Claire Wingfield

Having recently attended the SCBWI Scotland Agents’ Party in Musselburgh, and devoured all three previous Thistleblower editions, I can see that SCBWI Scotland members are fantastically well-informed on many aspects of this business of writing.

In considering what I could add to this wealth of knowledge, Claira Jo prompted me: ‘is there anything that’s your bugbear?’

Well. That got me thinking.

My business is to support individual writers through my Edinburgh-based literary consultancy. I often provide writers with a reader’s report, giving detailed feedback and recommendations after having spent a number of days interrogating their manuscript. I used a deliberately scary verb there, as, for many emerging writers, the idea of inviting professional – or indeed, any – feedback is a frightening one. At least, if it’s not when the manuscript is handed over, it is by the time the return date looms.

For there’s an outcome that many writers fear, but few confess to me. What if this specialist, professional reader doesn’t actually like my work?

Of course, the reason few writers say this to me outright is because they expect and need me to be as demanding, difficult and picky a reader as any agent or publisher.

And I am.

However, just as a writer must remain aware – but crucially, not too aware – of their reader so must I of my writer. I must assess: how much feedback can this writer take on board at this point in their writing career? Where will the tipping point be between spurring the writer on and swamping them / leaving them in a literary paralysis?

It’s an important issue; having invested in each project I work on, I always like to keep track of where writers are with their projects six and nine months after receiving my feedback. In some cases, I see numerous revisions of a work and can chart the writer’s progress. Other writers keep me updated via email, so I hear how their writing is developing.

Occasionally, I discover a client who has commissioned a report and takes no action: something I find troubling, and am always tweaking my own process to try to avoid. Probing those who have stalled, I have come to believe that a good proportion would have progressed in their projects if they had better prepared themselves to receive the report.

So, a current bugbear from my perspective is seeing promising writers stall. With this in mind, I’d advise writers seeking any form of literary consultancy or feedback to take a little time to ensure you have fostered the right mindset to the process before submitting your manuscript. This includes:

• Seeing the report / feedback as a tool rather than a judgment. Meaning you won’t curl up in a ball of dejection if the reader doesn’t say all the things you’d secretly hoped they’d say.

• Recognizing that after receiving the report a substantial revision will need to be undertaken and ring-fencing time for this. Don’t rush your revisions, so you are tinkering with the manuscript before you’ve fully digested and considered all the issues raised by the report. But equally, don’t delay so long that the boost of having had an independent reader engage with your work is lost. Perhaps schedule a month or so to write ‘outside’ the manuscript (new scenes / plot outlines / character developments: it’s a time to be playful and explorative) and read something new on the writer’s craft (I often make specific reading list suggestions for my writers to help them warm up to their revisions).

• Being ready to ask for clarification on anything you’ve not fully understood in the report. Make sure you do this early. If it’s a question of terminology, your reader will be able to answer this at any point; but if it’s a point specific to the text, you need to be asking this while the manuscript is fresh in your reader’s mind.

• Being prepared to take the time to practice any skills brought up in the report which have not yet been sufficiently mastered. It’s worth keeping in mind that the report might not only help you with the submitted manuscript, but may alert you to some work you need to do outside of the manuscript; a skill you need to develop further before trying to tackle the revision. Specific workshops or exercises will be able to help you with this. Your consultant should advise.

I hope focusing on what you need to do after receiving a consultant’s report, or any reader feedback, will help more writers make the most of their readers.

Claire Wingfield Literary Consultant

www.clairewingfield.co.uk