From the official IWSG site: It’s time for another group posting of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group!Time to release our fears to the world – or offer encouragement to those who are feeling neurotic. If you’d like to join us, click on the tab above and sign up. We post the first Wednesday of every month. Please also try to visit at least a dozen new blogs and leave a comment. Your words might be the encouragement someone needs.
Critique Partners
I highly recommend finding someone to critique your work. The IWSG is a good start. I've networked with writers on twitter and in blogging communities to find them. If you've never shared your writing before, it's scary at first! But if you're planning to publish a book, you'll be sharing your writing with the world. Better first to share with someone who can help you along and offer feedback.
Critique Partners vs. Beta Readers
Critique partners: writers who will work with you fairly closely throughout the development and polishing of a manuscript. Your call on how involved, but typically they will read a chapter revision a few times, or read through pieces of a manuscript to help you along the way. You can do this in person or as an online partnership.
Beta readers: As in beta testing for a new product. Beta readers do not need to be writers; they may just love books, or have a particular expertise. For example you're writing a story set in Miami and you have only been there to board a cruise (the case for me), so having someone who lives in Miami read through the manuscript can highlight inconsistencies or opportunities.
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| Me and my critique group @Spring Fling 2014 |
- Accountability: I can't get lazy because I need to share work monthly
- Consistency: You get to know your writer friends' "voice" and can pinpoint more easily what they are trying to say but what might not be coming across on the page.
- Brainstorming: This is the absolute best. You know each other's work and career goals. This is time you can use to work through plot problems, come up with new ideas, deepen characters, etc. You have the talent and experience of other writers to help you along
If you have critique partners, where did you find them?
Posts
I've had critique partners.... but I don't right now. Definitely need to start looking for a new set :)
ReplyDeleteI didn't know the IWSG existed. It sounds like a great resource, especially since I'm looking for a few new CPs. Great post!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you found some supportive and helpful critique partners.
ReplyDeletePlay off the Page
Hi, Stephanie,
ReplyDeleteIt's wonderful to have critique partners to help along the creative journey. I know how valuable other writers' input can be to making a story the best it can be.
Crit partners are so important. Finding the right one(s) is also crucial. It is more than just spotting grammar and punctuation mistakes, they have to gel with your writing style. Otherwise it is a constant battle or a chore to work together.
ReplyDeleteI love my critters! Mine have come from a kinds of places through the years, and each have contributed in a unique way to my grasp of writing, but lately I've really found my pace with an awesome critique group. We're all insanely busy, but devoted to one another in more than just a critique way. I think that's the key to a great critique partner: knowing they're invested in you, not just your draft.
ReplyDeleteI'm in two on line critique groups and they've helped me so much. Hi, Kai. :)
ReplyDeleteMy CP and I started out as a group from our RWA chapter that dwindled until it was just the 2 of us. I like in-person meetings which are now getting harder to do since I moved. Deadlines spur me on. Otherwise I'd dawdle as I've done this past month. Good luck to you.
ReplyDeleteWriting is too solitary an activity to keep motivated all the time without outside help--that's my take.
DeleteI'm not working with anyone right now, but I do have a few online buddies I hope to turn to when I'm ready. I like the clarification between beta readers and crit partners.
ReplyDeleteI found a wonderful critique partner online, but I've since met her and we totally clicked. YAY! I also love my beta readers. What I love most is how collaborative a good book can be. I feel grateful for every person who touches it and makes it better. I do wish, however, that I had more opportunities to do things in person. I need to work on that in 2015. Thanks for the reminder.
ReplyDeleteMy IWSG Post
The in person thing doesn't always work out, but I've been continuously surprised at how helpful personal interaction is.
DeleteI never thought about why they were different, and now that I know I guess I'd better quit swapping them back and forth. :-)
ReplyDeleteAnna from Shout with Emaginette
Yes! I have two awesome test readers who aren't writers, but they read my genre. They see my work first. Then I have three amazing critique partners who have helped me so much. One has been with me for years and I bounce ideas and outlines off him all the time.
ReplyDeleteI use a little bit of both. I don't belong to a group, but have several critique partners that I trade with. Sometimes it's in the beginning stages and sometimes when it's polished (at more of beta level). I've found most of my crit partners through Verla Kay's Blueboards or SCBWI.
ReplyDeleteI'm part of a writers group but we are all over the board as far as experience and goals and everything... it's more fun than it is helpful. I would love a writers group like yours with accountability and brainstorming and writers able to point out what is not coming across as it should.
ReplyDeleteOne of the prices to pay for living in a small town in a sparse state... just not much of a pool of writers. But I still love my writers group for what it is!
Thanks for the info, I think I'll have to join that group :)
ReplyDeleteCritique partners are fun. I've done it in the past and wouldn't doubt to embark in another group in the future, I just need to find the perfect one that won't ask me for 1500 words a week 'cause that just plays havoc with my nerves. Great post!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that critique partners are invaluable. I have some betas I swap with every now and then but I'm not part of an in-person group yet.
ReplyDeleteCritique partners are essential! I found mine through an online group that has since dissolved, but I still have my awesome partners. :)
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