Resources: March 2006 Archives

Holly Black:

... we [...] often look for what is wrong with a piece of fiction. Now, that's certainly useful. It's important to know when something's confusing or dull or structurally unsound. But what I find that I need more and more--and need to learn how to do--is a critique that pushes fiction to that next level, that wow level. Like Cecil's admonishment to "look for your inner rage and inner perv," critiquing a competent story is all about seeing its cracktastic potential and about having standards that are higher than good. And it's about finding the great parts of a story and pushing the rest of the it toward those parts. It is a whole mental shift for me in terms of thinking about fiction and it is hard.

Watch this girl. Better yet, read her. Get Tithe. Start there.