John's been busy and had to go to London, but he's settling down to a week of editing and reading submissions, so he should get back to you soon.
JJ is really encouraging! He really improved my confidence in writing! Posting snippets on the critique board here is good, but you do feel a little bombarded by all the nit picking as your work is slowly dissected. So when you're feeling a little overwhelmed by it all its nice to fall back on 'JJ didn't moan about all that stuff'!
I don't want to rain on your parade, because by the sounds of it John gave you praise (well done!), but you have to remember that John doesn't point out everything that needs attention; a manuscript is a big job, often with much to fix, so he gives general comments and highlights common errors
*. When you post work here, we look at
only what's posted and can therefore go into a much deeper analysis. However, I do believe that critiquers can sometimes go into
too much detail because, when a piece is submitted, it's their job to hunt for problems and highlight every little niggle they see. Unfortunately, a casual reader may not notice half of these - and maybe even rightly so. Critiquing small excerpts can be a good thing (and is, in general, if you have reliable critiquers), but it can also lead to over-analysis and misunderstanding, since the piece is taken out of context and people can't see the flow and pace of the whole. For example, what some may say is "too much telling" might be fine if it's a paragraph linking action scenes. See? You have to be smart in deciding which comments to apply...
I've heard that Teresa Edgerton (website link somewhere in this thread) goes into the deeper kind of critique - sentence flow, pacing, characterisation, word choice, etc. - if you want that.
*Indeed. I've known people who pay for an edit by John, then fix everything and pay for another edit, so they can see their
other mistakes. And on and on...
I started on this journey just wanting to get the story out there, but it's become more important than ever to get it right BEFORE it gets out there. I have a lot of respect for authors that achieve a good book at the end of it all. I know getting the editing right is a big step towards this goal, but I never expected it to matter so much to me.
That's the right attitude!
You're in no rush. Producing something great takes time and skill.
As for the Last Unicorn - heh, I watched the opening theme song on Youtube yesterday. Such a different experience, now I'm older! Still found myself singing along, though.
Christopher Lee and Angela Lansbury - I'd forgotten they were in it! So cheesy but great, and sad, and scary...
