Starting another novel, seriously?

A couple of days ago I sent out a Facebook request for people to read my draft novel... and to my surprise, three lovely blogger friends said yes!

So I currently look like this:

While I'm waiting, I randomly picked up an old novel, and wondered if there was something worth rescuing within the pages. In true Crawford style, that novel and the ideas I've been having recently started to merge.

The old novel is the most depressing novel ever written. It starts with a pregnant 15 year old girl whose life just gets worse and worse until she is redeemed in true fairytale style. I liked the character, Grace, but I had issues with just how darn depressing the whole thing was, so it got shelved.

Fast forward to this week, when I looked at the character that's growing in my head and I wondered if she could possibly be Grace's grown-up daughter telling her mother's story. Hmmm, I thought, that could work. So I got my red pen out and started slashing the most depressing stuff. I'm probably going to tell a completely different story, but I'm working with characters I like, and a title that I really love.

How do you occupy yourself while your MS is being read?

How do you guys do it?

My manuscript and my cat

I have a confession: I don't know the difference between a CP and a beta reader... In fact, I don't even know whether there is a difference.

I've only ever critiqued for one author, and it wasn't so much of a critique as me just saying "That was good" about fifty times.

The problem is, I can read through my own work and spot the moments when the ideas are muddled, or the pacing is wrong, or I've accidentally mentioned that my tee-total bridesmaid is happily downing whiskey. I know what just doesn't feel right.

But - but! - if I read your book, my thoughts will fall into two categories: good and bad. If it's good, I'll happily tell you and shout it from the rooftops. If it's bad, I'd probably rather change my name and make new Facebook and Twitter accounts than actually mention it to you. And that's if I actually notice the problems in the first place. I just don't analyse other people's work the way I do myself - I accept that that's how you want the story to go, especially in genres that I don't usually read.

Second confession: I've read more out-of-comfort-zone novels since I met you guys and started blogging than I ever did before. Because of that, something that I don't think works might be the key feature of the genre you're writing in. And I don't want to show off my ignorance!

So, my plea today is: tell me how you get so great at critiquing, please, because I'll probably need to trade favours soon!