I no longer belong to a writer’s critique group. I used to belong to two at the same time. One in person and one online. The first was 25 miles away, and we met biweekly, with a limit of ten double-spaced pages. The second was online and international. It was understood to submit a chapter at a time. I belonged to both for a while. One for a decade and the other several years past.
I left the first one after publishing two books. My contract required me to write faster than the group could critique. At best I could workshop 3/4 of a book per year. As time went on, I had to write faster than the group could accommodate.
The other lost two members to deaths that gutted us. The remainders try to keep on, but personalities got into play, and it disbanded.
This week, however, I revisited the first group, to see old friends. I am thoroughly enjoying reading their feedback on my Chapter One from Slade’s next book. But they only accept seven pages now (roughly 1800 words), so again, I cannot continue, but the group reminded me of why groups are important.
Feedback is important. So important. If you cannot find a critique group, then form one. Try to keep the experience level about the same. Someone too novice will be overwhelmed. Someone too experience will be bored. They can catapult you faster than editing alone.
Gracious, I miss having a group. They can make your work better. They helped my writing grow phenomenally faster than it would have otherwise.
Thank you for the article. I have been in two writing groups at different times. The first in person was fine in the beginning since I was a new writer (not that I’m all that experienced now), but it would drag on and then time was up so had to leave with many unanswered questions.
The 2nd is a monthly zoom call for two hours. I have taken a break and not sure if I’ll go back. Minimal conversations about writing, hints, helps, etc. I have got to dreading the two hours sitting in front of my computer looking at the others.
It helps me to know I’m not the only one not excited about writing groups.
Very interesting post, thank you! I currently belong to a critique group via Meetup.com that meets every other Thursday on Zoom. I deliberately looked for a small group to avoid There are only seven people, and one is currently inactive, so most of the time we’re able to discuss everyone’s work without going too long, although one person does have a habit of being late. Not everyone has a submission every week, and the limit is ten pages, but if there’s a little extra to finish a chapter, the author always says so in advance and that it’s okay to skip the extra pages. The biggest complaints I have are that two of the members can be extremely nit-picky about some things, whether they have reason to be or not, and can take up too much time (IMHO) explaining why they are right. But overall, I like it; the members are all new/budding authors, so we feel pretty equal. And the majority of the feedback is worth the time spent in the meetings.
There are always nit-pickers. Justifying one’s self is a way of feeling relevant. You can’t hardly find a group that doesn’t have them, but it sounds like you have a good group.