Editorial Feedback Returned!
I received my editorial feedback report from the Literary Consultancy recently. Three drafts felt like the right time to court some expert advice on the story structure and I’m certain I’ll look back on it as the best investment I’ve made in my writing career.
I’ve never had any impartial feedback on my work. My friends have read some and I’ve had three short stories published. I’d say my friends are fair, and I specifically asked them for firm feedback, but there’s always that thought they’re holding something back, out of genuine, if unintentionally poisonous, politeness. The short story publications were a great achievement, but they didn’t come with any feedback or opinion on the piece except, of course, that they liked them; liked them enough to think their readers would too.
For me, submitting my novel for a manuscript assessment was simply part of the writing process. I knew I was going to need a pair of professional eyes on it if I was going to produce something worth publishing. I know some authors skip this phase, either in the hope of saving money or they don’t believe it’s needed. I’m just not talented enough to do that and I doubt I ever will be. In fact, I’m willing to bet very few are.
I didn’t know what to expect from the report. The feedback was very impressive. It was turned around in ten working days and was fourteen pages of detailed, specific advice. It was encouraging and offered great suggestions for raising the standard of my writing in preparation for the copyediting phase. I knew there would be numerous learning points (if there weren’t, I’d have questioned the reader’s aptitude for the task). My biggest concern was that I’d be told it was a dead loss and never to set foot, or fingertip, on a keyboard again, which thankfully wasn’t the case. There were some glowing compliments, the reader liked my main character and said the book offered a fresh take on the genre. All the suggested improvements were highlighted, justified with good reasons and came with clear directions on improvements.
Good points included:
‘I enjoyed your book. It’s good to have an inexperienced, female officer take the lead and I hope she won’t get overshadowed by the senior and more established officer in the rest of the series. I think she brings a freshness and honesty to proceedings and in Sarah you’ve created a well drawn and engaging character.’
and
‘What I particularly like is that you’ll be reversing the usual scenario where the older, more experienced officer is the lead character and by focusing on the younger, less experienced, fresher character you have something new and different to offer.’
And, of course, in the interests of transparency, here are some of the areas for improvement:
‘There are times when [the POV] drifts all over the place, changing mid-paragraph on occasion and then moving again after a single sentence…Constant shifts can confuse the reader, interrupt the flow, break the mood and also destroy the reader’s connection with the character.’
and
‘You have a tendency to suddenly spring a reference to a new character onto the reader without any context or explanation.’
Whoopsie! 
I’d recommend a structural review to anyone. I was a little nervous about it – it was the first time I’d let the manuscript out to be read by someone else. If you’re not nervous about the first time someone else reads your work, maybe you haven’t put enough of yourself into it. My book was happy curled up in my imagination, having me tickle its belly every so often, so it snarled a little when I took it by the scruff and flung to the dogs. Turns out, the Literary Consultancy far from tore it to pieces. They took good care of it from the start and returned it healthier and happier than ever, suggesting it needs just a little more daily exercise before it’s ready for the wild.
If you’d like to know more, tweet me or comment below. What are your thoughts on structural edits? Does it bring value to your book, or is it something you can cover with free beta readers?
