A critique partner, or critique group, is an essential part of taking your writing to a publishable level. Critique partners provide honest, constructive feedback on your work. They also help you develop your characters and your plot. They help you spot when either one has gone off the rails, and they help you get back on track.
Critique partners can also help you improve your writing chops, whether in terms of point of view, pacing, style, and so on. They’re essential sounding boards to any writer, and they can save you a bundle by helping you polish your work as much as possible prior to hiring a professional editor.
So how do you find this mythical person or group?
· Take classes at your local college, local writers’ groups, or local writers’ conferences. The Internet will help you find many of these groups. Meetup.com is one place where you can find hundreds of writers’ groups in your area.
· Try to find local writers who write in your genre. While feedback from any writer will probably be helpful, the best feedback is likely to come from someone writing in the same genre. For example, if you’re writing romance, another romance writer will understand that a Happily Ever After (HEA) ending is mandatory.
· To find writers in your genre, you can look for writers’ organizations on the Internet. For romance, Romance Writers of America (RWA) is a key resource, with local chapters all around the United States. Other genres, such as science fiction, fantasy, thrillers, mysteries, and so on, also have writers’ organizations.
· Once you’ve found your tribe, be sure to attend meetings and get to know your fellow writers. Make friends. At some point, you’ll find someone you click with, and that someone might be a good match for you in terms of a critique partner. Or they might know someone who is.
· Preferably, your critique partner will be at a similar place and skill level in their career. If you choose someone who’s an experienced pro while you’re an unpublished newbie, the relationship may end up becoming more of a mentor/mentee kind of relationship, rather that one of equal partners. That may not be a bad thing, but such relationships can end up with an unbalanced power dynamic, or the mentor may feel that they are not getting as much out of the relationship as the mentee.
· Preferably your critique partner will be writing in the same subgenre(s) as you and preferably you will both have similar preferences when it comes to the heat level of your stories. For example, if you’re writing erotic romance, you will want someone who’s very comfortable with sexuality to be giving you feedback.
· Preferably your critique partner will have a complementary skill set to yours. Maybe one of you is great at developing characters, and the other has top-notch grammatical skills. You can take advantage of each other’s strengths and learn from each other.
· Above all, your critique partner must be someone who is constructive, supportive, helpful, and not afraid to give and receive honest and candid feedback. Both of you must be open to other opinions, but at the same time not offended if the feedback doesn’t resonate with one or the other of you. And remember to point out what’s working great, as well what needs work. We all need a pat on the back sometimes… especially when we still haven’t got things quite right!
· Trust is the key ingredient in the critique partner relationship. While you may be able to develop this with someone you know only online, it’s much easier to develop this kind of relationship with a local writer you can meet with on a frequent basis. Being able to read each other’s nonverbal cues and discuss sometimes sensitive or difficult issues face to face is vital to building the level of trust and support that makes a critique partnership so invaluable.
Dana Delamar is the author of the "Blood and Honor" romantic suspense series, which is set in Italy among the Calabrian Mafia. An avid traveler who loves to learn about different peoples and cultures, Dana often sets her books in exotic locales. She grew up in the Midwest and Pacific Northwest, and today makes Seattle her home. She's an omnivorous reader with overflowing bookshelves and a passionate love of "Supernatural," "Firefly," "True Blood," "Mad Men," and a zillion other TV shows. Where she finds the time to sleep is a mystery.
When she's not writing, Dana is zipping off to visit new locales, dreaming about her next trip to Italy, or narrowly avoiding car accidents while she conjures up exploits for her characters. You can visit her at http://www.danadelamar.com.
Author Links:
Website: http://www.danadelamar.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DanaDelamarWriter
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DanaDelamar
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/DanaDelamar
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/danadelamar/
Dana Delamar is the author of the "Blood and Honor" romantic suspense series, which is set in Italy among the Calabrian Mafia. An avid traveler who loves to learn about different peoples and cultures, Dana often sets her books in exotic locales. She grew up in the Midwest and Pacific Northwest, and today makes Seattle her home. She's an omnivorous reader with overflowing bookshelves and a passionate love of "Supernatural," "Firefly," "True Blood," "Mad Men," and a zillion other TV shows. Where she finds the time to sleep is a mystery. When she's not writing, Dana is zipping off to visit new locales, dreaming about her next trip to Italy, or narrowly avoiding car accidents while she conjures up exploits for her characters. You can visit her at http://www.danadelamar.com. Author Links: Website: http://www.danadelamar.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DanaDelamarWriter Twitter: https://twitter.com/DanaDelamar Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/DanaDelamar Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/danadelamar/
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