As a writer, the most maddening thing to me is that I cannot be sure if what I have written sounds as good to other people as it does to me. Each of us carries the bias of having written our work, so we have extra perceptions that were not captured in the words that we wrote–the characters are whole people in our heads, but snapshots on the page, for example.
My personality allows me to believe, after I have worked and reworked a piece of fiction, that it is brilliant. The people around me, the people who love me, feel the same way–but they also think that I am handsome, charming, clever and all around a really wonderful guy. (I suspect that their opinion might be exaggerated.)
For that reason, I am searching for someone who will be critical of my work–someone who will read what I have written and tell me in plain words where it is good, but more importantly, where it is bad. And why it is bad. And what they would do to fix it.
I realize that these people are professionally called “editors,” but truth be told, I can’t afford an editor. So, I am looking for someone like me, someone who writes and who loves language and who will tell me, honestly and with a cold heart, where they have sniffed out the stinky cheese lurking in the refrigerator of my prose.
In return, I offer the same to my soon-to-be partner.
Here is the plan:
- Small pieces—no more than 5,000 words at a time
- A commitment to turn around criticism within a week, but an intention to do so within a day or two.
- Pieces to be e-mailed in non-editable pdf format.
- Double spaced, 1” margins
- Criticism done by hand and scanned back to writer
- Notation conventions to be determined mutually as we develop the partnership
- Either party can leave the relationship with a simple e-mail at any time.
I believe that this kind of partnership will help both of us grow as writers, much more so than working alone could. I hope there is someone out there who agrees with me. If you’re that person, please e-mail me at bruce@brucewisener.com. I’m looking forward to meeting you!