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Critique Groups: Another Thrillerz Member’s Two Cents Worth

 

By Andy Gloege

f prints magnifierAndy is a member of Thrillerz, my critique group. With four members, we’re a small group of dedicated thriller writers who meet every two weeks. At last night’s meeting, Andy had something he wanted to add to July’s topic. I asked him to write it down. I thought I’d share it with you. Andy always has an interesting take on members’ work–unique and valuable. In this vein, he has something to say that other authors didn’t mention. 

I added the song Dixie Chicken to a playlist on Spotify last week. I was a disc-jockey thirty years ago, and that song—a southern rock classic by Little Feat—played a lot. When it shuffled onto my car stereo I finally realized the point of the whole thing: everybody at the Commodore Hotel bar knows the chorus. They’ve all learned it from the same ingénue.

This is exactly why I appreciate my critique group. Somehow thirty-years back my headphones were off while I handled other things, and I missed the point of Dixie Chicken. Writers have to wrangle ninety-thousand word manuscripts into some sense of cohesion. Writers are human. Stuff will get missed. A good critique group makes notes on grammar, sentence structure, and theme. It also points out things the author might be too far inside the second-draft to clearly see: might Batman’s cape catch on that flagpole? If the killer wears stretch-pants, won’t everyone notice the gun? Instead of oregano, maybe you meant tarragon?

The world is an imperfect place, and filled with distractions. Errors of memory and judgement happen all the time. While writing a novel is a solitary experience, a good critique group makes the writer feel part of a community of artists, and develops its own internal chemistry about the kind of assistance each member needs.

Also, they won’t let you miss what’s going on at the Commodore Hotel.

~~~

notebook-308849_960_720Andy Gloege is a former writer and editor for CBS News. Currently working on a novel, he lives in Sonoma County, California, with his wife and son.

 

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Writer's Notes

Critique Groups: My Experience

By B. Payton-Settles

July 20, 2018

BILLIE Something in the Attic.jpgWhen I stumbled onto critique groups almost ten years ago, they existed only as hard-copy, four-or-five-writers-working-together-around-a-table, incarnations. Now, through the wonders of social media, critique groups exist on-line, as well. Although I prefer the in-the-flesh model, I’m glad we have options today; critique groups are essential, both for budding writers and those whose careers are launched and moving along smoothly. We never outgrow the need for honest, professional feedback and support. My association with the critique group lovingly nicknamed Thrillerz provides that for me.

When I joined Redwood Writers Club (aka “RW”, the local arm of the California Writers Club) almost ten years ago, I was encouraged to participate in a critique group. I was new to acceptance of myself as a writer and floundering in the development of a mystery/paranormal novel. I figured I had nothing to lose.

Ana Manwaring, an RW veteran, gathered five of us for the initial meeting at a Starbucks. First order of business was choosing a maximum number of participants (five), a genre qualification (mystery/police procedure), and a meeting structure (twice a month on Wednesday evenings). We were on our way.

It took only a few meetings for us to realize that coffee houses, with their hard-to-manage noise level, don’t work as meeting places long term. When we interviewed for members, one or two prospects opted out based on that limitation. We relocated, first to a conference room in the Rohnert Park PD (member Thonie Hevron worked there), then to the Santa Rosa office of member Fred Weisel, and currently, to a member’s home in Petaluma.
Our meeting format is simple: we each bring pages for the others to take home, edit, and bring back to the next meeting, where we read a sampling and discuss the edits.
This is a great way to benefit from one another’s skill and get real-life feedback concerning subject matter. One perk: We get in on amazing, imaginative stuff as it is created. Another perk: Our understanding of human nature is indelibly deepened.

In taking a nostalgic look back at Thrillerz’ past participants—some for a few months, some for a few years—I see the enormous benefit in exposure to the many diverse personalities. We’ve had grammar divas (that would be me), adjective bludgeoners, ‘repetition’ police, plot questioners (Where’d that guy come from? You never mentioned him before. At least give us a description!), and of course, morale boosters. Thank heavens for my fellow writers and their dedication to this, sometimes, frustrating craft.
As I have developed as a writer, I’ve had many moments of doubt about the worth of my stuff, my chances for recognition, my writing ability. My critique group, as honest in their criticisms as they are lavish in their support, keeps me writing.

~~~

BILLIE PS head shotB. Payton-Settles was reading at the age of four and still reads everything she can. She’s been writing since her teen-age years (She’s retirement age, now) and loves getting feedback about her published work. Her home base is Petaluma, California, where writing, teaching, and research happen.

To purchase Something in the Attic, click here

 

 

 

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Writer's Notes

June Writer’s Notes: Writers’ Clubs

By Thonie Hevron

 

copp rw book club
Book signing at Copperfield’s Books, Santa Rosa, May 31, 2015

I would still be wandering the authorial stratosphere if I hadn’t found Redwood Writers. I’d written a book—a thriller set in my very own backyard, Sonoma County. By Force or Fear was penned while I lived on the other side of California, missing Sonoma County so much that I set my story there. It was my way of coping with homesickness. When I moved, I lost the manuscript. Luckily, I found the outline on a thumb drive and re-wrote it. It was even better than before!

 

In 2004, my husband and I finally moved back to SoCo. While reading the newspaper one day, hubby found a writers group called JumpStart that met in our town. It’s leader, Pat Tyler, introduced me to reading my work in a group. She also fostered my scribblings, steering me to the local chapter of the California Writers Club—Redwood Writers. Finding a group of dedicated writers who encourage each other was a huge step forward. Under their superlative leadership, I attended club sponsored classes, workshops, and panels. Each monthly meeting has an hour-long teaching session as well—featuring different topics such as the business of writing, craft tips, promotion, marketing and social media. From all this input, I was able to formulate a plan. Roughly it looked like this: write, write, write, query, learn, write, speak, blog, learn some more. I mapped out my next novel in outline form. After all, I’m a retired law enforcement veteran and structure such as this helps me keep track of all the strands of my story. While I worked on my story, I found a critique group, Thrillerz. After joining Redwood Writers, this was the best thing I could’ve done.

More on critique groups in July.

 

Over the course of these meetings, I realized that I needed to build a platform. I knew I had to expand my audience, but the term marketing struck terror in my heart. After all, I was a writer—solitary, shy, withdrawn from the general population. But wait, NO, I wasn’t solitary. I had Redwood Writers, then the Public Safety Writers Association, then, Sisters in Crime. Redwood Writers (RW) hosted (still does) bi-monthly salons for authors to read their work to each other. The intent was to dip writers’ toes in the swamp of public speaking. There also were Open Mics held at several different venues (all of which I participated) and an annual member book launch for 10-12 RW authors to debut their books. Above you can see a few of the events RW sponsored. I volunteered to emcee a few of these gatherings and polished my public speaking as well as met some terrific people.

 

Conference pic
Thonie- during the Pen to Published Conference 2014 

 

I did those but felt I needed more. So, I volunteered to co-chair a Redwood Writers’ Conference in 2014. The lead up to the event was where the rubber met the road: I attended every monthly club meeting to publicize the conference. Yes, I got up in front of a crowd of 75 or so people and made announcements. I’m by no means OVER my stage fright but I can certainly manage it. I’ve even tackled some other, unrelated fears such as driving over bridges.

Who knew what doors Redwood Writers would open?

How important is your writers club to you? What unique feature does it offer? Check in to Writer’s Notes on Fridays in June to see what other authors have to say. June 8th features Camille Minichino’s penchant for joining clubs. Natasha Yim talks about the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators on June 15th, on June 22, Leeann Betts gives 6 reasons to join a writers’ club, and on June 29th Paty Jager will offer her thoughts on the subject.

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Writer's Notes

Thinking About a Critique Group?

 

By Thonie Hevron

RW logoBack in 2007, I joined Redwood Writers, a local branch (pardon the pun) of California Writers Club. At my first meeting, author Christi Phillips appeared to read from her new book, The Rossetti Letter. After her reading, she took questions. Someone asked her, if she had it to do over again, what she would change about the writing process. Her answer was quick and obviously well-considered. “Join a critique group.”CWC logo

In those days, I was a fledgling author. I scribbled mostly with no sense of purpose. I’d written two novels, one of which I’d brought to an “open” critique group. It was a horrible experience. Poets and literary writers listened to my work—a suspense police procedural—and panned it. With little tact, they dismembered my chapter, eviscerated my characters, and dismissed my plot.

Well, I’m Norwegian and I don’t know any better, so I kept writing. The thing is every one of their comments was on target. When I calmed down enough to be objective about the novel, I realized they were right: my structure was haphazard, my characters were one dimensional with hidden agendas and the plot, well, let’s just say, the plot was a story I needed to tell, then package up and shove it on the top shelf of my closet. Which is what I did.

While the result (a critique) was why I attended, the experience lacked the positive solutions that I so desperately needed.

In the intervening years, I joined Redwood Writer, heard Phillips talk, and decided to give crit groups another try. A senior member of the writers club matched writers by genre. About 2008, I attended the inaugural meeting of the “Thrillerz” group. Of the five attendees, three are still active, committed members. We meet every two weeks with ten pages (hardcopy or later emailed pages) of our work. We exchange the pages to be read and critiqued by the next group night. Our ground rules are simple: make a commitment to be there (as reasonable as possible), present your pages, and respect others work.

I’m a firm believer in critique groups, but they have to be the right one for you. The wrong readers can present even bigger problems than dangling participles.

  • Members who are defensive in this setting will not learn, nor will they be able to contribute to the betterment of the group.
  • The same goes for writers who have agendas or are competitive.
  • Overworking the work in progress (WIP) can be an excuse for writers who are afraid to move forward.
  • By their nature, crit groups have trouble seeing overall work structure, pacing, turning points, and story and character arcs. (Here is an argument for closed groups)
  • Not all opinions are equal. My schoolteacher friend has more clout when it comes to punctuation. We’ve had members in the past who I consider less credible than others yet I always take something away from their corrections. I have to remind myself that everyone has value.

With all these drawbacks, why would one want to join a group of people who tear your work apart? Simple, to improve your writing. Here are some of the reasons I keep coming back to my group, year after year and have two books published to show for it:

  • The need to clean up prose for punctuation, grammar, and context.
  • It forces me to make a commitment to other people that I will write and turn in 10 pages every two weeks.
  • Other readers can spot weaknesses like passive voice phrasing, excessive adverbs, and poor sentence structure
  • We share info on contests, publishers, our experience and much more. Most of our time is critiquing but when someone has something to share, it is welcomed. Three out of five of our current members have published.

A few more thoughts on choosing a critique group:

  • Decide whether you need an open or closed structure. Open means drop-ins are welcome (think poetry, short story and flash fiction); closed have only committed members (much better for novel-length works).
  • Does your work need to be exclusive to genre? My group has a tough time with different genres like romance (even with a mystery sub-plot) but we did fine with an author who wrote speculative fiction that was suspenseful. Go figure.

Deciding whether to do an online or in person group may be dictated by geography and/or time. Both have value; you can decide which will suit you better.

To find “in person” critique groups, I suggest you join a local writing club, attend a writing class or network with other writers. Online resources include ladieswhocritique.com, writersdigest.com, Critique Circle and Scribophile. Just be sure your site is reputable and doesn’t charge. Some of these are open critique circles who trade reviews/critiques with other writers. Be willing to check into the rules before you sign up.

I hope your experience is as productive as mine is. Thank you Billie, Susan, Andy, Fred, Julie, Ron, and Robin!