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Jennifer talks about her writer friend
Yesterday, I met a writer friend for breakfast. We met
through our romance writer’s group and Twitter. She originally asked me out for
coffee in order to pick my brain about how to get published. We discovered we
have a lot in common and our personalities are similar, and we’ve since become
very good friends. Although we live approximately thirty minutes apart, we get
together approximately once a month for coffee or shopping (always near me,
despite how often I suggest we go closer to her).
We’ve since developed into critique partners, so we spend
about half our time chit chatting about our lives, and the other half talking
about our writing. Sometimes that writing talk involves technology, industry
information or writing suggestions. Other times, we solve each other’s
problems. It’s amazing how easy it is for me to solve her plotting problems,
when I’m unable to solve my own. Luckily for me, she provides me with the same assistance.
I've been told that it's important for published authors to have published critique partners. I see the benefit to that. But I think it would be a mistake to automatically discount any unpublished writer, because by doing so, you might be missing out on great talent. Publishing is sometimes a hit or miss business, and there are lots of talented, unpublished writers out there. My friend is one of them.
I never fail to leave my meetings with her inspired. I can't wait to meet with her again. In the meantime, I'm off to write!
Good critique partners turn into friends, I think. To be able to meet in person is a wonderful bonus.
ReplyDeleteIt's great when you hit it off with another writer, and yours sounds great, Jen. In the past three or four weeks, I've met up with several writers whom I've got to know through Facebook. It was good to meet them in person, and it always feels as if we've been friends for a long time - which, in a sense, we had, even though we'd never met up in 'real life' before!
ReplyDeleteYes, Facebook takes the edge off meeting new people. And since we pour our hearts into our writing, our critique partners often know us better than others.
ReplyDeleteJen, It sounds like you have a critique partnership others dream of! I'd love to have something so consistent, but I know it would become one more thing to fit into an already overflowing schedule. I think I'd feel like I was giving the short end as well. Maybe someday.
ReplyDeleteI had to chuckle when you mentioned how much easier it is to solve problems in someone else's mss rather than your own. That couldn't be more true, right?
I know, right? She's like, "Uch, I have this problem," and I'm like, "It's so easy!" But she doesn't see the solution (or an alternative one) until I say something and I can't find my own solution at all! And then she tells me something for mine and I'm like, "Duh, of course!"
ReplyDelete