More Jam Jar and Pebbly Thoughts

Thinking about the big stuff - the pebbles - yesterday in the context of editing made me realise how hard it is to get any feedback on the essential elements like character arc, pacing and plot holes.  

Think about it.  Feedback is usually geared up to reading a few pages at a time - in my class there's usually a maximum of 800 words for class feedback, with a 2000 word limit for assignments.  That's about the same for most classes and feedback groups.  In the workshopping group I belong to we do workshop larger chunks, but usually no more than 10,000 words at a time.  

So, when we're getting feedback, what are we inevitably getting feedback on?  The sand and gravel - paragraphs, sentences, words.  This is tremendously useful, both for your own work and in learning how to edit, but it isn't everything.  

Perhaps, now so many of us writers are taking MAs and other writing classes, that explains how so many books getting published are one beautifully written page after another, and yet the stories don't seem to be as satisfying as they could be.  The sand and gravel get meticulously examined and groomed, but the poor pebbles are overlooked.  

It's always puzzled me that some people don't get snapped up by publishers when I've read their work and know they can write well. Perhaps a lack of attention to the pebbles provides the explanation.