Have You Found Your Ideal Readers?

If you are a writer, I'm sure you are familiar with peer review and feedback on your works in progress. Writers mostly find it invaluable even when the truth hurts. But can it sometimes do more harm than good?

The initial Finish That Novel group set up by Greenacre Writers attracted some great writers and we all read and critiqued each other's work with a mix of good and critical comments. I think I'm right in saying that we all found the experience beneficial and our writing improved. I know mine did but I was fortunate in finding, by chance, my Ideal Readers - as Stephen King called them.

I joined a similar group with a different novel and here my experience was mixed. The group was less stable with a number of people joining and leaving after only a few sessions. Some people joined after several members, including me, had already presented the first few chapters. The newcomers complained that they didn't know who various characters were - in spite of us providing detailed synopses of the work so far. After a few meetings, I realized that only three members' feedback was worth considering. Of these one did not hold back in criticism but it was all constructive and extremely helpful, and another was very supportive. The third fed back so much negativity in comments it contributed to my losing confidence in my writing so much so that I left the group and abandoned the novel. This person's comments about my main character were totally at odds with how I perceived her. Was I writing this character so badly that she could be completely misjudged? Evidently so.

I'm not a snowflake so why did I crumble from these comments and criticisms? This all came at a time when I was struggling to regain health after thyroid cancer and my energy was severely depleted. My replacement thyroxine was sub-optimum leaving me on the border of depression and I was also having an extremely difficult time with a colleague at work who undermined me at every opportunity. My confidence in my abilities disappeared down the plughole. Receiving such negative feedback on top of that resulted in me losing faith with my writing altogether, that even the other members' support could not counter-effect.

I'm pleased to say that four years on, I'm in better health and feeling more assured about writing having had some good feedback on my first novel and flash-fiction pieces. The other novel, however, remained hidden in my PC files until a few weeks ago.

I'd been having a huge de-clutter and tidy up, and found the hand written notes from the feedback group. I re-read these notes and have been working on some re-writing. The extensive notes written by that first member have been used in tweaking and deleting, and have been extremely valuable.

Reading the notes from the negative critiquer with fresh eyes, I now see that this person was simply not my Ideal Reader. Far from it. Some comments are valid certainly but many are not. This reader wanted me to write a different character altogether. Actually, it seems, a different novel!

I must be honest - some points were worth considering, and perhaps deep down I knew there was a degree of truth in the harsh criticism which made it harder to hear. I am examining those comments closely to see where I can improve my characterization, but I feel free to discard anything that is not useful to me. This person was not my Ideal Reader and I now have sufficient faith in myself and my writing to throw out anything that is not beneficial in improving it.

I am not advocating surrounding yourself by people who will give unstinting praise - no-one grows in that environment. Listen to your critiquers and consider their feedback - but, please, do find the courage to disregard criticism that doesn't allow you to feel enthusiastic about your work and its development.

Flashes of fiction.

Today I attended a flash fiction workshop hosted by Greenacre Writers and led by Ingrid Jendrzejewski, who has won a number of flash fiction competitions including the prestigious Bath Flash Fiction Award in 2016.

Ingrid's aim was to take us out of our comfort zone. She set exercises to do just that! She also introduced the concept of the iceberg where only a small proportion of the berg is visible with 90% beneath the surface. The limitation of words in flash fiction - be it 6 words or 1,000 - means keeping much of the story hidden. What is visible is only a small part of the story and needs precision so the reader can still understand it. To quote Hemingway, who says it so much better. "...a writer...may omit things that he knows and the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a feeling of those things as strongly as though the writer had stated them." (The Art of Fiction, No 21 The Paris Review.)

Ingrid also spoke about the many forms of flash fiction including prose poems. Different publishers seek different forms with some preferring the narrative style - a concise short story, while others publish the prose poem forms - research is key in finding the outlets for your particular style. She also gave us some excellent examples of flash fiction including stories by Tania Hershman to read and consider, as well as plenty of resources for books, workshops, and publishers for our work.

If you have the opportunity to attend one of Ingrid's workshops I can thoroughly recommend it!

I have had a few of my flash pieces published and many more rejected. On my return from the workshop I found a tweet from Reflex Fiction with a link to my piece 'No Mirrors' - its publication today meant it that while it reached the long-list in this competition, it hasn't made it any further. With renewed enthusiasm gained from Ingrid's workshop, maybe my next one will do better!

By discovering several typos as I was writing this, I can now confirm that several genres exist: flesh fiction (courtesy of Rosie Canning) lash fiction, flask fiction and flush fiction. Take your pick.