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Real Life Critters By Susan Stephenson
Writing is one of the loneliest jobs in the world. Often, you spend hours with only your screen for company. Online critique groups and writing groups can help by expanding your network and providing valuable feedback on your writing. My membership in the Muse It Up Club (and subsequent connection to writers all over the world) has certainly helped me banish the feeling that I'm writing within a vacuum.
But nothing beats the immediacy, the warm human contact, and just plain fun of an honest-to-goodness, real-world critique group. We've recently established such a group in Coffs Harbour, on the east coast of Australia. This is how we did it.
Four of us were participants in a local writing class. We'd spent many hours in each others' company and believed that we knew each other well enough for trust and honesty. We were ready to take our writing more seriously. While only one was seeking publication at that time, all of us were determined to persevere and improve our writing skills. We got together to decide on our goals and the practicalities of implementing them.
We meet weekly at my home on Wednesday evenings from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. We each bring text of around 1,000 words to share orally for critique. The text can be a troublesome part of a longer work or several paragraphs requiring feedback. Once a month each member brings an additional printed text of 1,000 words. This is handed out for the other members to take home for written critique, due the following week. Each member receives three oral critiques weekly, and three written critiques monthly.
We established contingency plans. If a member is going to be absent, another will fill the gap. If someone else wishes to join the group, it will be a matter for the group to decide. We assess how the group is going at regular intervals: is it meeting our needs and how can we improve outcomes for each member?
Weekly meetings go something like this:
a. Warm-up: brainstorming topics on a chosen theme b. Grammar Guru: speech tags c. Ten minute writing: "Bugs" d. Oral critiques e. Editing: deleting unnecessary words f. Problem characters: hot seat g. Business: handout for written critique, role-allocation, sharing success
Our group shares some roles. We take turns in choosing and bringing writing prompts for ten-minute writing, warm-ups, other writing activities. Other roles are not shared. One of our members is happy to be Grammar Guru every week as he is particularly concerned with editing and the group activity flows from problems he finds in others' works. I willingly took on the role of recorder and send out an e-mail newsletter each week, reminding our members (and myself!) what was done in our last meeting and what is required for next week. Each of us provides support, encouragement, and honest feedback to the other group members.
Our group, Write Offs, is working out for all of us. Meetings are relaxed, informal, and fun. Sharing the process of skill-development is motivating-- we've all found ourselves working harder and smarter. It's so rewarding to not only get immediate feedback but be able to ask for clarification or examples there and then. Hearing genuine laughter at your witty, well-crafted sentence has amazing punch compared to a smiley face or LOL!
The virtual reality of online critique groups can be a life-line for writers. But if you have a hankering for some old-fashioned, real-life critters, get some writing friends together and go for it. Another weapon in your writer's arsenal could be just the shot-in-the-arm you need.
Susan Stephenson enjoys the challenge of communicating with different audiences. She has several publications, both fiction and nonfiction, to her credit. Susan is editor of the Muselings column in the Muse Marquee, reviewer of The Muse Book Reviews, and director of guest appearances at the Muse It Up club. She can be contacted at muselings@yahoo.com.au |
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