Critique a Week

It's finally summer! The kids are out of school, the weather is warm, and I am getting quite humongous (I'm pregnant so this is sort of okay). It will be pretty busy having all three at home 24 hours a day, so I'm going to cut down my posting schedule to once a week (every Sunday). I'm hoping to do some cool things over the summer to make up for my infrequent posts.

During the month of June I want to give something back to my blogging writer friends. It's been so fun to beta read for friends during these last few months, and to see a few of them get agents and book deals. I thought it would be cool to get to know more of you through your writing, so I'm going to offer a ten page critique to one commenter every week.

This is how it will work.

-You must follow the blog and comment on this post to be eligible for this week's drawing. You'll have until next Saturday to do so.

-Tell me in your comment that you'd like to win a critique. Most weeks I'll probably write a real post about something writing related too, so people who don't want a critique can still comment on that and stay in touch. :)

-Next Sunday I will randomly choose one of this week's commenters to win.

A few things to consider:

-I will be nice but I'll also be 100% honest, because I don't think anything less will be helpful to you. If you can't take an honest critique you probably shouldn't enter.

-I write MG and a little YA. The only genres I've critiqued in the past are MG and YA, so if you write literary fiction or romance or thrillers or something I might not be the best person to critique your work, but you can still enter and I'll do my best.

-I won't be posting these critiques on the blog. They are just between you and me (and I'm nice, really), so you don't need to be nervous.

I hope this will be a fun little experiment.

I also want to say congratulations to my friend Thomas who just accepted an offer to publish his MG book! I hope you'll pop over to his blog and say congratulations too.

Why You Need Beta Readers

I'm not quite ready to come out of blog hibernation, but I wanted to say hello to everyone because it's been WEEKS. I've been reading some blogs but not commenting much, and I feel really out of the loop. Does anyone have exciting news they want to share?

So my question for today is: do you use beta readers?

I've been wondering how many of you take advantage of this WONDERFUL resource, because during my break I've been rewriting. And rewriting. And rewriting some more.

After weeks of rewriting my manuscript stops looking like that story I thought was so fun and starts looking like a bunch of random words I threw together so I could make it to 40,000 words.

That's when I send the manuscript to my betas. They've only read it once or twice, so to them it doesn't look like a jumble of words, it looks like a book. They can see the places where it needs work and sometimes they can even help me figure out how to fix the problems. Their critiques are awesome and invaluable. I learn something different from every one of them. And while I don't take every little bit of advice they give me, I do use a most of it. They make me a better writer.

But that's not all they do.

They also let me read their manuscripts, and in some ways I learn more from reading their brilliant work, than I do from reading their comments on mine. I'm pretty sure I have some future bestsellers and award-winners among my beta group, seriously.

I know not everyone has this kind of experience. I've read horror stories about beta readers who are unhelpful, overly critical, or just rude. I know I'm lucky that I found my girls before they were snatched up by other writers in need of awesome betas. But here is the thing-- you can be lucky too if you try.

Post an invite on your blog. Trade manuscripts with a few different people and find the ones that you click with. These people will get your writing and you will enjoy reading theirs. There might be some people who don't work for you as beta readers. That's okay too. Just keep looking until you find someone (or several someones) who are perfect for you.

Their might be some genius writers out there who can make a book perfect all by themselves, but I'm not one of them and I'm willing to bet most of us could improve

Do you have beta readers? Do you need to get a few?

Taking Criticism

(There's something wrong with this post, so if your comments got deleted I am so sorry!)

Criticism can be a really great thing for our writing. I love getting my manuscript back from my writing group (or my family members when they aren't being too nice) covered in red marks. It reminds me that they care.

I'd feel bad if my story was so awful they didn't bother pointing out that I used "your" when I should have used "you're," or that Chapter 25 felt rushed, or that the third paragraph in Chapter 14 was confusing. Criticism is almost always a good thing.

Except when it isn't that good.

I once got a comment from someone in cyberspace that he/she thought my idea was stupid and that my book was sure to be a "dud". OUCH!!! But, even though that criticism was NOT constructive, it did help me to see some of the weaknesses of my plot and work to compensate for them. It also served as a reminder not to take criticism personally, and never to say such a thing about anyone else's work.

I think I've gotten better and better at taking criticism and incorporating the good and throwing out the stuff I don't totally agree with. With every beta read my manuscript gets better, and I am convinced I never would have made it this far with my writing if I trusted entirely on my own skills.

Do you take criticism well? How have good critiques helped your writing?

Top Ten Reasons Why You Need a Writing Group

First off, thanks for all the congratulations yesterday. You made my day :)

Now here are the top ten reasons you need a writing group:

10. They can critique your work and, unlike your friends and family members, they won't just nod and smile and say, "Oh, this is great!" They'll give you real feedback, and your writing will improve because of it.

9. They can answer questions that regular people can't. Like, what does dystopian mean? or how do I make my novel "high concept"?

8. They can send you their awesome manuscripts to read and feed your creativity.

7. They can sympathize with you when you get rejected.

6. They can celebrate with you when you get an agent, or an editor, or ten weeks on the NYT Bestseller List (We can dream :)

5. They can send you funny and/or useful links

4. They can help your pitiful new blog get started (thanks girls)

3. They can understand why you might rather stay home and write on a Saturday night when your significant other/friends can't.

2. They can keep you motivated to write more, because you don't want to let them down.

1. They can become more than just a writing group

I LOVE my Word Stringers! We met when the beautiful and talented Megan Rebekah decided to start a writing group. She invited people via her blog and the Absolute Write Forums and we came running.

There are 4 of us who have stayed involved and, through some combination of luck and destiny, we get along very well! They are all very talented, but more important than that, they all have DIFFERENT strengths. They were a fantastic resource during the revision process and have been right there with me through everything. We email each other almost every day now, and I love to see what they are up to, read their work, share frustrations, and celebrate with them.

It is awesome to have people to talk to about writing, and though I've never met any of them in person, (they all live on the opposite side of the country from me), they are great friends.

So here they are: (aren't they cute!)

Karen

Megan

Marie

They all have wonderful blogs and I think I've linked to them (crosses fingers) in case you want to check them out (most of you probably already know them--they are blogging queens).

Do you have a writing group? (If not you NEED one!) What do you love most about it?