So, maybe I’ve convinced you to look for and try to meet with other writers in your area for the purpose of making your writing stronger.

Maybe I haven’t. Still, trust me on this one. You might be a kick-butt writer…but you can only get better when someone tells you what needs work. Editors and agents need projects to be the best they can be when they get them…they can’t spend the hours and hours with you that might have been invested years ago. Yes, Harper Lee spent hours and hours doing edits with her editor. Yes, To Kill A Mockingbird was the glorious result of it. But that was a different time, a different industry, and a different economy. Today’s publishing world moves ten times faster (if not more), and requires you to hit the ground running earlier and smarter than it used to. And I still believe that Ms. Lee was the exception, not the rule, back then.

That said, where do you go about finding these people?

1)      Your local library

Your librarian may well know of groups that meet…heck, they might even meet at the library itself. If nothing else, they might have a bulletin board where people could post notices that they are looking for this kind of group. If they do, take advantage.  And there may be writing classes at the library itself for little to no cost that you could attend and meet other writers that might be interesting in forming such a group.

2)      Your local bookstore

If you have a local bookstore that’s active in the community, this is gold. Sometimes they host book groups or writer groups, sometimes they sponsor writers to have events at their store. Get involved. You never know who you might meet, or who might also be looking for the same thing you are looking for.

3)      National Novel Writing Month

There’s a lot of writers out there who have widely varying opinions on the November event. Reality is, though, if you sign up, and if there are local events, it’s a good place to meet up with other writers in your area.

The first writing group I was in formed after the end of my first NaNoWriMo. We’d all been talking throughout November about getting serious about getting published. I still miss these guys, but I just can’t pull off all the driving and expense to keep meeting with them. One of these days, I’ll have to see about making it to a meeting just to say hi and talk to them all again.

4)      Your local coffee shop

This is where I found the second group I joined. A local coffee shop had flyers about a writing workshop that was meeting at the library for a nominal cost. I showed up, went to several workshops, and was eventually invited to join in their twice-monthly meetings. I’m thrilled, to say the least.

5)      Writer’s conferences/workshops/seminars

I don’t just rely on a writer’s group; I also have a few (invaluable) beta readers. Every single one of them lives far enough away that I can’t meet them on a regular basis. I met every single one of them at a different conference. We keep up by phone, by email, by each other’s websites, and during conference season it’s always wonderful to see them again.

Why do I use both a critique group and beta readers? Well, the writers’ groups get the rough stuff, the zero draft, the one with all the bumps and holes and grittiness that needs ironed out. The beta readers, well, they get the draft that’s been through the crit group, and that I’ve been through again with a fine tooth comb…for the final sanding and polishing before I ever even consider submission. Then I make another pass before sending it anywhere.

What is striking to me is how much clearer and cleaner those beginning drafts are since I started all of this (yikes!) five years ago, but no matter how much better it feels, I’m always going to want someone to go over my stuff, poised at the ready with the red pen of death.

Oh, where to begin? I’m a big believer in writer’s groups. I think a lot of writers are. If you’re not in a writer’s group, you should at least have a critique partner and/or a beta reader looking over everything before you send it out. The idea of sending something out without someone else looking at it sends a Deliverance-style river of sweat down the back of my neck, complete with accompanying banjos.

1)      Wouldn’t you rather have a select group of people you know (or are getting to know if it’s a new group) commenting on it privately before you end up with lots of anonymous comments from strangers on the internet?

Boy oh boy would I. I spent a number of years with a group of dedicated writers who also became friends over dinner, meetings, frustrations, and celebrations of each others’ successes and commiserations over each others’ failures. I’m not with that group anymore, due in large part to me moving almost an hour’s drive away from them (gas prices making it impossible to continue meeting as I was with them).

We ended up with our own lexicon, laughs we’d shared when we’d caught some writing foible someone had inadvertently committed, inside jokes we all were in on, and ended up with friendships of people we trusted to see the inner workings of our brains before we unleashed our own personal brand of crazy on the world.

First thing I did when I moved…started looking for a closer group. And I’ve found one. They’re priceless.

I’d much rather have someone like this hack and slash my work when it’s still rough than a stranger I don’t know yet. It’s a trust thing.

2)      You never know what you might learn from another writer.

In the group I used to be in, as well as in the group I’m in now, members all go to different workshops, conferences, bookseller’s meetings, library associations, and classes. Everyone picks up something and brings it back to the group to share. I’ve learned something at just about every single conference I’ve been at.  Even if it’s “don’t waste your money on that conference”, you always learn something to share with the others (I’ve only been to one that I’d say that about, but I was horrified at the wrong information that they were giving writers who didn’t seem to understand just how bad it was….needless to say, my first comments about it to my writing group was that they should NEVER attend that conference.)

I also have beta readers. One of them tipped me off to a contest that turned into my first paid writing credit. You share all kinds of information…and you never know who might share something that fits you, or when you might see something that could help someone else.

3)      It keeps you moving forward by giving you a deadline.

People have a stake in giving you feedback when they’re also getting feedback from you. Hence the idea of a partner or a group; it keeps you working, writing to meet a deadline. Even today, I’m doing the…I’ve got a meeting tomorrow and have been wrapped up in release details for a couple of different things…better get something written tonight mindset.

4)      It’s not the same as getting feedback from your mom, sister, uncle, or best friend.

Face it, your mom is supposed to like your stuff. Your mom is your biggest cheerleader. Ditto your sister, your uncle, your best friend, or your spouse or significant other.

On its own, cheerleading doesn’t help me get to a finished project. The copious notes and edits I did with my writer’s group helped me get it to where it needed to be, where someone could help me look for typos and grammatical mistakes.

But Mom’s not someone who is prepared to rip apart her daughter’s work. Most moms aren’t. Why put your mom in that position? That’s not fair to her. It’s not fair to you. And it doesn’t help you be a better writer.

What makes us better is marking up with the proverbial red pen. I’ve said more than once to crit groups…”make it bleed” with red ink. Because that’s how you find the weaknesses. That’s how you spot the minor tweaks and the major plot errors.

And after you clean it all up and have a finished product, it’s all worth it. That’s when you get to hand it, proudly, to your mother, and say, “Look, Ma, what I did!”

5)      Writers groups and crit partners help you get ready for what edits will be like when and if you ever sell the darn thing.

I know, I know. You’ve been through edits yourself. You’ve been through workshops and critiques. You’ve rewritten and edited and plotted and changed and futzed and hem-hawed through the whole thing a million times. You’re almost sick of your own story you’ve been through it so much.

Guess what?

You’ll go through it again when you sell it. At least a couple of times. There’s edits. There may be more than one round. There’s copyedits. There’s galleys. And there may be ARCs and other release versions to look at.

It amazes me when an editor asks if I’m open to making changes. Because I expect that there will be edits and changes.

Chuck Wendig gave an interview on the I Should Be Writing podcast, where he said he approaches editors like Fight Club. In other words, he wants them to (figuratively) hit him as hard as they can in the interest of making it all as good as it can be. I agree 100% with this approach. I feel the same way.

I can’t fix it until and unless I know what’s wrong. If my critique partners pull their punches, I don’t know if my work can stand up to an in-depth edit. I look at editing and critique groups as a way to learn more…more about myself as a writer, more about the plot and the storyline, more about the characters, and more about the craft of writing. It’s an opportunity. It’s not personal. It’s about making the book or the story the best it can be.

And learning to take editing notes starts with a good, trusted critique group.

 

NEXT TIME….how to find a critique group.