Reading a chapter to an audience is illuminating at worst. It shows you where your best punches are thrown and where you've come up short. Reading my first chapter from the blog tonight in Beaverton, Oregon, humbled me. The raves made me feel like I could pull Katy Perry's California Gurls (Ok, I can only imagine a fleet of girls in Daisy Dukes with bikini-tops intensely hanging on my every word!), but I saw shortcomings, albeit small and unnoticed by the crowd because I compensated. During the reading I saw my imaginative use of dialogue could go even further. For example, I added into the vocal reading what I have in italics:
Shivers ran down her spine from the sound of a hunter deprived its prey.
Oh no! They know.
The Sentinels just realized they hadn’t taken the Nightshade Trail.
I find it interesting that no matter how much I think I've gone overboard with drama compounded with adverbs and adjectives, it sometimes can even go further!
If you haven't read the chapter yet, do it! It's in the blog below, or click here: http://brandonscottlay.blogspot.com/2010/08/necromancer-lord-reborn-chapter-one.html
-Brandon
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ReplyDeleteSorry to have to remove your post. Appreciate the test posts, but would appreciate substance even more.
ReplyDeleteBe sure to check out OryCon in November. They hold a writing workshop with feedback from pro authors & editors which is invaluable, and if you don't want to do the workshop, they also have Open Read & Critique sessions each day of the con. I sat in on some of these and they were awesome - you read the first 750 words of your manuscript to a group of writers (some aspiring, most published in some form or another) and then each person gives you feedback. The sessions are long so you miss a few panels if you do them, but frankly I would go to this con just for the interaction and feedback. Check it out! (And, if you'd like a partner to attend with, give me a ring!)
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