I've just had my story 'The Uinta Incident' critiqued by my co-writers in the Critter writers' workshop. The advice I receive from my fellow writers is invaluable . . . usually. This time, though, it appears that, while almost everyone enjoyed the story, almost all of them thought it was broken. But not to worry cos they all knew how to fix it. Except, as luck would have it, their advice varies wildly. There is always a degree of contrariness when you get feedback from a couple dozen folk, but this is probably the most severe case yet. For every person that felt the pace was too slow, there was someone else complaining that it felt rushed. Some folks said I over did the exposition and needed to trust my readers more: "Let the reader work it out for themselves" I was urged on several occasions. Fine, except there were a heck of a lot of people complaining that I didn't explain things enough and left them floundering in the dark!
There doesn't seem to be one common thread I can grasp and work on. I need some time to think about this. What is perplexing is that I have already submitted this story to a magazine. I wouldn't normally submit prior to it being critiqued, but there was a submission window and it closed October 31. I'm not very confident it'll be accepted now.
I have popped another one in the Critters queue, called 'MirrororriM'. After that, well, I was hoping to have my novella 'The Reconstruction of Kasper Clarke' finished, but it continues to give me the slip.
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