No longer.
Now, not only do I have an awesome group of writers to critique my work, but I have all these lovely feelings of guilt when I slack! (Like I've been doing lately. Ahem.)
Also, critiquing the works of others teaches me SOOO much about what works and what doesn't, and helps me to better spot the same things in my own writing. I truly believe that anyone trying to learn to be a writer should get a group if only for this benefit: reading and critiquing other writer's works is awesome.
The best part about my writer's group, though, is the camaraderie. Very few of us have met in real life (that should change in a few weeks: Yay!), but that doesn't stop me from feeling like I have a core of loyal writer friends who are happy when I have a success, who let me gripe about all the things you're not supposed to gripe about, and who truly understand what it's like to slog through this industry. Not because they can imagine it, but because they're doing it, too.
My group boasts self-published authors, short-story anthology authors, and at least one now-inactive member who has signed a traditional publication contract or two--on a book we got to help edit. Since I've read a lot more of my group's books, I can confidently say that there will be more contracts in our future.
We are the Pied Pipers.
So how do you like your group?
I'm actively looking for a group! I attended a group last year that met at a public library in my area. I learned a lot from reading through submissions, and the group leader was a teacher which was fantastic; he had great control over the group and spent the first hour of the group on a predetermined topic. I love organization!
ReplyDeleteBut overall the group didn't work for me personally bc no one there wrote young adult, and I'd really like to find a group focused on my genre. I attended an SCBWI group that was a bit of a drive, but I will probably go back. Checking out more groups this month, thankfully I live in a densely populated area with a number of options!
I don't have one yet. I'm wondering if I should start looking for one even though I haven't started writing anything new yet. Where does one find these things anyway? I know Absolute Write and Scribophile and other sites are good places to meet writers, but somehow they never click for me. :/
ReplyDeleteI LOVE my group, but then I'm a Pied Piper too! And yeah, you're right, we are due this year. There have been some great stories in our forums.
ReplyDelete-- david j.
i envy you your crit group! i hope to find some local writers at a conf this summer =)
ReplyDelete