Comments on: Critiquing Rob

By: Rob

Rob — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 23:08:25 +0000

Cool. Thank you very much. I’ll tell ya, this boiling a novel down to one sentence is hard. But this has really helped me write the book and keep me on track. I’ll never start another novel without doing this first.

By: D. REX

D. REX — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 10:19:08 +0000

I loved you one line sentence, Rob. It really does spark the interest of the reader.

By: Davalynn

Davalynn — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 15:23:46 +0000

When I first read your storyline, Rob, I thought it sounded pretty tight and to the point. So of course I felt great when I read Randy’s critique. Now, to do that for my own novel …

I usually learn something from these exercises, and what I learned this time came in the Randy’s last graph:

“In 22 words, you’ve shown us both the personal and the public stakes for this novel … your editor will know exactly how to position the book and both the Marketing and Sales directors will know how to do their jobs.”

Those are important points to have in line: personal stakes, public stakes, positioning of the book, and marketing/sales focus. Almost like having your engines fired up and ready to go at the starting line.

Nice work.

By: Doug Bolton

Doug Bolton — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 15:51:13 +0000

Randy,

I think it is pretty cool that you critique individual works for people on your blog. It not only helps the person you are critiquing, but the readers as well.

I will be in Asheville, NC on April 21st, doing a workshop for the Eastern Regional Retired Teacher’s Conference. The NEA in Washington D.C. emailed me and invited me to do it. All payed for. I could get used to this! I will be doing the workshop on why I wrote a book; how I got it published, and will be encouraging the attendees to write. There is an overflow crowd of 50 or more people signed up for the workshop.

Great exposure for my book, and I can even do some pre-sales. Life is good.

Doug Bolton

By: Nicole L Rivera

Nicole L Rivera — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 12:37:26 +0000

I have a question about the conference: I don’t see any pricing information or anywhere to pay. Am I missing something or is this not up yet?

By: Don

Don — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 17:14:35 +0000

I agree with Randy’s comments, but find that my first reaction to the story is to wonder what on earth searching for a kidnapped child has to do with getting on the radar of a terrorist group. The conclusion doesn’t seem to follow from the premise. Speaking just for me, the disconnect is large enough that I wouldn’t necessarily want to pick up the book to find out how the author does make the connection.

Perhaps it’s an audience thing — I’m simply not in the audience Rob is after — though I do speak as someone who likes reading thrillers, and also police or detective stories about, sometimes, kidnapped children.

It’s not something that Robert Parker did (if there was a kidnapped child, he stayed with that thread), though it might come close to what Dick Francis did — matching up close observation of an industry (horse racing, in his case) with the wrongdoing plot.

By: PatriciaW

PatriciaW — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 15:49:49 +0000

I only take issue with the first portion of Randy’s critique. “Young father” is not redundant. It’s assumed erroneously that the father of a toddler is young. He may not be. My father turned 51 the year I was born.