Reader As Critic

If you read voraciously as I do, you can't help being a kind of critic. You know what you want in your reading be it on-line or on shelf. I read everything other than text books or ones obviously biased. Sorry, I am not hooked on romance and mystery simply because their plots have been run into the ground. I don't necessarily run to lists put out by professors, reviewers or book club aficionados. That being said, I am your average reader who loves to read, period. I pluck from second hand stores, paperback racks and friends' libraries. Lately, I hound the on-lone freebies for my phone and reader, put out by that big on-line company that sells everything. I prefer books I don't have to pay for to be honest. I read them so quickly that it isn't worth actual money. I do often send an author I like, an opinion about their writing. It doesn't matter to me if they don't answer, but I know that if I were a writer, I'd want some input about my output. I write and have submitted manuscripts without success but it doesn't deter me from continuing to try. Most of my reading is, on the side, critiquing what I read. Bad usage annoys me and it is present because many writers send their manuscripts directly to be published and the latter slap it into the 'net without close editing. Bad move on their part because it takes only one mistake to make people discredit an entire book. Advice to writers of novels or any books actually, is to never lose track of the fact that everyone wants a story. It's all about story. Writers who stare at blank page one for weeks, don't have a story. It's all about that ancient need we have to listen to lore around the fire pit. A story is a plot you worked out either on paper or in your head. Think of it as a kind of short backbone. The characters are the vertebrae and the side plots are the ribs as you work your way down to the end.  It is all that simple. Language is the skin that holds it all together. The spine of your tale should never wander too much into the ribs or have so many vertebrae that the poor reader can't remember them all. More than a handful or so of characters is plenty. The fewer the ribs, the better. Make sure the side plots are spin offs from the backbone of your tale and not ones that segue off into the great forgettable beyond. On the journey from neck to the ending, don't forget where you are heading but don't give it all away. Slipping in surprises in each chapter keeps your reader alert. The surprises have to spring from between the lines in previous places in your novel. Some readers will say to themselves "aha, I knew it". But also don't blab everything into confusion with constant clarifications and descriptions and clever little literary tricks. Don't get cute with your language. Forget what the amusing teacher of Creative Writing told you and just do what you know best in your own natural way. Tell your  story without embellishment or tricks or flashbacks as explanation. Your readers are smart enough to figure out what's going on themselves. At the end of your manuscript, edit and cut. How? Hire an editor and listen to him/her. Cut anything that is extraneous or cumbersome or repetitious. If it takes years, fine. If you think you will make a fortune over night in writing, you are dreaming. But who knows?