The Beauty of Critique Groups

I realized that I have been seriously working to become a novelist for about five years. In some ways this feels like forever, but at the same time the last five years have flown by, and I have a hard time figuring out where all of the time has gone. There have been times when I have been stuck as a writer, or i have been distracted by other more pressing matters, like being a parent or doing my "other writing" (my job), and my critique group has helped me stay on track and stay focused on my bigger goal.

I started out with a small in-person critique group back when I was just a few chapters into my first novel. I can remember physically shaking as I went to the first meeting. We were all friendly, new writers. These people were people I conversed with anyway, not complete strangers. And the group helped. it was great to get together, talk seriously about writing and to share our stories with each other. The goals for the writers in this group were different, and eventually I felt like it was time to move on.

Around that time, I began to think about finding another critique group, and I found one online. This has been a great group of writers. Members have moved in and out of it, but right now, we have a group of seven serious writers that are pursuing publication. I really feel that the writers this group are focused and each is going to make it the ultimate goal of publication.

A critique group should give  you solid critiques. They need to help you see the areas you need to change, the problems with your story, with your grammar (admittedly I need help here), and pacing issues. A critique group should offer honest feedback, and cheer you on as you make the changes that you need to your story.

But your critique group is a also a place to commiserate as you navigate the writing process. A safe place to moan about your frustrations about getting published, or getting another rejection. They should also be your cheerleaders as you navigate through the world of writing.

While drafting your novel is often a solitary process, getting it ready for publication is not. Before you land an agent, or get an editor, your critique group or partner will be one of the ways that you can improve your writing, and take it to the next level. If you are serious about writing, you should belong to a writer's group that has similar goals to yours.

What's the best thing that you've found about your critique group?

Image courtesy of Ambro / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Friday Five

1. It's late, but I should still get this post in before the deadline, so I won't have to do a Saturday six.

2. My birthday is in March, quite close to St. Patrick's day, and I've always been obsessed with finding a four leaf clover. It's crazy that a thirty-four-year-old woman would sit down outside and just look for one. I know it's crazy. But in my defense, there isn't a lot to do at the bus stop, while I'm waiting for my kids to get home from school. And the clover patch is on a hill next to a wall that I sometimes sit on anyway. So it's easy to act like I'm not really looking.  I'd gotten to the point where I didn't think four leaf clovers actually existed, but then about two days before my 34th birthday, I found one. I was so excited, and it's pressed between the pages of a book.

And then two weeks later, I'd given up my obsessive searching, and I'm walking back from the bus stop looking down at the ground, and I see another one. Just randomly. So I picked it and took it home to press in the same book on the same page. This led me to two possible things. One you have to be looking, and out there looking or else luck just isn't going to happen to you. Even on the second one, I was randomly examining the clover. And second you never know when something totally, randomly great is going to fall into your life.

3. I've been thinking a lot about my writing habits, which have frankly sucked the last few months. In every possible way. And I think back to when I first started writing, and I was able to sit down and write and the words came and my story came, and I'd sit and wonder where the heck these ideas were coming from. Now I've got books mapped out, ideas to write, and I'm just not getting the words out onto paper the way I want. I definitely need to spend a little bit more time with my butt in my chair.

4. Books. I don't know if I mentioned it, but I am an obsessive reader. Seriously obsessive. I got a Kindle for my birthday last year, and I have more than 100 books that I have read on it, not to mention the ones I deleted after reading and all the books I've borrowed from the library on it.) This week I've only read three books, but I've been busy. I had some freelance writing projects that I had to do, and they totally burned me out. Plus the other work and being a mom stuff thrown in. Parent teacher conferences. Back to the books. I've been waiting forever for Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore to come out. She is one of my favorite authors. Her books have this great quality about them. They totally take you somewhere else. And this didn't disappoint. I've been waiting for Insurgent since I finished Divergent byVeronica Roth. And it was great as well. Awesome.

5. Finally I know I've mentioned that I flip ahead in books. I always do (well almost always--it really says something for the book if I haven't) and I've loved a series I started a few years ago. And I flipped to the end of the series (third book) and I'm not finishing it. I didn't like the resolution, which I'm sure is very justified and made beautiful through the telling of the story. The author is a great writer, and I'll definitely read other books by her again. But I want to keep the characters in one state in mind, and not in the state that they were at the end of the book. So if I never read it, it won't have really happened at least in to me. That probably makes no sense, but it does to me.

Have a great weekend!

Long Time No Write

It's been way too long since I've written on this blog. So much so that it's probably dead in the water. To be completely honest, I need to work on getting my focus back on writing. I've been doing it in short spurts and changing focus like crazy.

First of all, after a lot of thought and consideration, I've decided to go ahead and self publish Isis. It's going to be done under a pen name, and I'm still pursuing major publication with Lexy and other novels I have in the works. The truth is that I never thought that I would be someone who would self publish, and I'm still having a hard time wrapping my head around it. But at the same time once I made the decision, it felt totally and completely like the right thing to do with my story. I've revised it so many times, and I'm getting good feedback from critiques and writer friends. I'm starting a blog (My first post will be today) about my publishing journey, and every step I'm taking to promote and get the book out there.

Fortunately I have an uber talented hubby who takes photos and has been paid for his graphic design skills. And he's likely going to put together a trailer for me.So that part will be good. It'll be interesting to see what happens with the story, and how well it is received.

Onto general writing stuff. I mentioned that I've been changing focus lately. I've been really inspired to go back and look over my old ideas and I love so many of them, and I totally think that I could develop them. It's got me excited to finish up Lexy so I can work on the next project.

Finally my goal for this blog is to do one post a week on writing in general and then a Friday Five. I think I can manage that.

Hope you all are doing well. Let me know what ideas are exciting to you right now!

Friday Five: In the Wild

1. I promised my kids an adventure today, which means we walked to the park and looked at Halloween decorations on the way. It was such a nice day, perfect for a walk, and I took a book and planned to read while they played at the park for about an hour. But my plans completely changed when I got to the park. it was an early release day, which meant all the schools in the county got out two hours early. And the park we walked to is very close to the high school. It was absolutely overrun with groups of high school students. My kids didn't want to leave, but the moms huddle up and stared at the teenagers, who sat on the slides and refused to move so the little kids could get down. They climbed on top of the swing set, threw pinecones at each other and basically acted like teenagers with no structure do. There were two separate groups playing games, one Ultimate Frisbee group and one pick-up basketball game.

As a mom I was a little uncomfortable. Partly because they were in the way of letting my kids play and partly the language they were using. (I'm not a prude really, and my kids all know the swear words because they've heard them come out of my mouth on various days, but the teenagers were being teenagers and talking about things I don't want my kids to know about yet. I don't want to explain what giving head is to my six year old--thank you very much.) But as a writer I was fascinated. It's been awhile since I've seen teens out in the wild with no real restraints--because a bunch of moms at the park aren't going to make a teen curb behavior the way being at school or at church does. I was surprised at how i could pick out the social butterfly and the couples and the interchangeable couples as quickly as I could just by watching. The boys that needed to show off, and the ones that didn't. Really it was fascinating, but I had to be careful because I didn't want them to think I was some weirdo.

We left when some of them began smoking a joint next to my kids. And that was the exciting part of my day today.

2. I love the fall. It's the time of year when I feel most alive. The cool weather comes back and I can move again. And the leaves start to change, which hasn't happened quite yet. And there's the wonderful smell of leaves when they crunch. It makes me so happy. So this week I've been pretty happy.

3. The stress has been fairly high at my house this week, but with that said, I've made it a point to carve out some writing time, and I'm surprised at what I've managed to get done. I feel like the story is so much more authentic, and stuff is coming into play that didn't the first time around, and it's a lot better for it. Rewriting or starting over and nailing the voice is so worth it. I remember thinking that it was just silly to waste the time to do that. And I can see how much I've changed in that attitude. You need to do it over again until you get it right.

4. I noticed last week when I posted that the last four weeks I've used the same title two weeks in a row. It made me laugh, but also pointed out how awfully bad I am at titles. Some people have a real gift for them and then others really struggle. I love the titles of Ally Carter's books. They are fun and totally fit her stories. I like Melissa Marr's titles too. I wish I was blessed with some titling fairy that could wave a magic wand over my work and bless it with a beautiful title. Maybe someday that will happen.

5. Last week I wrote about time sucks, and this week I cut my television viewing way back, and I took all of my books back to the library unread. Sigh. That was hard. But it helped, like I said I carved out some writing time in a pretty stressful week. I want to get this draft done in the next two weeks, and it means some serious focus on the writing to make it happen. But I can make it happen. I know I can. What are your writing goals this week?

Friday Five: Cooling Down

1. I didn't post last week because we were at the beach. After a few vacations with me trying to work the whole time, my husband has (and it's okay that he has) expressed the desire for me to unplug when we go on trips. This is honestly hard for me. i think part of me is a workaholic, while the other part of me is this lazy person that totally lacks motivation. Which may not make any sense, it doesn't to me some days. Basically I think about work whenever I'm not doing it and feel guilty. But some days that isn't enough to make me focus. But the beach was nice. It rained, which was nice, because it wasn't too hot. I'm not someone who loves to be hot. Sunbathing has never been my thing.

2. It was a rough week. I had my first meeting with my son's teacher about his behavior. He seems to have developed some class clown tendencies, which the teacher finds concerning. I think he is a first grade boy with a lot of energy who is going to act like it doesn't bother him, when he is singled out again and again to be still. But I know that's the mom in me coming out. I'm my child's advocate, and it was tough. I made myself sick worrying about the meeting, and sat through it. And came out of it not feeling much different than before going into it. He's noisy when he's bored. He gets his work done, and he's performing at or above grade level depending on the subject. Sorry for the random tangent.

3. This week I was waiting all week to read Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins, because I thought Anna and the French Kiss was a perfect book. Absolutely perfect. Anyway I thought it came out on Tuesday, because most books do, and I was sorely disappointed when I realized it was Thursday. I got the book, read it in one sitting, and smiled the entire time. it wasn't quite as perfect as Anna and the French kiss, but it was good. Really good. If you need a good contemporary YA romance it's worth your time. Definitely worth your time.

4. It was interesting to talk to my husband about the book, because he wanted to know if I liked it. (I had been talking about for at least a week, if not longer) and when I said I did but not as much as the other one, I was able to talk about things like character motivation and likability and such. It made me realize that I've grown as a writer, since I can recognize the specific things that bothered me on one read through, whereas i've had to read a book a few times to pull the specifics out in the past. That said, it is a really good book. Really and you should read it.

5. Do you ever question your actually commitment to a project? Or ask yourself why you can't get motivated or going. This week I've been looking at my time sucks and priorities. And the television season is starting up again, and I know that I need to let go of some of my shows, so I an really write. Since I get my best novel writing done in the evenings or I need to evaluate my schedule and rework things. Maybe both.

Friday Five: Cooling Down

1. Woke up this morning, and it's chilly outside. When you've had an exceptionally hot summer, 60 degrees feels cold. The kids' wore jackets to the bus stop with their shorts, and every time I've gone out it feels a little cooler. I'm so happy because fall is one of my favorite times of the year. I love the way the colors change on the trees, I love that I do not need to run the air conditioner or the heat for about two months. I love the smell of wood smoke outside. I love that it gets dark earlier so my kids go to bed better. I

2. I didn't write last week because my mom was in town and we went to Great Wolf Lodge with the kids. It was a lot of fun, and everyone was worn out by the time we got home. My kids loved it, and they had a good mix of stuff for the older kids and my youngest who didn't want to go on the biggest slides. We also discovered Magiques, which involves running around the building with wands and completing missions. The kids ate that up. When we go to Myrtle Beach in a few weeks, we may have to visit the official Magiquest center and pay for them to play there.

3. The kids have completed a few Magiquest adventures at home. My husband has plotted out clues and things to collect and acted out parts in different areas of the house. He is hilarious to watch and I love the way that he actually gets down and plays with the kids on their level. It also made me think about how I'd have fun writing adventures for a similar game or idea. I'm not a gamer (though hubby is) and I've never really thought about the story lines in games. It's funny because one writing conference I went to I had Tracy Hickman lead my workshop group, and he got his start writing manuals for D&D or a similar RPG company. It was a good conference.

4. Well I entered my query for Lexy in a query workshop at Bookends back in February. I wrote the query as soon as I figured out the plot for the book, so I wouldn't have the query problems I had with Isis. It was critiqued on Wednesday. I got some great feedback. You can go check it out if you want. It'd also give you an idea on the world I'm living in right now.

5. I'm on the lookout for some good books to read. I've read everything recommended to me that's already out, and I know there are some books I'm super excited to read in the next few months like Lola and the Boy Next Door, and After Obsession, but I'd love something to hold me over until then.

Happy Writing!

Friday Five - A Day Late

1. Summer is really over, and I'll get my mornings to myself now. My youngest went back to preschool. A really great preschool where I don't feel guilty dropping him off, and he gets to play and explore and i get to work. So that is my most exciting news of the week. Well exciting to me at least.

2. At the end of every summer, I'm excited for the kids to go back to school so they have some structure, but then I forget what that structure means for me. I always wondered how stay at home moms managed to stay so busy once their kids were in school. There are so many time pressures now that have to do with having kids in school. Getting to the bus in the morning, and picking them up from the bus. The homework in the evenings, and getting them to bed on time. So much stuff that has to be done. But I do get time to work now without feeling guilty. That's nice too.

3. It is easy to get discouraged, and lost along the way. I've had the times when I'm super focused on my writing, and times when I've been so discouraged. I've had my share of almost there moments and falling short. This week I've spent a lot of time thinking about it. Do I keep going forward? Am I just kidding myself? Is this a reasonable and attainable goal for myself? Do I just write to write or am I really striving for publication? And if I do decide whether this is achievable, am I willing to really put in the time to make it happen?

The truth is that eight years ago, I decided I wanted to be a freelance writer. I didn't know how to start. I went and got books at the library, and read them. It took a few more years for me to actually start applying for jobs, and a few months before I landed my first job. I've built up what I do to the point that I have a niche that I write about. I make a very respectable hourly wage. I did it. I reached that goal. I write for a living.

And I can do the same thing to reach my next goal, which is writing novels for a living. I know what I need to do. But I need to be committed to making it happen. My first book may not be the book. Okay so it wasn't. I wrote it several years ago. But my second book may not be it, and maybe my third book won't either. But if I quit now I'm not going to make it. If I keep working and trying, I will. Just like with anything that is important but difficult to achieve, I have to make the time commitment and keep going no matter what.

4. I love the beginning of the school year, since it is a chance to reset my goals and my schedule to make it happen. In addition to my writing goals I want to lose some weight and exercise two hours a day. That feels like a lot to me, but I know that's what I need to do to reach my goals. But I'm building up to it, gradually, so that it will become a good habit that will stick.

5. I'm having a hard time coming up with a fifth option. So instead I'll ask a question. What goals are you guys working towards?

Happy writing!