Book Giveaway # 2 and The Importance of the Critique Partner
Why a Cold Water Plunge is the Hottest Book of the Summer
Gosh, is it steamy enough for everyone? I woke this morning to condensation dripping windows and thought, Nope, there’s no reason to go outside today.
It’s a great day to stay inside and read. And in today’s Research for Writers and Other Curious People, I’m giving away a copy of The Swimming Group. One of the sexiest, twisty books I’ve read in a long time by my critique partner, Bella Ellwood-Clayton. Keep reading for the comment link to win a copy.
If you entered my Women’s Fiction Day giveaway event, read or jump to the end for details on winners and upcoming giveaways - there’s more! throughout the summer.
Rules for Writers: Don’t Let Your Critique Cause A Catastrophe
Writing is a strange business. You spend your days alone with voices in your head. You’re simultaneously involved in multiple (imaginary) lives and conversations, not to mention your own hyper critical thoughts, and at times very lonely. It is joy and angst, like the Greek masks of tragedy and comedy: Thalia and Melpomene. Deep emotions that can weigh you down.
I’ve written in the past about the importance of having community in your life, and especially in your creative life.
Writing groups, organizations (hello WFWA and NoVa writers) formal classes, literary events, book coaches, and critique partners. Each interaction serves a purpose, but it’s the critique partner(s) who serve the work.
What is a Critique Partner (CP)?
Writers often seek out different types of readers: first readers, sometimes called Alphas who see the messiest of ideas and first drafts. These fellow writers can serve as accountability partners who expect you to “turn in” pages to help you meet your writing goals. Then there are Beta readers who may or may not be writers, but who read a finished draft and provide feedback. And finally, for this discussion, is the Critique Partner also called CP in some circles. These are always other writers who exchange pages and provide detailed feedback on plot holes, structural issues, character development, and all manner of story development issues. And a bit of therapy.
I work with a variety of people. Subject matter experts and writers who understand particular issues, or who are able to meet my time needs. I’m often asked to critique work, but don’t always have the time.
Meet Dr. Bella
Bella and I met about a thousand years ago in an online Facebook critique group for Women’s Fiction writers. It was so long ago, that neither of us even remembers how it all began. The group was fantastic and I still have amazing writing friends from that time. The group changed. My writing evolved and I moved on.
Bella reached out and asked if I wanted to exchange pages and work one-on-one. A critique and an accountability relationship. I had never worked that way before. A little bit of magic sparked.
Astrology Signs Align
Finding a good critique partner is like dating. You need to get to know each other. And for me and Bella well…we share the same Valentine’s Day birthday. How’s that for kismet?
But Aquarius babies aside, we also share some other more important traits.
We’re both editors and come to our craft through formal education. PLEASE don’t ever think you need a writing or advanced degree to be a writer. But Bella and I “speak” a specific editing language and it helps cut through the BS.
When we met, we both had an agent and had yet to publish our debut novels.
We had each written multiple manuscripts.
We were committed and hungry.
When we began, I was working on a MS that my agent eventually passed on. Bella too was struggling with her work. Again, we were in similar places. Then I started what would become The Pelican Tide.
If you’ve read the credits at the end of The Pelican Tide you’ll see that I refer to Bella as the book’s midwife. She more than anyone helped shape the book and held my hand figuratively as I white knuckled my way through revisions and the early editorial issues. She had already sold her debut and was further down the road. I was able to learn from her.
Oh… Those First Pages
Before we exchanged even a page, she and I agreed on dates and the approximate amount of pages/chapters we would exchange. This served an important accountability piece, respected each other’s work loads, and didn’t burden one with more to review than the other. We also agreed to set up a Zoom after reviewing each other’s work to talk through questions and brainstorm.
Important to note. Bella lives in Melbourne, Australia. I live in Northern Virginia, United States. When we Zoom, one of us is always still in her pajamas, the other has just finished dinner. I attempted to take a screen shot from one of our meetings, but I look terrible in the mornings and Bella always looks like she stepped out of salon.
I won’t lie, when her first review of my pages came in, it was an ouchie.
It is our practice to make both inline comments and notes in the margins. These serve to correct grammar and ask questions and also to have a running conversation with the MS.
Bella comments on lines or ideas that are funny or confusing and also comments with marginal notes: I’m drifting, this is dull, oh, here’s the story again.
Oh, my delicate ego. I didn’t want to read that. I only wanted brilliance and affirmation of my prose.
It was an ouch because… it was true.
The writer Elmore Leonard is famous for saying,
I try to leave out the parts that people skip.
And here was Bella’s gift to me. An honest eye, fueled by solid editorial chops, her understanding of the market, where I was, and who I wanted to be as a writer.
She wasn’t cruel. She didn’t call me names. Despite how she tortures her characters in her stories, she wasn’t out to do me in.
The primal Id (a la Freud) is a bitch. A writer can have 100 glowing reviews, but it’s the one bad review, the 1 or 2 star rating in all those reviews that ruins your day and makes you never want to write again.
Bella’s drifts came in a sea of kind, constructive, thoughtful, positive comments and advice. Our online Zoom meetings are full of laughter, energizing brainstorming, and the precious ability to talk out plots and ask what if questions.
I had never had this type of writing relationship. I had worked with editors. I am an editor. In editing school, I had an entire course on author/editor relationships and how to speak to an author. This was time saving. This was ultimately (for me) amazing.
Of course, my delicate confidence needs stroking. I want to know what you like, feel deeply about, or when you’re confused with my stories. But fixing the broken and boring parts is what’s important. It’s essential. It’s what makes a book go from: okay my mother really likes it to OMG, I just sold my book.
I come from the non-fiction writing world and this new level of review was a learning curve. I’m still learning.
The most important lesson I’ve learned from working with Bella is this:
Providing honest feedback is a kindness you can offer to an author while they are drafting. Being kind while you do it is the mission.
My Turn
Rules for Writers: You Must Read
I don’t believe in writer’s block. Writer’s procrastination, well… that’s real. But the I don’t know what to write panic is from a lack of research. Read something! Anything. Preferably read material that fuels your writing.
Critiquing another author’s work is fuel. It is easier to play in another’s person story than your own. You see the holes, confusion, and opportunities. And in doing so, you become a better writer.
After Bella published Weekend Friends, she came up with an impressive list of possible next book ideas. That could be an entire newsletter. She asked me to rank them. Several were excellent, but the one that jumped at me was a story about a swimming group that took cold water plunges. In true Bella style, there would be a sexy subplot and a murder (or more.) This story kernel became The Swimming Group.
Bellas lives in Australia, but for marketing, she set’s her books in the United States. She grew up in Canada and has traveled extensively. North America isn’t some far away place to her. But, because I’m the “resident” American, I helped her with location ideas. The water needed to be cold, lake or ocean, in a small population center that was contained but not in the middle of nowhere. Ultimately, she settled on Provincetown, Massachusetts. The tip of Cape Cod.
As a Masschusetts native, I was thrilled. I knew those beaches. The movie Jaws is set off of Martha’s Vineyard. Clam rolls, the Red Sox, and all manner of Massachusetts. But more than serving as a fact checker, I provided the same honest feedback on story holes, pacing, character likability (we want to like the love interest).
As her story grew and stalled as stories do, we talked and wrote through possible changes. She doesn’t accept most of my ideas ; ) and I don’t always agree with hers. But it’s the thoughtful reading, the seeing the story through another’s eyes that often flips the switch, solves the plot problem.
The Swimming Group is about a cold, ocean water group that is a little messed up. Some plunge for health reasons, others emotional. And as often happens in any sport or community activity, relationships develop. Even the people you don't like are essential to the experience. Until someone goes missing and everyone becomes a suspect. Secrets are exposed and relationships turn dark. Each draft of this novel surprised me.
I joke that Bella’s answer to all my plot problems is to toss in a dead body. Her stories lean edgy and twisty. Bella is also Dr. Bella and she’s an expert on social relationships and sex. She doesn’t shy away from what she knows in her stories. She takes writing risks and pushes me to do the same.
When she sold The Swimming Group in a two book deal, I celebrated as if I had sold my book. Writing is a lonely business and celebrating everyone’s wins makes us all stronger. She’s about to turn in her next MS and it’s just as good as the last. I know. I’ve been reading it along the way.
Here’s the link to enter.
If you’d like a chance at a copy of The Swimming Group, comment here and I’ll enter you into the random drawing.
Book Giveaway Winners!!!
I’ve just returned from London so I'm a little slow on book winners but….drumroll, here are the 5 random winners from The Women’s Fiction Day Giveaway. I’ll be reaching out via email in the next few days. Please note, if I don’t receive a response within 3 days, I’ll move on to the next random reader. It’s not that I don’t like you.
Christa Ruhnke
Tammy Rash
Mary Lucia Dorst
Emily Cheang
Katherine Caldwell
I enjoyed the astrology part. I am born on a cusp and never know w hich sign to use.
This is solid “been there”, “tried and true” advice. And interesting to read about how you don’t always agree.