Getting Unstuck

Hey folks,

Today’s post is a short one. I’m feeling pressed for time. Between school and keeping up with my various writing groups, it’s as if the ceiling’s caving in and the walls are shrinking. In reality, this is not the case—or else I’d be writing my life as a novel…or trapped in a novel someone else wrote—but man does it feel that way.

One of the reasons I’m living in an increasingly dwindling space has to do with that thesis I’m writing. While I’ve gotten past my intense dislike/hatred of the project, I’m stuck on one of those points where I’m not sure what’s happening next. I need to fill out story before my final battle, but I’m not sure what to fill it with. I had a small breakthrough yesterday, but that was, as I said, small. I need better than small.

You know those moments. Even if you’re not a writer, you know that feeling of being “stuck.”

For the writers, here’s how I get unstuck. If your usual methods for unsticking fail you at some point. Here are two more to try.

-Talk to readers

While talking to writers is invaluable, sometimes I need the other perspective. So I hunt down people who like to read and yammer at them about my thesis. They tell me what would interest them. I take that and pull something out of it. That’s my audience. I want to satisfy them. Please note that I know these readers. I don’t corner helpless people on the street and demand inspiration.

-Wander around and talk to yourself

I’m not crazy. All writers talk to themselves. Some do it quietly. Me, I prefer to wander around my room/condo—depending on the status of others being home—and talk to myself. I did this yesterday and got 1200 words out of it. Must be working.

So the next time you're stuck, find some readers who are people you know (or people you don’t know—your choice) or walk in circles and talk to yourself. One method is bound to work.

Thanks for reading, and now I’m back to the writing board.

Book Tour--SAVING CASEY

Goddess Fish Book Tour

SAVING CASEY by Liza O’Connor
A young adult suspense thriller

AN INTERVIEW WITH LIZA
-What book and/or experience made you want to be a writer?

I think I was born with stories in my head. Before I could even write, I would round up my friends and tell them elaborate stories. Unfortunately, I insisted them to all be true, which the kids believed, but when they went home and told their parents about giant spiders and alligators eating my siblings, oddly, the adults came to a very different conclusion. ‘Don’t play with Liza anymore.’

In my teen years, I amused my friends by writing of my interactions with imaginary characters. Sadly, a mother read one email, assumed my characters to be real, told all the other parents, and they all responded the same, ‘Don’t associate with Liza anymore.’ A sad story, right? However, on the upside, it taught me how to make new friends and gave me lots of time to write and be adventurous. It also gave me time to read the classics, which I believe every writer should undertake, even if they plan to write science fiction or comedy.

-What genres do you write?

The list would be shorter if you asked what genre I don’t write. I have written Historicals, Contemporaries, and Futuristics; books for early teen, young adults, new adult and the adult adults. I’ve also written both fantasy and paranormal. However, Saving Casey, my debut publication, is a Young Adult Contemporary Suspense Thriller which will make you laugh, cry, and yell. So don’t read it at work or school. I’m tired of getting my friends in trouble.

-Blurb for Saving Casey.

Eighty-year-old Cass wakes up in the body of a troubled seventeen-year-old girl named Casey, which all believe has survived a suicide attempt. Cass intends to turn the girl’s life around, only it’s harder than she expects. All Casey’s troubles have now become Cass’s and someone wants her dead.

-Spoilers?

The scene where Troy admits he loves Cass.

“Any chance you’d be willing to go to a different doctor to get another treatment on your face?”

“I really like Dr. Grey.”

“I know, but we can’t take the chance. You’d visit a doctor in Montana after office hours.”

“Does he have the equivalent experience and skills as Dr. Grey? Because I already have nightmares where I’m blind and irreparably scarred.”

“He won’t touch your eyes. He’ll just work on the cheeks.”

“And if I’m scarred, causing little children to scream at the sight of me, will you still love me?” She expected him to flounder with his response because it required him to actually admit he loved her, something he’d refused to do. To her shock, he replied at once.

“Absolutely.”

“No hesitation?”

“Nope.”

“So explain why you’ll love me without hesitation if I’m hideously scarred, but won’t even kiss me when I’m just ghoulishly tattooed?”

“Simple. Dan wouldn’t mind if I’m the only man in the world who still thinks you’re beautiful. But as long as millions of better alternatives exist, Dan would never forgive me for stealing your future.”

She hated it when he nailed the truth. If she were really seventeen, she would agree a hundred percent. Sighing heavily, she muttered, “I’ll see the doctor.”

“He’s not going to leave you scarred, Cass.”

“I hope not, but if he does, I’m holding you to your word.”

“You have it.”

She smiled at the turn of this conversation. “So you think I’m beautiful?”

“Inside and out,” he replied. “We need to change the conversation now.”

“Why? I like this conversation.”

-For other aspiring writers, any tips?

Get out and experience life, so you have a base to write from. Then write the story as it wants to be told, even if it breaks some rules. Finally, join a good supportive critique group, then write, rewrite, and write some more.

-What’s your favorite book/genre to read?

That’s like asking me which child I love best. Sci Fi, Historical Mysteries, and Contemporary Suspense are the main contenders, depending upon my mood.

-What’s your favorite thing you’ve ever written?

I think, my critters favorite is Saving Casey, which is why they insisted I stop writing and finally try to publish. (Writing is so much easier and more fun than publishing. Although I must say, I love the editing process where all the imperfections I couldn’t see on my own get banished.)

I cannot choose between my many novels. I love each one, otherwise I wouldn’t have written it to begin with.

ABOUT LIZA

I live in Denville, NJ with my dog, Jess. We hike in fabulous woods every day, rain or shine, sleet or snow. Having an adventurous nature, I learned to fly small cessnas in NJ, hang-glide in New Zealand, kayak in Pennsylvania, ski in New York, scuba dive with great white sharks in Australia, dig up dinosaur bones in Montana, sky dive in Indiana, and raft a class four river in Tasmania. I’m an avid gardener, amateur photographer, and dabbler in watercolors and graphic arts. Yet through my entire life, my first love has and always will be writing novels. I love to create interesting characters, set them loose, and scribe what happens.

Want to buy Saving Casey? Get it at the Bonobookstore, amazon, and Barnes and Noble.

NOTE: Saving Casey will be reduced from $5.99 to $2.99 for the duration of the tour (March 5th-April 11th) at Amazon, B&N, DP/Bono, ARe, Coffee Time Romance, BookStrand and Smashwords.

Also check out Saving Casey videos—the trailer and the Abridged My Crappy New Life series.

Want more from Liza? Check out her blog and website here. Connect with her on Facebook, and follow her on Twitter.

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Hey readers,

Me personally, I’d be terrified if I woke up in someone else’s body. Thank you, Liza, for the awesome interview!

Don’t forget to follow the rest of the tour for more about Liza and Saving Casey.

And of course, don’t forget to comment for a chance at some awesome prizes!

Liza will award a $25 Amazon GC to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour. Other random commenters at blog stops will receive: $5 Amazon GCs or tattoos like Casey’s/offer to place tattoos like Casey’s on a jpg picture supplied by winner.

Giving a Good Critique

Hey folks,

I just wrapped up another round of critiques for school—my mini writing group. As usual, my recent writing activity has inspired another “about writing” blog post. Last week I yammered on about the importance of writing groups. This week will stem from that and give the next logical step in the process.

Giving a helpful critique

Since I started pursuing writing seriously a year ago (it’s been a year…?), I’ve gotten many critiques. These have ranged from extremely helpful, to not helpful, to downright mean. Writing is a roll-with-the-punches profession. You’re going to get hit. Be prepared to stand back up.

However, the hit does not need to be spiteful or mean. A good critique should be a series of dull punches, not a shot to the jugular. It’s small wounds that heal quickly, and that’s what I’m going to talk about. How to inflict a series of small wounds that will heal fast and allow for forward motion.

NOTE: All references to violence are strictly hypothetical. Do not smack your critique partners.

Now, because I love 3s, I’m going to divide the helpful critique into (you guessed it) 3 parts.

-Intro

Start with something positive. It can be anything—character, setting, style—as long as you say something good before you launch into things that need work.

This, however, may vary. Say you have one of those selections that, try as you might, you couldn’t find anything wrong with beyond a few small punctuation errors. Do not start rambling about how this piece was the best thing you’d ever read. Use specifics. Say what worked and why it worked. If nothing else, doing so will help the others in the group understand why Person A’s piece was so well done and how to make there’s shine as brightly.

Now, let’s say you have the opposite. “Oh my gosh, what is this person thinking trying to write?” Don’t say that, not if you value your face. There is always a grain of good in even the worst submission. Find it. If you have to reread ten times, find that bit of good—premise, story arc, punctuation. When you find it, start with that.

Starting with something positive primes the receiver for what’s to come. You’ve told them that, in fact, they are not hopeless. We all believe we’re hopeless at one point or other. Occupational hazard. The critique group is there to help.

-Middle

You’ve said your “good” peace. Now what?

Now dive into the meat and potatoes. Mention any issues you came across—plot, believability, dialogue, etc. But, and this is very important...

DO IT IN A CONSTRUCTIVE MANNER!

I once had someone tell me “I would have put this down on page two.” Ouch, right? Yes. That was my first real critique session. That burned. As I learned more about writing and critiquing, though, I realized that the real problem wasn’t that someone actually said that. No, the problem was that they never said why they would have put it down on page 2. Being mean is not okay. Being mean and not backing up your words is also not okay.

Always back up your critique—explain why you commented on what you commented on.

“Start a new paragraph when a different character speaks.” (Good advice, but tell them why.) “It’s understood formatting, and it allows the reader to keep track of who is speaking.”

Not only have you corrected an error in the manuscript, you’ve given the receiver knowledge that they can apply to their future writing and to future critiques they give.

Another good technique is to employ questions.

“On page 4 you reference the stork. Since this isn’t Earth, does the stork myth exist on your world?”

This method puts the control back in the writer’s hands. It says “this isn’t a problem unless you say it is.” Because, after all, we are in charge of our own writing.

-Ending

End with a bang. (You did not know I was going to say that.) No, seriously, end strong. I’ve ended with suggestions for revisions (always with the disclaimer “this is totally up to you). The object is not to tell the writer how to write their story. You can also hold back a good thing from the intro and save it for the ending. Start positive, end positive. A third ending that I’ve never used but seen successfully employed is the “reference material ending.” “If you’ve ever heard of [insert craft book author here], he/she writes [title]. It’s a great reference for [craft element that needs help].

There you go—another 3s from the Lockbox. Take these important life (writing?) lessons and fly with them. And may all your critiques be constructive.

As always, thanks for reading.

My Top 5 Disney Villains

Good Monday,

Yesterday was a thesis submission deadline. This semester I’m contracted to write 30 pages per month. I sent 54. Here’s to productivity.

Anyway, the final scene was from my villain’s perspective. That got me thinking about villains, which reminded me of this post I wrote about villains. After submitting my pages, I decided I was done with writing for the night. That got me to wondering if I wanted to watch a movie. That got me to considering my collection of Disney movies, which in turn got me to thinking about Disney villains.

I didn’t end up watching a movie, but I did think a lot about Disney villains. That led to realizing that I hadn’t written a purely fun blog post in a while.

So that’s what I’m doing today. I present my Top 5 Disney Villains.

-5) Jafar – Aladdin

I haven’t watched Aladdin since I was about 14. The reason I have not watched Aladdin since I was about 14 is because the scene where Jafar throws Aladdin in the water with the weights scares the crap out of me. I’m having a panic attack just thinking about it.

*breathes*

Needless to say, there’s a very good reason why Jafar is on this list. With my reaction above, you might wonder why he’s not higher on the list. Yes he was a jerk. Yes he was power-hungry, and yes, he turned into a genie and rained down destruction on Agrabah. He never got around to killing anyone, and really, Jasmine was onto him the entire time. Great villains keep the good guy in the dark about their true intentions.

-4) Ursula – The Little Mermaid

Her appearance on this list has nothing to do with the fact that I love her, Pat Carroll, or “Poor, Unfortunate Souls.”

*cough*

Where Jafar wasn’t fooling anyone (with the possible exception of the Sultan), Ursula pooled one over on Ariel. What’s more, though it is never said in the movie, Ursula and King Triton are siblings. That means that Ursula tried to take out her niece. So why slot 4? She too never got around to killing anyone. I know. These are kid movies. Please, hold the “villain didn’t kill anyone because it’s a kids movie” argument till the end. Aside from that, Ariel was not in the best mindset when she made the voice/legs exchange. Perhaps she would have realized how evil Ursula was if she had been. The woman wasn’t exactly subtle.

-3) Claude Frollo – The Hunchback of Notre Dame

I have not seen this movie in a very long time. Despite this, Frollo still wins some kind of jerk of the year award. He manipulated Quasimodo, making him feel as if he couldn’t leave the bell tower. Frollo was also a general sicko. Don’t believe me? Watch this video of the song “Heaven’s Light, Hell Fire.” He’s a sick man. This movie was not meant for kids, but that’s an entirely different blog post. Lastly, he tried to kill Esmeralda because she wouldn’t become his sex kitten/slave/whatever. Not only is he evil, but he’s gross.

-2) Mother Gothel – Tangled

My second ever lockbox post was about Tangled. I talk about Gothel there, but I’ll talk about her again. See above, anyone who forces someone else to live in a tower and uses powers of manipulation to keep said person in said tower wins a spot on this list. As I touch on in my Tangled post, Gothel takes a chunk of the cake because she cared about no one and was willing to do whatever it took to live forever. This includes leaving Eugene/Flynn Rider to suffer and die. If Rapunzel hadn’t spoken up, that’s exactly what Gothel would have done. That wins some kind of b*tch award right there.

And 1….

*drum roll*

-1) Scar – The Lion King

Did you read my post about villains? Of course you did.

In case you haven’t, I’ll recap a tiny bit. Good villains make us hate them. Great villains make us hate them and wonder. Scar makes me wonder.

What did he do that makes him evil? Let’s see. He killed his brother. He would have killed his nephew if the hyenas hadn’t let Simba get away (it’s so hard to find good help). Putting aside the question of whether or not he controlled the weather, he brought death and destruction to the Pride Lands because “I am the king. I can do whatever I want.” And possibly worst of all, he made Simba (a kid and his own nephew) believe he was responsible for Mufasa’s death. If it’s not already apparent, manipulating the mind of an innocent does not sit well with me.

Any doubts to Scar’s evil potential? Watch this video of his single line “…and now everyone knows why” in multiple languages. Then argue with me. 

So what makes me wonder? Scar has the sense of a tortured soul. I want to write his story so badly. I have it all worked out, but…time. And copyright issues. All that aside, though, there is something in Scar’s childhood that made him this way. He’s fighting his own demons, and that is why he takes spot #1. Behind all the terrible things he did, there is a lion cub who could have grown up all right if he’d just turned left instead of right somewhere. If I ever get to write his story, you’ll see what I mean.

There they are—my top 5. Thoughts?

As always, thanks for reading.

Book Tour--BETWEEN MICAH AND AMOS

Goddess Fish Book Tour

BETWEEN MICAH AND AMOS by Alan Oakes
A young adult suspense

BLURB
Like a flash, the discharge from the gun lit up the inside of the dimly lit, filthy trailer Ashleigh called home. Ashleigh sat curled up on the stained pink carpet next to the pull-out bed in the living area where she slept. The victim lay dead, slumped against the wall of the trailer. Ashleigh looked at the motionless body. She was petrified.

Meet Ashleigh Mae, a seventeen year old high school senior living in the small town of Micah, Texas. Her boyfriend Billy calls her a wild child. Her momma is always telling her she makes bad choices. No matter what, no one really understands her.

Ashleigh dreams of a life with Billy. Their love is true, she thinks. When her mother forces them to leave Micah in the middle of the night and move in with her momma’s old boyfriend Casey, on the outskirts of a town called Amos, Ashleigh’s life is torn apart.

This is her fight to get it back….

AN INTERVIEW WITH ALAN OAKES

-What book and/or experience made you want to be a writer?

My father owned a television commercial studio when I was a teenager. I grew up working on film sets. I learned that telling stories is a magical, challenging craft. I have a journalism degree from the University of Kansas, but I really didn’t start using it until several years ago. I guess life finally seasoned me enough to have something worth writing about. Now I can’t stop writing. I’m at it every day.

-What genre(s) do you write?

I certainly do a lot of nonfiction writing with all the reporting and magazine work I am securing. I’ve also written a how to sort of book for graduation coaching this past year, called Graduation Coach: Rescuing One Child at a Time. My fiction writing is falling under young adult right now, but I refuse to be limited by genre. If there is a story I want to tell, I am comfortable jumping around genres.

-2 sentence blurb.

A high school senior and poor country girl, Ashleigh Mae is forced by her mother to pick up and move in with her momma’s old boyfriend on the outskirts of Amos, Texas. At school, she meets a wealthy Hispanic boy, Manuel, who falls for her – but Ashleigh is torn – between Manuel and her old cheating boyfriend Billy. All the while she has to deal with painful secrets of her past. It’s a coming of age story with suspense, murder, and a whole lot of drama!

-Spoilers?

“You do that, an’ I’m gonna have to take yours off too,” Ashleigh said as she reached down to grab the ends of Billy’s white wife-beater. As she was lifting off the shirt she spilled Coke onto Billy’s head and chest. “Oh dang!” she laughed.

“Ashleigh!” Billy said excited by her actions. He peeled off her sticky t-shirt and aggressively kissed her full lips. Ashleigh held onto him tightly. The two dove into each other, absorbed in their flesh and passions.

Billy’s powerful arms lifted up Ashleigh and set her on the pulled down back gate of the pickup. Ashleigh felt Billy’s power overwhelm her. Her mind drifted, no longer there, but somewhere up there, in the sky amidst stars in the blackness of the night. She was not in her body but floating in an endless sea of oily blackness. “Ashleigh,” she heard her momma’s loud voice in her head, “ya never make good choices!!”

-For other aspiring writers, any tips?

I had a professor in college who said writing was like basketball, if you want to be good, you have to keep on practicing. Also -- working at a high school, I am so impressed by young people’s points of view. The stories are certainly there. Don’t be afraid to dive right in and tell the world your story from your point of view.

-What’s your favorite book/genre to read?

As much as I am enjoying fiction writing, I LOVE a good biography or autobiography!

-What’s your favorite thing you’ve ever written?

Between Micah and Amos is probably my favorite right now – and I’m not just saying that because I’m plugging it. After listening to young people’s struggles for the past nine years, I kind of wanted to send a message back to them – I was listening -- and you are going to be okay!

ABOUT ALAN OAKES

Alan Oakes is a Graduation Coach and Counselor at a Texas High School. He is a featured writer for Green Building and Design magazine and a contributor to other magazines including Texas Architect and New American Luxury. In the past, he served as Associate Pastor of Saint Austin Catholic Church and Director of Catholic Campus Ministry at UCLA.

Alan holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the William Allen White School of Journalism at the University of Kansas and a Master of Arts degree from the Washington Theological Union in Washington, D.C.

“I have a very unique title at the Texas high school I work at: I am a graduation coach and counselor. I’ve been helping students who are at risk of dropping out for almost 9 years. I’m fascinated by sustainable design and architecture. I’ve been a featured writer for Green Building and Design magazine since it came out several years ago. I’ve also written for Texas Architect and New American Luxury magazines.

If you look back far enough you will also see I have worked on documentaries, including the award winning PBS documentary, The Painted Churches of Texas.”

To learn more about Alan, visit his website. He can also be found on Goodreads.

Also visit the website for BETWEEN MICAH AND AMOS, and like the book’s page on Facebook.

Check out the book at the publisher’s website.

Want to buy it?

Get it on Amazon as an ebook or a paperback. It’s also available as an ebook from B&N, and it’s available at Goodreads.

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Hey readers,

Please join me in thanking Alan for a great interview. Thanks, Alan!

Want more? Check out the rest of the tour.

And don’t forget to comment for a chance at some awesome prizes.

Alan will be awarding gift cards to three randomly drawn commenters during the tour. The characters are always going to Sonic – so he is giving away gift cards in the names of the main characters:
Grand Prize: Billy-sized $25.00
2nd Prize: Manuel-sized: $15.00
3rd Prize: Ashleigh-sized: $10.00

If the winner prefers, they can get either an Amazon or BN.com gift card instead of the Sonic card.

Book Tour--SECRETS OF AN AZTEC TEMPLE

Goddess Fish Book Tour

SECRETS OF AN AZTEC TEMPLE by Paty Jager
An Action adventure with romantic elements

BLURB
Revenge is not always sweet…

Isabella Mumphrey can’t leave a puzzle alone. This time she attempts to use her anthropology knowledge to uncover who is stealing priceless artifacts from an Aztec Temple in Mexico City. The discovery will certainly prove her worth to the World Intelligence Agency.

Tino Costantine is in Mexico City, too. He has infiltrated a drug lord’s organization to find enough evidence to not only prove the man’s illegal activities, but to bring him down for numerous deaths. Namely those of Tino’s family.

But when the love of his life, Isabella, strolls into his enemy’s home, Tino’s challenged by the choice of saving her or fulfilling his revenge.

EXCERPT
Isabella uncurled and rolled her shoulders before removing her glasses and rubbing her eyes. She’d examined two ledgers of artifacts extracted from Templo Mayor. Five more volumes stood on the end of the table in the inventory room in the basement of the museum. Her stomach rumbled and she looked at her watch. One. Morning would come too fast. Getting back to the hostel, finding something to eat, and sleeping were warranted with the way her body and eyes felt. The rest of the books could wait until morning. She wanted clear evidence of the missing items before Saturday. Once she determined Garza stole the artifacts, she’d tell Tino and then the director.

She stood, stretched her arms above her head, and turned to leave. A man stood in the shadows of a bookcase. Her heart thumped two hard beats as she swallowed a startled gasp. To show fear would give him the advantage. How had he entered without her hearing? Easy, she was so absorbed in the findings she blocked out all else. I’ll have to work on staying alert at all times.

Slowing her breathing and studying the man who’d yet to move, she readied her stance for evasive actions. Years of taekwondo with the addition of her WIA training had her prepared for an attack.

The man walked out of the shadow and as soon as she witnessed his movements her heart raced not of fear but of anticipation.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Award winning author Paty Jager is a member of national and local writing organizations. She not only writes the western lifestyle she lives it. With thirteen books and a short story published, she is venturing into the new world of self-publishing ebooks. Her contemporary Western, Perfectly Good Nanny won the 2008 Eppie for Best Contemporary Romance, Spirit of the Mountain, a historical paranormal set among the Nez Perce, placed 1st in the paranormal category of the Lories Best Published Book Contest, and Spirit of the Lake was a finalist in the Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence.

Check out Paty’s website. Visit her blog. Find her on Facebook, and follow her on Twitter @patyjag.

Also check her out on Goodreads.

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Hey readers,

Ancient artifacts and drug lords, oh my.

Check out the rest of the tour for a bit of variety at each stop.

And be prepared to comment often.

Paty will be awarding a $5 Amazon egift card at each blog for every twenty people who leave a comment and a $25 Amazon card to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour.

3 Reasons a Writers Group is a Must-Have for Serious Writers

Hello folks,

I’m a little late this week, but better late than never, right? Go me for being a good writer and not using cliché sayings. *cough*

Anyway, a bit about writing groups. I somehow ended up a member of four of these at once a few months ago. Things have settled down some, and I now have 2.5. Two actually meet and discuss writing. The third wants to meet and discuss writing but never seems to quite get there. That’s just fine by me considering my thesis crit partners count as a third group. I really need to crack down on that thesis.

Aside from the dreaded thesis, though, there is still writing to be done. That’s where the other 2 functioning groups come in. I met with one last night and got some great feedback on a short story that, fingers crossed, will be published soon. And that’s what I’m here to talk about today—3 reasons a writing group is a must-have for a serious writer.

Back in January, one of my professors told us during residency “Go home and get two things. A first reader and a writing group.” A first reader is that person who, well, reads your stuff first. The initial “this is good” or “this is bad” person. Pretty self-explanatory. Everyone, regardless of what they do, needs someone to tell them the truth. So the need for a first reader is, hopefully, obvious.

But the writing group. This one’s not so clear-cut. Many writers, including myself before I started at Seton Hill, argue “But writing is a solitary process.” True. Writers may get together, sit in a room, and write, but ultimately each individual person is the one to put the words on paper. No one can write for us.

So what’s the point of a writing group? Hopefully these three factors will shed some light.

-Getting your work looked at

“Isn’t that the job of that first reader you were talking about?” Yes, initially. That first reader gives you the okay to show your work to other breathing humans. The first reader doesn’t need to be a writer. They just need to be an impartial party. A writer’s group is a group of writers. Think of them as the level before the lit magazine/agent/editor/whatever you’re submitting to. They write. They know the pitfalls and what works/what doesn’t work. They’ll give you a bit more detail than that first reader, which brings me to reason #2….

-Get your work critiqued

You need to let people critique your work. In the cases of short works or poetry, you might be able to get away with just submitting and getting it published. Even so, still give it to a group of writers to pick apart. Where longer works are concerned, I repeat—you need to let people critique your work. There comes a point where you just can’t see your own mistakes anymore. That’s the point at which you need someone else to look. It’s amazing what another set of eyes will find.

-Learn to critique others

If you are serious about writing, odds are very good you will need to critique someone’s work at some point in time. Writing groups, especially friendly/relaxed atmosphere writing groups, are an excellent place to start. And yes, it is important to find a group that you are comfortable with. Critiquing or being critiqued by people that you are walking on egg shells around helps no one. If you're not sure where to start, listen to the feedback others give. If they are doing it right, it should be supportive and constructive. Start there. Stay there. Even if you have a lot to say, always be supportive and constructive. It keeps relationships positive and ensures that both you and your groupmates walk away with usable feedback.

There it is—3 reasons why a writer’s group is a must-have for a serious writer. Writers, I hope you will take this and run with it. The industry is too competitive to do it all yourself. Everyone needs help—supportive and constructive help.

As always, thanks for reading.

Oh, and per last Monday’s post, 5 bonus points to Zeee for correctly identifying Donald Duck’s middle name as Fauntleroy.