This week on the Manuscript Mavens blog, the Mavens are running a week of writing tips + life-saving links. I got to write the first 3 tips. To read all three, click here. Only the first two are below…

Erica Tip #1: Every character hits the stage with an agenda

Think about this for a second. Most of us plot out extensive GMCs (Goal, Motivation, Conflict) for our protagonists. Many of us do this for the hero, heroine, and villain. Some of us create both internal and external GMCs for those characters. A few make sure at least a superficial GMC drives secondary characters.

But I say to you, the advice that changed my writing life in 2006 was that every character should hit the stage with an agenda. Every character. If there isn’t something they want and a reason they want it, what the hell are they doing in the scene?

Bonus points if other characters’ agendas directly alter, deepen, or conflict with your POV character’s scene goal! (POV = Point of View, technically perspective if you’re writing 3rd person)

Erica Tip #2: How to overcome critique defensiveness

This one changed my life in 2007, and I’ll tell you why. I like to write. I write fast. I hit The End fairly quickly, all things being equal. I come up with a zillion ideas, and by the time The End hits, I’m ready to roll on the next one. I have never minded making line-edit level changes to a manuscript, but for the first 3 novels I wrote to completion, the moment I got a brutally honest (and extremely insightful) piece of criticism that undermined the entire plot, I chose to move on rather than rewrite the entire story.

My fourth book was a little different. First, I really liked the story. (For those other three, the crits illustrated to me how flawed the original concept was for plot and/or tone and/or character, and I didn’t love the story enough to bother rewriting 100,000 words.) Second, this time the “please rewrite it” suggestion came not from a CP (critique partner) but from… my agent. Yeah. Hmmm.

Realizing she might know a thing or two about what makes a story sell and what makes it divebomb into the flaming fires of Drecklandia, I stared at the story I loved and gorged myself on Ghirardelli while waiting for enthusiasm to strike. (Note to readers: Ghirardelli strikes the tummy, hips, and @ss, not your enthusiasm.)

Here’s the bit that changed everything: When I stopped thinking of what I had to do as this complete rewrite of 110,000 words I loved OMG whatever will I do, kill me now, lord, kill me now and started thinking to myself, “You know, it’s not that I can’t do it. In fact, I bet I can do it. It’s a game, a challenge, nothing more than an easy-peasy writing exercise starring characters I know and love and a story world I inhabit when I sleep” that suddenly it became not only doable, but fun.

The next time you’d rather throw yourself on a machete than rewrite a scene, a chapter, or an entire story, remind yourself that you were kick-butt enough to write what you’ve already got in the first place, and that this is nothing more than a writing exercise you could do with your eyes shut. (Well, if you don’t need to see the keyboard to type. But you get me.)

Because the truth of the matter is this: You do not HAVE to incorporate anyone’s suggestions. Seriously. Even my agent tempered her edit memo (aka revision letter) with something along the lines of “All these are my suggestions/opinions, whether you do anything with them or not is up to you.”

So, knowing that, what’s stopping you?

Last month, Maven Darcy gave me a crit of one of my Touched scenes that would require a complete rewrite because it involved changing time/venue/setting. I was like, gaaah, do I really want to do this? (D happened to mention she even liked the current version, just thought it would be stronger another way.) Given that she liked the current version just fine, I wasn’t inclined to stop what I was doing and completely rewrite it.

But… would it be stronger the other way? I didn’t think so. I was pretty sure it would suck the other way. But I reminded myself that incorporating crits was nothing more than an easy-peasy writing exercise that in no way required the newer version to appear in the final story, meaning there was no reason not to give it a try. So, I tried it out. And Darcy was right. (Damn her.) The new scene was so much better, hardly took any time to redo, and I managed to keep a great attitude throughout.

Try this at home! You’ll like it! =)

CLICK HERE to read all 3 tips + fave links!