The Fiction Writer's Guidebook and bird to bird

went to the library today and got a new card since I couldn't find mine. I owed a buck on mom's account from the overdue books...just hated turning in Writing Nonfiction but the librarian managed to wrench it from my clinging clawed hand. I've got 175 pages done in The Fiction Writer's Guidebook by Edwin Silberstang. Getting some good insight there and more of the " Show, Don't Tell" advice. Some points closely resemble Stephen King's On Writing. Points such as letting the characters lead the plot as opposed to coming up with the plot on your own...I like the idea of the book reaching its own end rather than determining what the end will be aforehand. Good advice, I think.

Tonight I read bird by bird by Anne Lamott that I picked up at the library earlier. Coincidently when I had got back home today it was in my mail box as well...I read it tonight after starting a fiction piece for a contest.... bird by bird was good but I got more technical advice from Silberstang.

The Competition

I know I am kind of gullible but I was so pleased when the author agreed to review some chapters. I asked for her critique of my writing wanting to know what areas were weak, what needed further development, etc. I had perused her website before approaching her and found that it was well done and that she had a new book listed there that was in the same general topic...although mine has a major different twist.

Her reply letter said five or six years ago my book might have been good but it wouldn't go over now and insinuated that my writing wasn't sophisticated. She could not recommend the book to her readers (well, that was a no-brainer--she is the competition).

I hadn't asked her opinion on whether the book was marketable and certainly hadn't asked her to recommend it to her readers. I simply wanted her to critique my writing. Insinuating I wasn't sophisticated was actually a compliment as the book is a practical guide based on reality and I hope to reach everyday, down-to-earth people as opposed to those high-falutin soe-phis-te-cay-ted ones.

What I find most interesting is that when I went back to her website to see how old her book actually was (maybe it was five or six years old and she was trying to save me some heartache), I found something very interesting... Some of my very good ideas had magically appeared on her website---hmmm, the words were changed but the ideas were clearly mine straight from my chapters! Something is rotten in Denmark.

What I learned:
Never give the competition your book for review.
I'd rather be honest than sophisticated.

Meanwhile, unsophisticated Robin is going to keep on writing!