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curious Heidi re new crit group

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HeidiHole

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Heidi is curious:

How many AWers would be willing to be part of a new weekly critique group that uses not Microsoft Messenger, whose download quits at 99 per cent, but something else that actually works?

I would be willing to organize and host one if there's enough interest.
 

lakotagirl

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I would be interested in a small crit group.

Please let me know if you decide to take the next step. Do you have anything in mind at the moment?
 

HeidiHole

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curious Heidi

I had in mind no more than five members. Fiction or non-fiction. Published fiction writers, great; but I'm thinking that anyone who joins a new group will be in the unpublished / querying stages for a fiction ms, or possibly have a handful of shorter things in smaller publications or e-zines. Non-fiction writers, at the point where they have a half-dozen or so articles published on write-for-cash sites and want to break into print.

One hour per week; first hour the get-to-know-each-other session. Then, depending on who's writing what and how many members we have, post a paragraph or two -- no complete works -- on which we're stuck. Primarily critiquing, but open to all writing-related topics: queries, research, markets, and so on.

All of my big dreams, however, are dependent on how much interest there is, :)
 

Kryianna

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I'd be willing to give it a try, depending on when you'd want to meet. I have an in-person crit group on Wednesdays. I'm presuming we would do this in evenings?

FYI, Google's chat (part of gmail) works quite well.
 

HeidiHole

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curious Heidi

This group would meet in the evenings. Weekends are usually already spoken for. Any weekday would be okay with me.
 

Maryn

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I'm not usually a wet blanket person, but I don't get it. This site has critique boards in every genre (which, IMO, gets you the best feedback, from people who know what's selling because they read it at a minimum, and sometimes sell it themselves), so I don't see what benefit an online critique group made up of AW people would offer. Can we not be frank and honest at SYW, or offer encouragement and support when someone's effort has missed the mark and they're discouraged?

I don't see the benefit of keeping this private, but I do see the loss for the rest of us. By sharing thorough, in-depth criticism of one another's work in private, might the group be depriving the regular members a chance to benefit from the same critiques shared at the appropriate SYW board?

Maryn, just throwing it out there, because she's learned a lot from reading critiques here
 

lakotagirl

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I understand your point, Maryn. I have posted in SYW and have gotten valuable feedback from people. I've learned a great deal from crits of my own work and reading crits of other's. I will continue to learn from posting my own work and reading others in SYW.

AW can never be replaced.

However, I feel that joining a crit group could also help. By working with a smaller group of people, I think that I would be more open.

Living in a rural area, it's hard to find an 'in-person' group. We did have one that started recently - and I joined. But, the group just formed three months ago and so far there has been no critting. Just planning.

Are you suggesting that a critique group is a bad idea?
 

HeidiHole

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Heidi's crit group

The crit group idea came to me as a result of posting on the SYW boards and suffering the embarrassment of being the only poster whose work got zero responses.

I also like to talk in real time about writing. Questions can be asked and answered, and no one will accuse you of defending your work.

I do need a fourth member. A fifth would be nice. If we had a fifth, we'd never go thirsty!
 

Williebee

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I'd be interested in the meet & greet, see where it goes from there.

I'm in a face to face group on weekends, but would be interested in a weeknight thing. Mondays are usually my difficult night, other than that....
 

Trish

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Do you still need someone else? I would love to join too. I need all the help I can get at this point. I live in Australia though. We are seven hours behind your time so it would still work.

I have had tremendous help from all the critters here, and I couldn't have got as far as I have if not for them, but I think small critique groups are great too. You get "definite" feed back. I know what you mean, Heidi Hole, about not always getting a response from a post. Sometimes I've posted and not received a response, and other times I receive many responses. I always presume that my work must be real bad when that happens, even though there are many people reading the stories. Then, I go and delete it. In a small crit group, you get feedback even if its bad, then you can go and fix the problem.

Trish.
 
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