Month: January 2018

(by SICCO Board Member Connie Campbell Berry)

You’ve spent months alone with your characters. The setting of your novel is more real to you than your hometown. You can quote whole chapters word for word. You laugh and cry at all the right places. But is your manuscript ready to be seen by agents and publishers?

Maybe not.

What you need is feedback. An unbiased take on your dialogue, characterization, and plot flow. Someone to point out lapses in continuity or point of view. Someone to catch the typos your brain automatically corrects. But where can you find unbiased readers who don’t demand your firstborn in payment?

One option is to join a critique group. A critique group is a small group of people who read and give feedback on each others’ submissions. Sometimes After belonging to several critique groups, here are the top ten things I’ve learned:

1. You can’t write a novel by committee.

Critique groups work best when members feel free to express honest opinions and writers feel free to ignore them. You are the final arbiter of your work.

2. Agree on the guidelines.

Will you meet in person or online? How many pages will you submit? How long will you have to complete critiques? My suggestion is to limit submissions to

ten or twenty pages, double-spaced. The fewer members of the group, the more pages you might agree to read. Reading whole scenes or whole chapters is the best, but the length can vary greatly. Talk about it in advance so everyone’s on the same page. A week or two to complete critiques is usually workable (depending on the number of participants and length of submissions). The important thing is to agree in advance.

3. Limit the number in the group.

More than five is probably too many. Critiquing four submissions every two

weeks takes time. Most of us have day jobs and families.

4. Seek a group with relatively similar skills and projects.

Including an inexperienced writer with those more skillful can work, but it can also be frustrating. Critique partners aren’t teachers or editors. And while good writing is good writing, the norms for various genres vary wildly. Would a group of cozy mystery writers really get dystopian fantasy? Would a writer of steamy romances fit into a group writing Christian historical fiction?

5. Share approximate word count in advance.

If three manuscripts fall in the 75,000 to 80,000 range and one is an epic of 250,000 words, you’ve got a problem. Will three of you hang in there with the fourth for several additional months at the rate of 10 pages per week? If manuscripts are dissimilar in length, agree on a plan. Those with shorter manuscripts might agree to post revisions or another WIP.

6. Don’t expect to be told how magnificent you are.

Be open to both positive and negative feedback. If you don’t want an honest

critique, ask your mother to read your manuscript instead.

7. Don’t argue.

Avoid the temptation to defend or explain your work. You’ve made no promises to agree with or use the feedback of others. Asking questions, however, can be very helpful. For example: “Can you tell me why that section didn’t work for you?”

8. Be timely.

Submit on time and finish critiques on time. Period.

9. Include positive feedback.

In addition to pointing out what doesn’t work, tell your critique group partners what you loved: a character finely drawn, a passage you just couldn’t put down, a lovely turn of phrase, the place where you laughed out loud. There is always something positive to say.

10. Give group members the right to opt out.

No explanations necessary.

If you are interested in forming or joining a critique group, find a local chapter of one of the national writers’ organizations like Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, Romance Writers of America, and American Christian Fiction Writers. I hooked up with my first critique group through the Guppies, an online chapter of Sisters in Crime, dedicated to helping writers get published.

The Columbus chapter of Sisters in Crime (SiCCo) has several Writing Critique sessions planned for 2018. Check our Facebook page and website for dates and locations. Those participating will register in advance, submit pages, and download the pages of others to read and comment in advance.

Attending writers’ conferences and workshops is another great way to meet fellow writers. The critique group I’m in now was formed at Seascape Writers’ Retreat in Connecticut.

Or you can find a group online. Check out these possibilities:

Ladies Who Critique (www.ladieswhocritique.com)

The Critique Circle (www.critiquecircle.com)

The Writer’s Chatroom (www.writerschatroom.com)

Absolute Write (www.absolutewrite.com)

UPCOMING FOR 2018

Hey, welcome!  This is Patrick Stuart, the upcoming 2018 SICCO President taking over the reins so that our 2017 President, Kristin Crump, can spend a long sabbatical recuperating relaxing after an incredibly successful year.  To recoup; in 2017, we had several successful speakers, including Cleveland author and winner of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award  D.M. Pulley (February), Pulitzer Prize-winning author and novelist Julia Keller (June), and a field trip to the Ohio Fire Marshal Forensics Laboratory (August).  In addition, we dissected the book Girl On A Train (January), watched and discussed the movie Chinatown (March), and had our annual member writer’s workshop (May).  And, oh yeah . . . our daylong BIG EVENT in September, with speakers including Peter Tobin (U.S. Marshal for the Southern District of Ohio), Gary Wilgus (Special Agent with the Ohio BCI Forensic Underwater Dive Team), Mitchell Seckman (detective with the Columbus Division of Police), and keynote speaker Andrew Welsh-Huggins (Associated Press reporter and author of the Andy Hayes mystery series).  Holy bovine . . . no wonder Ms. Kristin is wore out.  And this year proves to be just as exciting and intriguing.  Here’s a small teaser:

For 2018, the SICCO board decided to spend the year focusing on (drumroll); writing.  This will be a year spent getting back to basics and supporting one another for the sole purpose of getting published.  So instead of one critique meeting, we’ll now have (3) . . . tentatively February, May and October/November (also NaNoWriMo month).  However, this doesn’t mean we’re abandoning our regular speakers.  We have a way-cool list of speakers and/or trips where we’re still finalizing the details (see our Events category for regular updates and changes).  Once we get confirmation we’ll put it out there, but in the meantime we don’t want to jinx ourselves.  In addition, we’re in the last stages of finalizing our Manuscript Critique group.  Need beta readers?  Contact us.  If a rough draft of your manuscript is complete, we’ll distribute it among member volunteers for a healthy critique.  Because we want to see more authors exchanging words for filthy lucre.  And in order for this to happen, you need resources.  So once we get the details finalized, it’ll be another resource available to you as a member.  Because although we’re already part of a national organization with over 3600 members across the country, and our local chapter already has award-winning members, NYTBR authors, etc., we want more.  We’re just weird like that.  Helping to get you published makes us a little, well . . . giddy.  We like giddy.

So come join us for 2018.  If you’re unaware, we typically meet the last Saturday of each month, at a local central Ohio library location, with the exception of the occasional field visit or day-long special event.  And after our monthly meeting, we typically hit a local restaurant or diner to liquor up engage the speaker, commiserate over writerly obstacles, and basically offer group therapy.  In other words, we’re social.  Let’s face it:  writing is a monastic pursuit, and you need a place to get out of your shell occasionally.  So let us be it.  Come see what we’re about and hang for awhile.  Meet up with like individuals and talk about craft, writing the perfect query letter, finding an agent, navigating the rewards/perils of self-publishing, trading research tips, or just to have an excuse to get out of the freaking house and leave the pets/kids/spouse/significant other behind for a couple of hours.  Or four.  Whatever.  We’re writers . . . not mathematicians.

So stop by in 2018.  Attend gratis for one or two meetings and kick the tires.  Give us a test drive.  Check under the hood (enough with the car metaphors, Patrick, we get it!).  Sheesh, all right . . . you don’t have to yell.  But give us a look-see.  You just might like us.

Patrick Stuart:  SICCO 2018 President