I wrote a thing about a thing on author Louise Allan’s Writers in the Attic! This is a topic that means a lot to me as a writer, and I’m so glad Louise let me share my thoughts on this forum, which also has other great authors! (Including my homie, Robin Elizabeth!)

by Louise Allan |May 29, 2017 | WRITERS IN THE ATTIC

I’m always excited when someone I don’t know contacts me wanting to be part of Writers in the Attic. That’s how this post came about, and until I read Cait’s essay, I knew as much about this Irish-Canadian author and editor as you!

Read on to learn more about Cait (pronounced ‘Cat’) and her tips on when to listen to feedback on your manuscript, and when not to. I found them spot on! Whether you’re writing your first draft or your twentieth, this essay is well worth a read.

Cait is an Irish-Canadian warrior princess and author of Life in the ’Cosm, a space opera about a little green guy who’s crushing on the female half of his two-headed colleague (Renaissance). Cait’s also the editor of the Spoonie Authors Network, a blog featuring authors with disabilities and/or chronic illness. And she loves cupcakes.

You can follow her on her personal website, her editing website, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Cait Gordon: When to Listen to and When to Ignore Writing Advice

Um. I’m not sure if I just shot myself in the foot with the title of this article. I can just picture you all thinking, Oh. Well, I’ll chose to ignore then. Buh-bye Cait. Have a nice life.

This happens to be the topic I’ll be discussing in a panel I’m leading at the Limestone Genre Expo this June (2017). The inspiration came from my own journey while writing my comedy sci-fi, Life in the ’Cosm. And what a ride it was, too. I learned the hard way that if you ever want a massive deluge of unsolicited advice, just post on social media that you’re writing a book. Holy wiggies. Everything from ‘your word count is too much, cut 20,000 words’ to ‘sci-fi isn’t really funny if it’s real sci-fi’ to ‘you’re never going to get published in Canada’ to ‘even if you do get published, they’ll slash your book to bits’.

Yeah. So that happened. I also was told to go to conference upon conference with my first draft and try to get the attention of editors before I even dared finish the book. Did I mention that none of these advice-givers had even read one word of my work-in-progress? When I think about it, every person had good intentions, but was it ever derailing from the writing process. I half-wonder if this kind of advice is akin to the unwanted parenting advice or birthing horror stories that expectant mothers receive. I’ll have to ask around.

‘The problem with listening to writing advice before you’ve even finished the first draft is that it can be so discouraging, you might stop working on your manuscript full stop.’

Read the full article on Writers in the Attic!

/cg

Cait Gordon is an Irish-Canadian warrior princess and author of Life in the ’Cosm, a space opera about a little green guy who’s crushing on the female half of his two-headed colleague (Renaissance). Cait’s also the editor of the Spoonie Authors Network, a blog featuring writers who manage disabilities and/or chronic illness. She likes cupcakes.