October 25, 2024 My Thoughts

This week, after a request from a follower, I decided to share my process when I’m asked to critique a chapter or scene from a manuscript. First, while I tend to be blunt rather than diplomatic, I will only critique those I’ve worked with for over a decade. My first read-through is to examine the plot, character development, and style. The idea is to help identify what’s working and what doesn’t. While I also look for opportunities to improve sentence structure and rewrite for clarity, it’s essential to include what you like, not just to find fault. So, let’s see how blunt I can be on a chapter from a short story I wrote years ago. While the story I wrote is complete fiction and a product of my imagination, it was initially inspired by a news report. I used screenshots so that you could see the way the markups look on a manuscript. Generally, there will be notations off to the right side of the document for the author. Naturally, it is optional here. Note: Words in Italics are the character’s internal thoughts.

Fatal Triangle

Finally, this is only the first scene of a relatively long short story. It will be part of a compilation I intend to publish next year. As you can see, I found room for improvement from the first draft; there are seventeen more pages and more massaging of the prose to come before it’s ready for publication. Here is the cover art for Undone.

Thanks again for stopping by. I’ll move back to horse racing memories next week. Comments and questions are always welcome.