From Disappointment to Discovery

Sometimes things don't seem like they were meant for us until we've looked at them more closely ...  

I watched a free online webinar recently on why writers struggle to get their novels written and publishable. 

The premise sounded great, and it promised to help fix the problem. I was excited! 

I listened intently and made extensive notes, but the longer I watched, the more I realised that this webinar wasn't as valuable as I'd hoped for a writer like me. 

I've studied Creative Writing at university level, worked with a book coach for over a year, and already learnt some of things the webinar addressed.

I still watched the whole webinar though. Just in case.

When it was finished, I was disappointed. It felt like I had wasted an hour of my time.

But then I sat with it for a while.

I realised it had actually made me think about the things I did know, what I didn't necessarily know but immediately understood when the host explained it, and whether I could apply any of its teachings to my own writing journey. 

I'm not going to go into depth about the webinar itself because this post isn't really about the webinar. But there were a few things I found genuinely useful.

The first was the discussion of KIND and WICKED fields. 

At a basic level:

• KIND fields receive feedback quickly, consistently, and accurately, meaning practice reliably builds skill.
• WICKED fields receive inconsistent or inaccurate feedback that can take a long time to arrive. Practice does't necessarily build skill realiably, and people can become more confident without actually becoming more skilled.

The webinar went into the research behind these terms and explained why creative writing is considered one of the most WICKED fields. 

The proposed solution was to apply 5 conditions that would make creative writing more like a KIND field for writers:

1. Practice specific skills - focus on developing individual skills, starting with perfecting sentences, then paragraphs, before progressing to scenes, short stories, and eventually novels
2. Diagnose to a standard - measuring your work against standards established by experienced professionals
3. Expert analysis - have professionals assess your writing against those standards
4. Short feedback loops - receive feedback from those professionals regularly, put it into practice, then resubmit for more feedback and repeat the cycle
5. Clear roadmap of growth - know which skills you're developing and in what order

One one hand, I completely agree with this assessment. I think it's useful and valuable information for writers.

On the other hand, this was also where the webinar began to feel a little sales-y to me. 

Don't get me wrong: I understand and appreciate wanting (or needing) to advocate for your product or service But once I felt the webinar moving towards a sales pitch, I found myself engaging less with what was being said.

The irony is that I think the five conditions themselves are genuinely useful. 

And while professional editors, book coaches, and courses can be fantastic resources, not everyone has the financial means to access them. 

That, I realised, was what the webinar was missing - and perhaps why the sales pitch didn't sit quite right with me. It focused on what writers could gain from professional support, but didn't explore what writers could do if that support wasn't financially accessible to them.

So what can we do in the meantime?

Let's start with feedback. 

The webinar suggested that getting feedback from writer friends or groups of people at the same writing level as ourselves can actually makes us worse, which is why they advocated for feedback from professionals and experts. 

If that's not financially possible for you right now, there are other options. 

Some book coaches and editors offer limited free or discounted services from time to time.

Alternatively, look for writers who are futher along from you.

If you are new or unpublished, perhaps there's someone in your writing group who has been published and would be willing to give you feedback. If you've already been published, look for someone with more experience or a greater number of publications. 

And when you ask for feedback, be specific. 

Don't just ask, 'Is this a good sentence?'

Ask things like:

'How does this sentence make you feel?'

'Did you find this sentence easy to read and understand?'

'What do you think is the main focus of this paragraph?'

'Did the dialogue feel natural or forced?'

For good measure, add 'Why?' onto the end of your specific feedback questions. Knowing why something works (or doesn't) is just as helpful, if not more so, than simply knowing what you're doing right. 

Specificity is your biggest friend when you're trying to get feedback that actually helps you build your skills.

You can also agree on a timeframe with them for receiving that feedback, helping to create the short feedback loops the webinar discussed.

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As a caveat, there is nothing inherently wrong with asking writers at the same level as you for feedback, either. They may not be able to help you expand your skills in the same way a more experienced writer or professional could, but they can still offer helpful insights - especially when you're asking specific questions.

The webinar errs on the side of caution here because its focus is on deliberately building writing skills, but that doesn't mean feedback from your peers has no value.

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The same applies to diagnosing your writing.

Professionals and experts are brilliant at doing this for you, but it is also a skill you can learn yourself while you save up for those services. 

For example, you can learn to look at whether your scenes contain key structural moments, such as an inciting incident, turning point, crisis, climax, and resolution. You can also examine the larger story for its own key beats, like the inciting incident, midpoint, climax, resolution.

These are just the basics, and different genres and story structures will call for different things, but there's a huge amount of information about them available online for free.

And not every paid service will necessarily teach you these things. 

My Creative Writing degrees, for example, didn't teach me about what a scene was, how to identify one, or what needed to be included in one. 

I learn all that from an online article by Savannah Gilbo.

The discussion about practising skills and deliberately working towards improving them was where the webinar did surprise me. It made me realise that I'd stopped doing exactly that.

I'd learnt so much over the years, but somewhere along the way, life became disruptive once again and that learning was left behind. 

I know how to write a good sentence. I can spot mistakes when I make them and know how to fix them.

I'm much the same with story arcs.

But scenes?

I'm not nearly as confident with my own. I don't yet feel I can consistently look at a scene I wrote and identify whether it contains the elements it needs or know exactly how to fix it when it doesn't.

And just like that, I knew what I needed to work on.

So that's my goal right now: to take those five conditions and apply them as much as I can, with a particular focus on practising scenes until I feel confident writing them, diagnosing problems with them, and knowing how to fix those problems. 

Which brings me back to that disapppointing webinar.

Yes, it wasn't the right webinar for me.

But it wasn't a waste of an hour either.

It just goes to show that even if something we read, watch, or learn doesn't seem like it's meant for us, there is still usually something to glean from it. Sometimes you just need to sit with it for a moment and sift through the rocks and sand for the gold.

Did this experience resonate with you, or perhaps teach you something new? I'd love to hear about it - let me know in the comments below 🙂

Keep your eyes peeled for more news on my writing here and on my Instagram!