There are four people in my critique group. One of the members is now living in Atlanta. (I live in Houston.)
“Four thirsty writers taking time for tea.
One poured for a panther–and then there were three.â€
I still swap chapters with my Atlanta partner electronically and meet with her via phone every Monday morning. Then, on Thursday nights, I attend my live-and-in-person critique group meeting.
Except, one of our three members decided to move out of the big city and into the country. As of June 1st, she lives in a teensy-weensy town in Missouri.
“Three polite writers said, ‘How do you do?’
‘Fine,’ smiled a hyena–and then there were two.â€
I just found out my only remaining in-town critique partner sold his house and is moving unexpectedly to South Dakota.
“Two sleepy writers glad the day was done.
‘Good night,’ said the crocodile–and then there was one.â€
I am devastated. This group was topnotch and not only did I receive some great feedback, it was also a pleasure to read and critique their work.
“One sad writer finally used her head.
She hurried home alone and there she stayed in bed!â€
That’s exactly what I feel like doing. Having a big, big pity party. We are talking about meeting via my teleconference line, but I’ve never done a critique group that way and am unsure if it will work the same.
What about y’all? Do any of you do long-distance critiquing? Any of you have a great critique group fall apart due to unforeseen circumstances? What did you do?
(Excerpts taken from Six Brave Explorers by Moerbeek and Dijs.)
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My only reliable, trustworthy crit partner is via email. But we met in a writers group. One of those lousy ones where all anyone ever says during a crit is “I liked it.”
And when it became obvious I wanted REAL crit, several members turned ugly and their ‘constructive crit’ of my work included phrases like, ‘you’re a bitch.’
We’re now 1500 miles apart. I’m considering braving another face-to-face group but I admit to being gunshy. I want to find like-minds. People who regard their work as I do, who produce routinely and who view crit as I do: there’s no reason to ever be rude or mean, but one should be honest.
*sigh* Good writers groups are hard to come by. Thank goodness for email!
My only critique groups and partners have been via e-mail. In one group, we’d get together for a live chat each week and take turns on one poor soul. *gg* I had to drop out due to some other commitments, but the core of the group stuck together. And if memory serves, we’ve all gone on to sell.
Every since I moved to the Florida Keys 4 1/2 years ago, all of my critique work has been through email and on the phone. It works. We send chapters back and forth to each other via email. When there are times that one of us is stuck on a plot point or just needs to brainstorm, we pick up the cell phones. (Bless my unlimited night calling minutes.)
For the past year I’ve been part of a wonderful Yahoo! online group, Romantic at Heart. My crit partners are from Richmond, VA, Rhode Island, Australia and the island of Mauritius in the South Indian Ocean! It’s been a great experience, and I love having women with different backgrounds and life experiences critiquing my work.
I’m part of a 5-member online critique group. We email each other ~10-page sections once a week, and then have the rest of the week to critique each other’s submissions, ask questions, and discuss. It works well. I’m also part of an in-person critique group, and I’m glad to have both because they meet different needs. In the online group, we all write in the same subgenre and are at roughly the same level of writing skill and career development, so we can offer very specific feedback and support.
The in-person group is more varied. We write in different genres and are at different places on the road to publication (and don’t even necessarily have the same goals). And while it’s great to get feedback from people who haven’t read so much romance that they’re jaded about the genre, I have to remind myself they’re not my core audience. But it’s wonderful to have that one evening a week where I can put all my everyday responsibilities aside for a few hours and just be a writer.
Your crit group sounds like mine. One just told us she’s up and moving to Montana. The other is relocating to San Francisco (not too far, but far enough from the Sacramento Valley). We’re going to continue to send work and critique online, too. It won’t be the same as seeing their smiling faces and brainstorming out our writing dilemma’s in person. I feel for you, but online with a great group is better than not meeting at all.
Live chat’s the way to go. AIM, Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger… You can all still meet if you like, just not face to face.
I find on line and email work best for me. Face to face too easily slides into social chit chat. Which although fun, isn’t what I need to focus on.
Wow. Look at all of y’all doing online critiques–as far away as Australia! I feel encouraged, but I’m a people person and I will really, really miss the face-to-face. Writing is such a solo occupation, that I valued getting out on a regular basis to talk about what I love best. Not only that, but we always spent the first 30 minutes visiting. I’ll miss that, too.
Don’t worry – I’m part of a wonderful crit group, the absolute best. Two are in UK, I’m in NZ and one’s in Australia. And we’re friends as well as crit partners. And there’s always someone to talk to on msn, whatever time of day or night!!
I’ve ran the gamut with critique partners and groups. I had some trouble with ones not geared to romance, so pulled back. I was in a brainstorming group (:arrow:Sela) and that was big fun, but not something I could do all the time.
If you have a CP (or three) that work well for you, I’d keep them electronically, and maybe try an RWA meeting, or local writers group for face time.
I had a face-to-face group that petered out when one member moved out of state, another switched from romance to YA sci-fi, and the third one just sort of seemed to lose interest when she couldn’t sell the book she was working on. None of them wrote historicals so that group’s death wasn’t the end of my world.
I tried an online group, but after my first experience I bowed out. Personalities are SO important and if you’ve never met people, it’s hard to know what you’re getting yourself into. LOL! It’s also hard to know if your needs and styles are going to mesh. Let’s just say ours didn’t.
Right now I have one brainstorming partner and a couple of first-reader types who read and critique big chunks for me. This seems to be working out perfectly (though I kind of miss the coffee and cookie klatch).
I’ve never met my crit partner. We’re on opposite time zones. Our contacts have all been via e-mail, but it works. While it doesn’t allow for live, up-to-the-minute brainstorming, the lag time involved gives us more time to ponder feedback, not just go with the first thing that comes to mind.