea, I hope.

Unless he is willing to be part of a writing group which critiques each other with as much honesty as possible, there's probably nothing you can do for him. At least not and keep your friendship.

[nuxvomica]

4. There actually is a strange dynamic with writers who are friends

You really can't judge their work objectively, and certainly in terms of it's marketability, because you know them and the writing is so full of them that of course you are going to want to read it just to understand them better. It's like whether you'd want to read your friend's diary. Of course you would.
Tell him that. It's the truth, anyway. At least that's what a friend of mine said after he read the first few chapters of my novel... ;-)

[Orrex]

5. He would take that as a cop-out, and (honestly) so would I

When he asks my opinion of the work, he asks knowing that I enjoy the process of critique and have been doing it, on and off, for many years. If I suddenly pull up short and claim that I can't read it objectively, then he's going to smell a rat.

What most concerns me is that an honest critique would hurt him personally. If I decline to critique his work now, after reading it, he will (quite reasonably) infer that I judge the work to be of poor quality. If I had declined to critique his work prior to reading it, he would have inferred that I expected it to be of poor quality. I could have made some claim about not having enough time, but this would have been a lie.

Another thing that concerns me is that if I don't give him an honest critique and a publisher or agent thereafter attacks his work for the very shortcomings that I've noticed, then I'll feel as though I failed to warn him adequately.


I recognize that, as an aspiring professional writer, it's up to him to develop skin thick enough to take criticism, but I also recognize that reality doesn't allow it to be that simple.

[SheilaT]

6. Then he needs to be willing to hear

what you have to say.

As someone who has written a little, had a couple of minor publications, I've learned the realities of the writing market place. And it's brutal. It's especially brutal to someone who is not a very good writer, and has unrealistic notions of how good he is. He's going to have to learn that.

You are going to have to figure out a way to be as gentle with him as possible. But the truth is that if his work is as bad as you say, you can't possibly sugar-coat it. You can point out that you are only one person, with your one opinion, and he might well seek another opinion.

Has he ever submitted anything? Has he ever workshopped anything? Too many would-be writers work in glorious isolation, and get so enamored of their own words that they just have no way of knowing how mediocre or even how bad they are.

[Orrex]

7. And now a related issue has popped up.

It seems that a handful of voyeuristic knuckleheads on another discussion board think that they know who I'm talking about.


How kooky is that?!?

:rofl::rofl::rofl:

[sybylla]

8. I've been in your shoes before.

It's daunting. But if you think creatively about it, you can give an honest opinion without burying the project (and him).

First step, don't ever tell a friend It's horrible! Flat characters, bland plotting, drab action, and utterly lifeless prose! There's nothing to recommend it.

Even if we think it, it's not our job as friends. That's the job of an agent, an editor - generally someone who isn't a friend.

Instead, look for five key issues and frame them to best advantage. Then let him work on it and see what he comes up with. With a little constructive criticism, he might actually work it and shape it into something much more publishable. (Which still doesn't say much considering some of the stuff that manages to get published.)

In my case, I gave my friend a list of five key problems: beginning, ending, tension, a key character, and the biggest plot problem - the main things an author should be thinking about before they start marketing. These are pretty easy critiques because they are things that every writer wants to know is in top shape before they market, whether they've written a masterpiece or a just put down thoughts straight out of their head. In your case it's a fair and logical place to start out as a friend critiquing a friend. If he asks for more later, you can give more later. (Now that you've fixed up x, the problem with y really jumped out at me).

Frame it all in a way that makes it easier for you to say and him to digest. "Have you thought about...?" "I know in your genre that x is preferred, but I think there needs to be more/less y." "Remember when we used to talk about this and you said you really liked x. This section needs more x."

I know you Orrex. You probably do all this already, but I thought I'd say it for anyone else who hasn't been in these shoes before.

Don't sweat the rest. Your friend is a pretty smart guy. He just needs you to help him see his work from a different perspective. If he wants to get published, he'll start to see the rest as he works to revise and edit. When he makes that hero stronger and more alive, the others will feel flat to him. When he starts to fix the tension in a couple of chapters, he'll start to see how dull a few others are and work through the rest.

And if he doesn't, then you've done about all a friend can be asked to do.

[Ozymanithrax]

9. Every writer needs a reader he trust to give him unvarnished truth

abotu the work.

I have no idea what your friend writes, but you might suggest http://www.critiquecircle.com/ as a place where he can get other writers to critique his work.

Otherwise, tell him to seek out writer's conferences. Agents and Editors attend these conferences and for a fee they will look at the beginning of a novel and let you pitch to them.