Karen Collum">Australian Children's Author

I posted a while back about how nervous I was when I sent my manuscript off to my lovely group of beta-readers. It’s the first time I’ve gotten to this stage with a novel and I must say, it was quite scary knowing people were going to be reading and critiquing my work. I wanted them to read it, but I also was terrified that they wouldn’t like it. I’ve now got manuscripts back from two of my beta-readers and I know two more are in the mail. I get to hear feedback in person from four others next week when I meet with my critique group from Year of the Edit. And I have to say after reading responses from two beta-readers, I am blown away with the amount of work these readers have put into my manuscript and also the beautiful words of praise they have sent my way. Sure, there are things that they questioned (and rightly so) but there are also things they loved. Keep reading →

Today was the first workshop of my Year of the Edit (YoE) course at the Queensland Writer’s Centre with tutor, Kim Wilkins. And as I have a penchant for the truth, I’m going to share my journey through YoE as honestly as possible, even though it may get a little ugly. Right now, the truth is I could sit down and howl. Not because I’m disappointed with the course -  it exceeded my expectations. Not because it’s not what I though it was going to be – I always knew it would be challenging. Not because I don’t feel like I’ve now got a plan - I know exactly what I need to do between now and my workshop in a month. The reason I feel so battered and bruised is because today, sixteen other people critiqued my work. I thought I was mentally prepared. I thought I had worked through my own insecurities and hang-ups and was totally committed to the process. I thought I understood the value of getting honest feedback and that would be enough to ease any discomfort. I was wrong. Very, very, very wrong. Keep reading →