by gum, you better have critique partners

I think the title says it all. You want more? Okay. You can’t catch every typo, every slip of the syntax. And believe me, when you’ve worked on a manuscript for a year, you can’t see the forest for the trees. Most of all, everyone else’s brain doesn’t work like yours. Character motivation has to [...]

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hearing it like it is

So I had this round table critique for my manuscript with my SEKRIT ARSENAL OF TEENS. As you may know, I write YA lit for boys that girls like to read too, so my panel consisted of two boys and one girl. DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME. I am no shrinking violet when it [...]

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oh yeah. i swore a solemn oath…

…that I would blog every Tuesday and Friday. Dang my unrelenting Spring Resolutions. Okay, I’ll take a break to let you know what I’m doing today. I’m sure you are fully aware that I have FINISHED MY WIP AND I AM INTO REVISION TIME. No, this is nothing like Hammer Time. Because I definitely can [...]

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the end, my friend

I finished my WIP! Let me reconstruct that fateful day for you… So I get to the coffee shop where I meet my Tuesday-Thursday  Peeps.  These are my Kansas SCBWI writing buddies: in the red jacket–our new RA, Kim Peek.  On the far left, talking contracts–our former RA, Sue Ford.  In the middle–Social Media Expert, [...]

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whadda ya MEAN you don’t care if you get published?

This is the post where I make a lot of enemies. Ready? I read your ten-page chapter.  It is single-spaced, chock-full of typos, grammatical errors and syntax lapses.  I dutifully correct every single one. I highlight every place where you tell, rather than show. I help you role play your dialogue. I reconfigure your story [...]

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i hate to make you read this: critique guilt

I feel guilty. Critique group yesterday.  Chapter 10 gallops along—pathos, intensity, drama. Fearless leader reads with vigor and gusto.  Including the “fudge” word. Only it wasn’t “fudge”. And Lord, the name-calling, including, “baby-lick”. Only it wasn’t “lick”. And by golly, Fearless Leader read it like she meant it! At first I laughed, but then, I [...]

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Rip Me A New One #1

Critique Group. It is tremendously easier–and faster–to evolve as a writer with a critique group behind you.  (Or around your neck.  Depending on your planetary federation.)  I improved my craft so much between the first chapter of my novel and the last that–well, I felt I had to issue an apology on our listserv for [...]

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oh critique group, where is thy sting?

You travail…grind…you coax the keyboard late into the unforgiving night. Cull…pinpoint…tease the perfect words from your brain. You strategize.  You project.  You pluck the marionette strings. Grip the sneering knife in your sweaty palm…plunge it into your howling heart  Blood Spills through your printer onto the page. But The Worst is tomorrow: Critique group. And [...]

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