One of the reasons I started blogging was to force myself to put my writing out there for the world to see. I wanted some kind of feedback, because all of the feedback I gave myself was… well, it was unhelpful. I would shake my head at myself, wondering why I even bothered to write. I would look at everything and say to myself: “this is all terrible.”
But when someone else reads your work, even if they think it’s bad, they’ll usually say something really useful. They’ll say: “here’s why it’s terrible.”
And then you can fix it. Brilliant, right? So when I was poking around the blog My Sweet Delirium and found Christa’s idea for a Writer’s Roast, I was enthusiastically on board. The premise is simple: channel your judgiest self and critique another author’s work with gusto, and with the knowledge that the other author is doing the exact same thing to your work. Christa sent me a short story, and I sent her the first chapter of my NaNoWriMo book from last year. Then we got to work.
You can see Christa’s take on the experience over on her excellent blog My Sweet Delirium, where she’s also entirely too kind to me and my writing. I learned a lot from the experience, both roasting and being roasted, so grab some marshmallows and settle in for the first edition of Christa Wojo’s:
What I Learned Roasting Christa Wojo
First of all, this was tough. Christa’s a wonderful, gifted writer, and at first all I had were good things to say so I opened up a second document and let myself go with nice comments. It really was such a pleasure to read, and Christa’s writing is so experiential – I almost felt like I was slipping on her character’s skin for the duration of the story. I just let myself live there for a while, getting to know the character and her situation.
Then I put that aside, and tried again, this time going into a slightly different mindset. Instead of thinking of myself just as the audience, I tried to put myself in Christa’s place with a simple mantra: if I were the writer of this piece, how would I tear it to shreds?
Suddenly, I was brutal. The page dripped with red comments and changes.
As I reflected upon the scorched earth in my wake, I started to notice a pattern – I was obsessed with pacing. Most of my comments were some flavor of “this is underwritten” and “this is overwritten,” or “move this along” or “spend more time here.” I didn’t realize how much I paid attention to rhythm as a reader and a writer.
Some of my comments were a little petty, and there are a few that upon reflection don’t quite hit the mark – I occasionally knew there was something I didn’t love, but I didn’t know what, and I ended up correcting the wrong thing. That’s another reason why this is such a great exercise – second, third, and fourth opinions are absolutely necessary.
After sending Christa the roast, I sent her the doc full of my compliments and my gushing, and I felt much better about it all, because it really was a haunting, provocative piece, and I learned so much from analyzing it as deeply as I did.
What I Learned From Getting Roasted
Now THIS was fun. It was a little scary, as Christa is a real writer. I write papers and go to conferences, but I’ve never gone through the whole process of turning a story in my head into a book, so it was an honor to get her perspective. I’ve also kept my fiction work pretty well hidden, and so I wasn’t sure at all what to expect. Still, I was incredibly surprised by what Christa did.
She cut the first half of my chapter. Just deleted the whole thing, the whole first scene where we get to know the main character and the main setting.
I stared with my jaw hanging open for about three straight minutes. That was the first scene I’d ever written for the novel, a scene that I loved, and just like that it was gone. And I smiled.
The reason I stalled out and failed at NaNoWriMo was because I had written myself into a difficult timeline. I couldn’t get into the action, no matter how much I wrote, my scenes kept leading me into more and more set up. The timing just wasn’t working for my plot points.
Cutting out that first scene fixed everything. I don’t know why it had never occurred to me – Christa gave some suggestions where the scene could go instead, and from there my mind just spun out of control. I was reworking the whole thing in a tighter, neater way. It was amazing how just that very first suggestion gave me a whole new perspective. The rest of her comments were also extremely helpful, but this was the game changer.
And I would never have figured that out alone.
Thank you so much Christa, for this wonderful idea, and your wonderful suggestions. I can’t wait to do this again – soon! And you if you want your work roasted, submit your inquiry here. And while you’re there, check out Christa’s blog on writing, life, and creativity.
18 thoughts on “The Writers Roast”
Joshua Scott Hotchkin
Sharing your writing is just helpful in so many ways. Sometimes just knowing I put something out there helps me to view it from the perspective of the readers and helps to illustrate the lessons. Every time you write it is a lesson about writing and is also a great way of learning about yourself and the external world.
Michelle Joelle
So true! I often can’t see typos or grammatical errors in something I’ve written until after I submit it.
Steve Morris
Wow. Sounds like a really rewarding experience.
Michelle Joelle
It really, really was!
James Pailly
I once had a teacher do something like this to me. He read my essay in front of the class, pointing out everything I did wrong and generally mocking my bad writing. He got the whole class laughing at my work. Then, when someone asked who wrote that, he looked directly at me and said, “I can’t remember. I think it was someone in one of the other sections.”
I took this as my teacher’s way of telling me that I could do better. Sometimes you need to get some brutal criticism before you can start improving as a writer.
I’m glad this has turned out to be a positive experience for you. I know that what happened with my teacher was a positive experience for me.
Michelle Joelle
Wow, that sounds awful. I would never do that to a student! I’m glad you were string enough to weather it well!
James Pailly
I was a bit too cocky about my writing skills at the time. I needed to be humbled, and I think my teacher knew that. I doubt he would have done that to most of his students.
christawojo
Reblogged this on My Sweet Delirium and commented:
“Suddenly, I was brutal. The page dripped with red comments and changes.”
Read about Michelle Joelle’s Writers Roast experience.
Maria Matthews
Loved this but have to add that grammar is tricky as I discovered when the debate about commas in my work almost turned me on my head as there were too many opinions.
Michelle Joelle
People have very strong opinions in commas. I’ve personally been working on using them less, but it can be difficult when the rules are a tad subjective!
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Cristina
Awesomely frightening. I would love to, but I’m too afraid to – just yet.
Michelle Joelle
It’s a lot less scary than it seems. Having it be a roast takes away the expectation of approval and replacing it with the notion that your roaster is having to really work to find critiques. It would be different to ask for a persons honest thoughts and then get this level if critique – that would’ve terrifying! By turning it into an experiment, it feels a lot more analytical, and a lot less personal, to me at least.
Steve Morris
Michelle, would you be interested in doing a roast with me? I can offer you a choice of 3 in-progress works to read:
1. A middle-grade illustrated story based on the Minecraft computer game. 7,000 words.
2. The opening scenes of a mystery/thriller novel. 6,000 words.
3. A darkly comic short story. 8,500 words.
Michelle Joelle
I would love to! Send me an email at soliloquiesmj at gmail dot com.
theowllady
Reblogged this on MARSocial Author Business Enhancement Interviews.
Malcolm Greenhill
After reading this post, one word comes to mind, ‘courageous’, although I take the points you made in answering Cristina.
Michelle Joelle
Thank you! It was pretty scary, but its actually not as difficult as i thought it would be. I highly reccomend the experience!