On the Joy of Finding Critique Partners

I’ve done it! Or at least, I think I may have. It is one of those important pieces of the puzzle we writers strive for but that tends to be so elusive.

NO, it isn’t finishing the damned book, though that is the ultimate goal in this game. No, it isn’t getting that contract, though that does require The Supreme Celebration when it happens.

It IS finding the right critique partner. Or partners.

Finding the right CP is no different than finding the right Significant Other. It is equal parts chemistry, kismet, and discernment . When it happens, you just know it. And the ensuing elation is no different than falling in love.

Of course it is important that you write within the same genre and agree on what you need from a critique partner. But, you know you have a good fit, the makings for a long-lasting, mutually satisfying relationship, when you can’t talk fast enough or laugh enough, and you feel completely at ease with the person. In other words, when you meet for the first time and you both feel like you’ve known each other all of your lives.

This happened for me a few short weeks ago. Through complete serendipity I recently discovered that a woman I had spoken to on several occasions (her daughter is a student at the school where I used to teach) is a writer. Prior to the great reveal, I didn’t even know her name—our chats were of the brief, passing in the hall Hello How Are You type. When we found out we were both writing YA novels we proposed that maybe we could explore being critique partners. And she writes with a partner, so I would be getting two CP’s for the price of one.

Scary stuff. I hardly knew the woman. I certainly did not know her writing partner. But a date was set for an initial meeting, a meet and greet, a chance for us to share a little about ourselves and what we write, and we could see if it might work for us.

In the days leading up to the meeting I became increasingly terrified. What was I getting myself into? I don’t know these people. I don’t know anything about what they write beyond that it is YA. What if they hate me, and my writing? Okay, that last one was the scariest. I later discovered that they also were having the same worries and fears.

We each brought a query letter for our current WIP. We felt this would be a non-threatening way to introduce our work. After chatting and getting to know one another, we exchanged the query letters, and the excitement quickly became palpable. We could hardly get to the end of the letters before enthusiastically exclaiming about one facet or another of our respective WIPs. A general feeling of excitement and respect pervaded our meeting. Plans were made to exchange our first three chapters, and a date for our next meeting was set. Two hours sped by as we talked and laughed and enjoyed one another’s company. I think the three of us were the loudest people in the trendy coffee shop.

When we parted it was with hugs, and good feelings about our new adventure. I said, “I feel like I’ve known you two forever.” One woman answered, “I know, isn’t that the best feeling ever?”

Yes it is. And I’m looking forward to a mutually satisfying critique partnership with my two new friends. Something tells me we're going to have a lot of fun along the way.

**As I went to post this I discovered that my friend, writer Collette Cameron, also blogged on the topic of critique partners today. She has written an excellent post on The Basic Rules of Critique Partner Heaven and The Sure Path to Hell. You can read it at http://www.blueroseromance.com/2014/01/critique-partners-angels-or-demons.html#more

Happy Writing!

Writing Resolutions for 2014

2013 proved to be a good, momentous year for this writer. A contract for the debut novel (YAY!!!), a second finished manuscript, a nearly finished manuscript for a prequel to the debut novel, and another YA novel mapped out and ready to start writing. And I’m getting better about identifying myself as a writer. But, as always, there is much more to accomplish in the new year, and so I have created my Writing New Year’s Resolutions for 2014. I'm sure some of it will look quite familiar to you.

• Prepare the recently finished YA novel for submission: revise the query letter, write the synopsis, identify the publishers and/or agents to whom I will send the novel. Send it.
• Pour my heart and soul into the next round of edits on the contracted book. Make it the absolute best it can be.
• Set up promotions for the release of the novel. These may include blog tours, contests, launch party, etc.
• Have my author website up and running before the book is released. The sooner the better.
• Finish the prequel for the debut book. As I want to self-publish this book to allow it to be released close to the release date of the contracted book, I need to: have it professionally edited, contract a cover designer to create the cover, learn all the ins and outs of getting it out into the world and take those steps.
• Set up the promotions for the prequel.
• (I’m getting very tired just thinking about this list so far!)
• Start the new YA novel. This is the book of my heart, the one I have thought of off and on for 15 years. As such, it terrifies me to start writing it. The fear of screwing up is massive. I will take the plunge! I will write it. Or at least a good portion of it.
• Attend to all of the important things that support my writing: time management, exercise, relationships, reading. This list could go on and on, but right now these are the golden four.

As I read through my resolutions, it feels daunting. I’m sure that many of the items on my list are similar to the ones on your own list. However, I know we can do it. We just need to keep in mind all we accomplished in the past year and be resolute in our endeavors to tick off each of those boxes. 2014 will be a productive, rewarding year!

Happy New Year, and Happy Writing in 2014!

Coming Out of the [Writer's] Closet

During the many years of my teaching career, I was never free to attend the Christmas Coffee a dear friend always puts on each December. I was busy teaching. She never failed to send the invitation, knowing full well I wouldn’t be able to join her and our mutual friends and acquaintances, but always wanting to make sure I felt welcome—not forgotten. This year, having left full-time teaching behind, I was able to attend. And of course this meant seeing people, many of whom I’d lost track of, for the first time in many years.

After the obligatory, “So, how are your kids?” the next question invariably is, “What are you doing these days?” My answer varied, depending on the person doing the asking. For two or three old friends the answer included my new venture—my writing. But I did NOT handle it the way I wish I had, nor how I know I SHOULD have.

I’m still acting apologetic, self-deprecating, and unwilling to own my passion for writing. One, typical revelation went as follows: “Oh, I’m pretending to be a writer. I sit at a computer, type in words, and hope they will arrange themselves into a compelling story.” REALLY, MONICA?? I actually heard myself say Really, Monica as I was giving my flippant answer. Is that the best you can do?

I have read and heard proclaimed time and time again, that I must own what I do. As I heard at the Willamette Writers conference, when you say, “I am a writer, (or author, or novelist)” you make it true. It becomes real—it becomes the truth. I have been writing steadily for over two years now, I have a contract for my first novel; I am past the point of someone thinking I might be a dilettante. I should have no fear telling the world, truthfully, what I do. Nor should you. Say it. Own it. You are a writer.

I am Monica. I am a writer. More specifically, I am a novelist.

Happy Writing.

My Love/Hate Relationship With Technology

As I’ve been sitting here going through the delightful tutorial for Scrivener, (delightful because they keep telling me to take a break for tea), I find myself reflecting on a journey I’ve been on since I decided to finally begin writing. No, not the actual writing journey, with the craft learning curve, and the submitting learning curve, and the editing learning curve, et al, but a closely linked journey. My TECHNOLOGY JOURNEY. The journey that had me so frustrated at one point last week that I tweeted about my love/hate relationship with technology.

When I started writing in earnest, putting fingertips to keyboard, I was blissfully ignorant of all the technology I was going to have to learn to use. Lots. Of. Technology. Even as I type those words I can hear several people I know laughing loudly, with the loudest laugh coming from all the way across the country—my friend and I.T. savior. I’m not exactly a technology savant, to put it nicely. But when I decided to have a second career as a writer, I had to get smart—okay, not smart, but at least capable—fast.

Over the past two years I’ve had to learn to: set up a blog and keep it going, Tweet and exist in the Twittersphere, do my edits using Track Changes, move from the old PC to a MacBook, and figure out innumerable little fiddly problems with MS Word. This short list is just a sampling. The list could go on and on. Now I’m facing getting a true website/landing page set up, and because I guess I needed a new challenge I’m also learning how to use Scrivener.

So it came as a nice surprise when I recently met a writer who proclaimed she ‘hates technology.’ I quickly came to understand that she hates it enough that she does her first draft writing in longhand, rarely emails, and has a true aversion to social media. Love her!! But here’s the kicker: she’s young enough, that unlike me, she grew up with technology.

I’ve been assuming all along that everyone under the age of thirty-five is born with a tech gene, or a chip embedded in their brain, and that it all came naturally. I’m sure it does come naturally to this writer, but for whatever reason she has more or less turned her back on technology—for now. I say ‘for now’ because she will soon find out that she has almost no choice but to build that platform, a platform designed and constructed in the ether.

I’m sure I’ll continue to bitch and complain and wail about my love/hate relationship with technology. But the truth is, I cannot imagine doing this job without it. Literally having the world at my fingertips and the ability to manipulate written words with ease are things I could never give up at this point. I’m too spoiled. And aren’t we all? 

Happy Writing--Be it on a computer, pad of lined paper, papyrus, or stone tablet.

Working Through The Self Doubt

I was chatting with a writer friend of mine recently, and was sharing that as I have been going through what is hopefully a last rewrite of a manuscript, I’ve been at turns thinking to myself, HACK, BRILLIANT, HACK, HACK, BRILLIANT, HACK, HACK, HACK. As in, whom am I fooling?

I’m still pretty new to this writing thing. Yes, the title of this blog indicates that the writer is a FLEDGLING WRITER. It has been suggested that since I have a contract for a book coming out in the spring the word “fledgling” no longer applies. Au contraire. This hack, brilliant, hack, hack episode just proves my point that I am still a fledgling.  At least I think it does. Maybe.

As someone who is still learning the craft, I have my moments of self-doubt. Plenty of moments of self-doubt. Hence the whole hack, brilliant thing. But, do the more seasoned writers suffer from this affliction too? I’ve read that they do, but I cannot help but believe that it isn’t the kind of panicky, self-flagellation-inducing, uncertainty that those of us less seasoned writers tend to experience. 

Always one to look for the learning experience, I’ve asked myself “Monica, what can you learn from this?” I came up with the following:

• Though you are still learning the writing craft, you have learned enough to recognize writing that needs work.

• When you come to a scene or page or paragraph you think is brilliant, take a moment and celebrate. Then look at it again and see what you can do to make it even more brilliant.

• Don’t forget that every writer, in fact every artist of any kind, has her/his moments of doubt. You aren’t special.

• Remember when you were in high school drama and you learned that the best acting happens only after experiencing stage fright. Over confidence on the stage often leads to poor acting. Now apply that to writing. 

So I continue to learn and grow as a writer. I’m currently working on a prequel to the novel that comes out in the spring. Though I’m happy with the writing in the to-be-published book, I’m much happier with the writing in the new work. And I’m getting happier with the manuscript mentioned at the beginning of this post. Learning…still learning.

Happy writing!!!

On Meeting My Literary Idol

Two years ago this month I attended my first ever Wordstock convention. For those of you outside of the Portland area, it is a reading and writing extravaganza with scores of wonderful authors speaking and/or reading, and loads of great writing workshops to choose from. For me, that first Wordstock experience was especially momentous because that was where I discovered the multi-talented YA author/musician/composer/artist/race car driver/goat keeper, Maggie Stiefvater. If you haven’t read my post on my absolute adoration of Maggie you may want to read it/skim it/glance over it before reading further. (click here) Her talent simply blows me away.

Fast forward two years—Maggie is back at Wordstock, as a part of her book tour for her latest book, THE DREAM THIEVES. This year I took a family friend/former student, 13 year old G. (We’ll just call her G. here.) I couldn’t wait for her to hear the always humorous and delightful Maggie. I bought her a copy of SHIVER, which was where I began my reading of all things Stiefvater. We had time to attend several other presentations, because Maggie’s panel was the last one of the day. As the time approached G. and I switched roles: I became the 13 year old fangirl who was spazzing out, and she became the poised, responsible adult. About an hour before The Maggie Hour, we happened to see her walking around the convention and I just about lost it. G., however was a little surprised by the object of my adoration. G. knows me as the ever proper teacher, and when she saw Maggie in her usual high-top Doc Martens, ripped jeans, and short black leather jacket, she gave me a LOOK. It said, “Really, Mrs. K., YOU are crazy about an author who looks kind of edgy?” YES, G. I AM!!

The time finally arrived for the panel. Maggie worked her usual magic, and G. was entranced. Then Maggie told the story that is the reason I’m writing this blog post. She told about the time about a year ago or so, when she met her literary idol, Susan Cooper. Maggie had adored her since forever and the idea of meeting her idol made her a little crazy. She envisioned how it was going to work: she’d put out her hand and give Ms. Cooper a warm handshake, and proceed to tell her what an influence she’d been on her. The moment arrived—she was standing before her idol. But her hand didn’t reach out to give Susan Cooper that warm handshake—no she froze. Maggie’s hands were in fists, up by her chest and she was just GAH!! She ended the story there, but I’m quite sure the rest of the exchange went very well. She is Maggie Stiefvater, after all.

Twenty minutes later I had my own Susan Cooper moment when I got to meet Maggie. God bless G., she decided she had to get her new book signed, so she rushed to the line for Maggie. We waited patiently, while I began to feel increasingly ill at the prospect of actually speaking to my idol. It was our turn! And it was perfect. G. and Maggie and I chatted and laughed—I got to ask a question I’ve been dying to know the answer to—and Maggie was as warm and delightful as could be. I didn’t freeze up. I didn’t faint. I just had a fantastic, memorable moment with my literary idol. Thank you G for making sure that happened!!

Epilogue: It was quite the day for meeting authors you adore. Earlier in the day G. and I saw another favorite YA author of mine, Portlander Laini Taylor, walking through the exhibits. After politely asking if having hordes of people approach her disturbs her we had a lovely conversation during which I calmly and articulately told her how much I admire her work. She was adorable and very gracious.

A fabulous, memorable day at Wordstock. Thank you Maggie and Laini! And G.!

Letting Family and Friends Read Those Sex Scenes

Last year, in this space, an interesting discussion took place on the topic of writing sex scenes. (Fifty Shades of Red) It evolved out of an earlier discussion on the Fifty Shades phenomenon. Many readers agreed that we might be fifty shades of GREEN with envy at the success the author is enjoying, but we would be fifty shades of RED at the thought of our mothers, or sisters, etc. reading explicit sex scenes we might write. I had to admit I was on the side of embarrassment at the thought of one of my sisters reading anything sexually explicit that I had written.

Fast forward a year. Confession and full disclosure time. I wrote a book. It is the book formally known on this blog as ‘the practice novel.’ As a fledgling writer I had no illusions of it ever being published, so the fact that it contained some sex scenes didn’t worry me. But it is being published. (THE VAMPIRE’S PASSION, Soul Mate Publishing, Spring 2014) Of course I’m thrilled. Very thrilled. Of course all my friends and family want to read it. All of it. Even the sex scenes.

My oldest sister, Nancy, didn’t want to wait until it came out—she wanted to read it now. So, with the caveat that it hadn’t been professionally edited, I sent her a PDF copy. Now, Nancy holds a very special place in my heart and in my life, because she has dual roles: sister and godmother—she’s eighteen years older than me. When our mother passed away thirteen years ago Nancy also filled the space of ‘mother’ in many ways. So handing my manuscript over to her was like handing it to my mom, AND my sister.

What was she going to think? At first, all I was worried about was what she’d think of the book, my writing. Nancy is the perfect ‘beta family reader’ because, while she’ll be kind, she will also give it to you straight. I kind of forgot about the sex scenes when I hit the send button. As she lives 1,000 miles away we rarely get to see one another, but recently we were together and she had just finished the book. She gave me one of THOSE looks and said, “We need to talk about your book. Later. Not right now.” (There were a lot of other family members around at the time.) Oh my god—what was she going to say? About the book? About the sex? Yikes!

She was impressed! Not her genre, but thought it was good. She even told our cousin, who does read this genre, that she would LOVE it, and needs to read it! Yes, she was surprised that her ‘little’ sister had written about ‘such’ things, but she conceded that the sex scenes weren’t as graphic as some that are being written these days. Phew! All in all, an excellent outcome.

And a big step for the fledgling writer. I’m ready to let people who aren’t total strangers read my book, including the sex scenes. Well, most people. There may be two or three still on the Don’t Get to Read It list. But, maybe someday…