 For Authors: February 05, 2013 Issue [#5500] |
  For Authors
This week: Quantity or Quality Edited by: Annette  
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Quantity or Quality
As authors, should we strive for quality or quantity? The answer is simple: both!
During such epic events as NaNoWriMo, or simply exploring a whole new plot line and ideas for our next novel or story, quality in writing is on the back-burner. Quantity over quality, definitely. It's all about getting as much as possible onto paper or typed up as possible. Whether you are writing for ten minutes or two hours, those first drafts are all about speed. Worries about spelling, punctuation, even logic fly out the window. There is simply no need for any of the grammar rules because those quantities of writing are for one person only: you. Nobody has to understand (or even see) what you did there.
Filling in an outline and turning it into a first draft still falls under quantity over quality. You want to shape your story. Designate the beginning, middle, and ending. At the end of your first draft, you have a completed book that is filled with horrid grammar, missing commas, and spelling that will make even the most basic spellchecker go up in flames. 
Once you've got the brain-dumping and the first draft out of the way, you have to switch gears to quality over quantity. Now is the time to really go into that plot and make sure you are consistent in point of view, tense, narration, timeline, etc. Give the edit your best effort. Analyze your sentences. Read them out loud to yourself. If you have the equipment for it, record yourself reading out loud and listen to it. Does it flow smoothly? Does your dialogue sound realistic and really the way you meant for it to come out? Editing is your time to fix, polish, delete, revise. Once you are convinced that you have given it your personal best, go and give it to somebody so that you may receive critique for it.
Which brings me to quality and quantity in reviewing. As authors, we are readers as much as writers. Receiving reviews is a great tool to find out how our writing resonates with others. Writing reviews is a great tool to learn about other writing styles, see where you feel other writing styles are strong or weak, and decide from those reviews what you can take away for your own writing.
Quantity reviews can be okay when you're reviewing for one of the daily contests on Writing.Com. If you have a mountain of stories or poems to go through while searching for the best, it's no big deal to leave a review that lets the writer know you've been there. For all other reviews, quantity alone can not be your standard.
Quality reviews can be long or short, but the quantity of words in a review really is not a measure of quality. A few well placed comments on the strong or weak parts of a piece equal a higher quality review than a 2000 word dissertation about nothing in particular. Fluff additions such as excessive amounts of WritingML, empty phrases such as "Thanks for sharing." really don't do anything for an author's ability to know if you liked their work or not.
As the recipient of a quality review, you should not only acknowledge the receipt of the review but also take steps to improve your story according to the critique. This doesn't mean you have to rewrite it to please the reviewer. However, if three reviewers point out the same grammar issue, respect their time and effort by fixing your story. If you received a review that really helped you to see your work through the eyes of a different person, use the new-found knowledge to strengthen your writing. Then, go and offer this reviewer to send them a high quality review of their work in return.
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Write fast
Write in high quality
Make every word count
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Review indepth
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Write a nice long piece in high quality. Submitted to newsletter editors.
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