The Writing & Critique Group Survival Guide

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January 6, 2010

Just for Fun: What Kind of Chocolate Should I Buy?

Posted by beckylevine under Blog Contest, The Writing & Critique Group Survival Guide | Tags: , , , |
[24] Comments 

So…my launch party is in 24 days. Me, counting?

There will be cupcakes. There will be Dove bars. Perhaps cookies. There will be a wonderful bookstore location where, before and after the launch, you can browse to your heart’s content. See what I’m offering?

There will also be a raffle.

I’m having a lot of fun putting together the package. No, I’m not telling you all what’s in it, but just think about the tools of critiquing, and you’ll be able to imagine. (Use your little grey cells, mon cher Hastings!)

I’ll tell you one thing, though. The raffle package will, of course, contain some chocolate-one of life’s, and critiquing’s, necessities.

So here’s today’s fun. The chocolate is the one part of the raffle package I have not yet bought. Why? Well, because–as I mentioned–the launch party is 24 days away, and by that time, the chocolate would get…eaten! And I haven’t yet decided what kind of chocolate to buy. My new favorite is Lindt’s Excellence Intense Pear Bar. One square of that and I’m writing (or critiquing!) productively for the next hour!

But I want to hear what you think. What’s the best chocolate bar you’ve ever tasted? What’s your regular fix? Let’s skip anything with peanuts, because I’m not risking an allergic reaction to my raffle goodies! It should go well with tea and the smell of ink, and it should contain the capacity to inspire brilliance.

Leave your “vote” in the comments. I’ll tell you what! Everybody else is running contests for me this month (check out Solvang Sherrie’s that ends today and PJ Hoover’s that just went up). Let’s get one started here. This contest is now officially open until Launch Day, January 15th. I will pull one voter’s name from a hat (or I might just ask Solvang Sherrie how she does that cool, random-name-generator thing), and I will send the winner a copy of The Writing & Critique Group Survival Guide (print or PDF) AND a bar of the Lindt’s Pear Bar. How can you pass that up?

Ready, set…think chocolate!

 

December 14, 2009

Marketing Monday: Setting Up a Blog Tour & Adding a New Blog Feature

Posted by beckylevine under Blog Contest, Blogging, Blogs, Marketing, Promotion, The Writing & Critique Group Survival Guide | Tags: , , , , |
[14] Comments 

Before I get down to business today, I want to show you a few of my favorite books.

Wait, what’s that one out in front? Is it…? It is! Yes, two copies of The Writing & Critique Group Survival Guide showed up at my house this weekend. Did I mind the rain and gray skies? Not after that delivery, I didn’t!

Okay, so if the book is here, this means I should get back to my marketing to-do list and get some things checked off. The book is due out January 15th, but I’ll have some copies before then that I can, and want to, use for marketing. I’d like to set up a blog tour for January…with giveaways! I’m keeping this simple, just hoping to visit a few blogs and let people know about my book, share some thoughts about critiquing and critique groups. If you’d like your blog to be a stop on the tour, I’d love to come by. I think interviews are fun, because I can talk about what you and your blog readers want to hear, but I can also do a guest post if that’s easier for you.

If you’d like to host me at your blog, please send me an email at beckylevine@ymail.com

The other thing I’m looking to do is add a new, probably monthly, feature to my blog in 2010. I’d like to host you, if you’ve got a story about a critique group or experience to share. (Obviously, I don’t want posts that are just rants or vents, but I’m definitely open to learning-experience stories as well as the more positive kind!) And if you’ve got a book out or coming out that you’d like to promote, I’ll include pictures and links to let people know about it. You can also donate a copy of an ARC or published book, if you’d like me to run a contest.

Again, if you’d like to guest blog here with your critique story, please email me at beckylevine@ymail.com

Next post, back to our regular, random programming.

 

November 11, 2009

Contest Winner & a Few Links

Posted by beckylevine under Critique Groups, The Writing & Critique Group Survival Guide, Writing Groups | Tags: , , , , |
[4] Comments 

Last week, I interviewed Martha Engber about her book The Wind Thief and ran a contest for an ARC of the novel. Today, while my son lay on the couch with another book in hand and a cat on lap, he reached into the bowl for me and drew the winner’s name.

Tara Lazar, Come on Down! Email me at beckylevine at ymail dot com, and send me your snail mail address. I’ll pop the book in an envelope and send it on its way!

I admit it, I do like Google Alerts. I like think that I’m not too obsessive about it, but it’s fun when one of the alerts shows up in your email, even if some of those links do seem to end somewhere in never-never land with no real source. Ah, the magic of the Internet. Sometimes, though, they take you a fun place.

Like finding out your book is available for pre-order at the Writer’s Digest online shop! In print and PDF version.

One more cool thing, and I’ll leave you to get back to work. Don’t you all have a novel to write or 30 picture book ideas to come up with?! :)

This morning, I got an email from Jane Friedman, at Writer’s Digest, telling me about a promotion they’re doing for the book. Every now and then I get these notes, and usually it’s just pretty exciting to think about a company like Writer’s Digest out there working to market my book. This idea, though, was particularly fun to hear about, because it comes with a freebie.

Which is always good.

Anyway, Writer’s Digest is setting up a critique-group registry, and any group that completes their form will get a free digital copy of The Writing & Critique Group Survival Guide.

Really!

You can read about it here and, if you want, sign up your group.

 

October 18, 2009

Writing Backward

Posted by beckylevine under First Drafts, Getting Organized, The Writing & Critique Group Survival Guide | Tags: |
[14] Comments 

I made a discovery this weekend. Or, rather, a re-discovery, because this little piece of knowledge is something I’ve learned before, utilized many times, and–of course–forgotten until I had a need for it again.

Sometimes, its easier to write backward.

When I was in college, I did try and come up with that all-important thesis statement that drives an essay. After that, though, I would often write in this order:

  1. Conclusion
  2. Body paragraphs
  3. Intro paragraph
  4. Revision of that thesis statement that wasn’t quite right after all.

Why backward? Because sometimes you just can’t know how you’re getting somewhere, until you’ve been.

This last week, between dodging raindrops, staying afoot in huge winds, and lighting LOTS of candles, I got the outline and marketing/course information written for an online critique class that Writer’s Digest will be offering in December. This weekend, I started on the lessons. They’ll build on what I’ve written in The Writing & Critique Group Survival Guide, teaching critique tools and skills by having students critique first chapters or scenes from their classmates.

It took me a bit to focus in, but then I remember the backward writing. Which, in this case, took the form of developing–first–the bulleted list of questions the reader should ask themselves as they critique, and–second–writing the introductory text to set up those bullets. MUCH better.

As I worked, though, I was thinking about the other ways & times that backward writing is the form of choice. And here’s what I came up with:

  • Getting your hero to their scene goal and then figuring out the path they took.
  • Writing the fight scene between two (or three) characters, and then working out the scenes that will build in tension to that moment
  • Working out the climax of your novel first, so you know what’s the most important choice your hero will have to make
  • Developing exercises for your how-to book, to focus on your reader’s practical goal, before writing the guide’s main content
  • Writing the conclusion to your magazine article, to hone in on the one thing your should take away from the piece
  • Playing with the resolution to your memoir, to get closer to the theme of your personal story

Obviously, writing this way will not work every time. The opposite tact is to write through an entire draft–from start to finish, or skipping through the middle–to grow your own understanding of your project. I find that this backward style works best when I’m stuck, when I’m staring at the lead-in or some place in that vast middle of a project and not knowing what to write. Jumping ahead–flipping the coin over–gives me a jump-start, a different angle from which to see things.

And then, I find, I’m writing.

What about you? What did I miss? When do you decide to step off the linear, straightforward path and take a look at what the end can tell you about the beginning?

 

August 28, 2009

Taking Risks…Come On, Just a Few

Posted by beckylevine under Bravery, Getting Organized, The Writing & Critique Group Survival Guide, The Writing Path, Writing Fears, Writing Projects | Tags: , , , |
[12] Comments 

I am by nature an extremely cautious person. I’m also not so good with change. 38 years later, I’m still not so sure my family needed to sell our smallish tract home and move to the much bigger house, on the top of a hill, with an ocean view and a bedroom for each kid, that my parents had designed and built just for us. Really.

‘Cause you know, why swap out the old for a new? Why take the chance, when where you’re headed might be worse than where you are?

Well, obviously, because it also might be a lot better. Or just really, really good and mesh in beautifully with the happy life you already have.

The last few years, I’ve taken more risks. Nothing huge, from a lot of people’s perspectives, but from Little Miss “Okay, Mom, I’ll get nine books I’ve already read from the library and one new one,” some of the choices I’ve made have been a big deal. And they’ve gotten me to some very good places, including the writing and soon-to-happen publication of The Writing & Critique Group Survival Guide.

So, this week, with school starting, more time to focus, and a year ahead in which I want things to be different, I’m putting myself out there. I’m digging deeper into my WIP, reminding myself how important this story—and my fiction—are to me. I’m working on a couple of basic pitches for two nonfiction projects, to send to my agent. I sent an email off for some consulting work. I’ve got a list o children’s nonfiction-book publishers that I’m going to contact.

You can see where the risk comes in. These are all projects I’m qualified to do, and they’re all things I really love doing. But, yes, it’s a lot. The old me would say I was insane, diving head first into all these options, instead of maybe sticking a toe (or just the tip of a toe) into that water. The new me takes a look at the possibility of insanity and does some reassuring. Here’s what I tell myself:

  • You can do these.  You can. [Sigh.] Yes, honestly.
  • None of these are sure bets. To be realistic, some—if not many—are longshots. The odds of you getting to do all of them—get real. You’re not that good. (Yes, sometimes, a big of ego-deflation is actually necessary these days. When did that happen?!)
  • They won’t all happen at the same time. Projects take weeks, months, even years to come to fruition. You’ll probably be bored, waiting for anything to do.
  • A full, exciting life is better than a quiet, dull one.
  • “Yes,” is better than “No,” much of the time. And for your writing path, just about all of the time.

Do I still get nervous? Of course. Do I let that stop me, as it would have when I was young, from reaching out, from stretching myself for the things I really want. Not any more. I may not race ahead and grab it at full-speed just yet. I do, however, hold out my hand and say, “Please.”

What about you? What risks have you taken, or are you facing, that can add to your writing path, bring you more of the happiness that it already gives you?

 

April 24, 2009

Critique Partners–Why Start with One?

Posted by beckylevine under Critique Groups, The Writing & Critique Group Survival Guide | Tags: , , |
[8] Comments 

In The Writing & Critique Group Survival Guide, I talk about ways to find a critique group and ways to start your own. There are lots of reasons why you might build your own group–from not finding an existing group that works for you to wanting just a little bit more control over how your group is run.

If you’re setting out to grow a critique group, I really recommend starting small–with one critique partner. Why? Well, I’ll tell you.

  • It’s often easier (and faster) to find one other writer who’s looking to critique, than it is to find several all at once.
  • Building a critique group is a little bit like cooking. if you throw all the spices into the pot at once, it’s hard to tell–if the recipe doesn’t taste right–which spice might be the problem. If you get together with three or four other writers/critiquers at the same time, and the group is having some problems, it may be tricky to figure out which critiquers you fit with and which you don’t.
  • To carry on the cooking metaphor, once you’ve tossed in all those spices, it’s a little tricky to pull out the one that makes the recipe too bitter, or even too sweet. :) Ditto with a critique group, if you invite several writers all at once, and one doesn’t click with another, you have some not easy choices to make and actions to take. If you and a critique partner aren’t a match, it’s simpler to back up and both start over on your hunts.
  • With one critique partner, you can test things out. You can more easily see what works for the both of you, from things as basic as what time to meet to deciding what to do when you don’t have anything to critique (Hint: You could always write!). You can set the group up so that the two of you are happy, then add another member.
  • You get a chance to find that one, at least, critique partner who is your dream. From then on, you have a core group. My “rule” is that, once you have a core group that works–whether that core is two critiquers, or three, or four–that core is what matters. If you interview a new writer and one of the core members isn’t comfortable with them, the new writer isn’t invited to join. If you add someone to the group, and one of the core members has a (consistently bad) problem with their critiques, the group talks to the new member about troubleshooting and, if necessary, asks them to leave. Again, starting with one good critique partner lets you establish this core.

Of course, the next question is, where do you find this critique partner. Well, the same places you look for a group–in writing clubs, at conferences, by posting on craigslist or at the bookstore, and online. I’m not saying it’ll be an easy search, but I do believe your writing is worth it.

 

April 19, 2009

Spring & Writing: What’s Growing with You?

Posted by beckylevine under The Writing & Critique Group Survival Guide, Writing Projects | Tags: , , |
[24] Comments 

Yes, Spring is here. I know, it was official a few weeks ago, and some of you are still dealing with cold rain and snow, but the green things are trying. And out here, they’re growing and blooming.

My son’s spring break was this last week, and we took off for a couple of days of camping here and hiking here and here. It was perfect. Well, maybe not absolutely perfect for my son, who doesn’t really fitto sleep on the floor of the Vanagon anymore, but he didn’t complain, and we didn’t step on his head getting in and out, so, really, it all worked fine.

Tomorrow, school starts up again, and we head into the end of April. I hadn’t realized how much I needed a break of pretty much nothingness. Even with the sore muscles, I’m feeling seriously rested and refreshed. And ready to look at Spring with welcome. Ready to face my writing projects and say, “Bring it on!”

What will I be doing, with the sunshine bouncing off the greenery into my office window?

  • Revisions on The Writing & Critique Group Survival Guide. I’ll be getting feedback from my Writer’s Digest editor and digging back into the book. After this weekend, I feel ready.
  • Getting ready to write the first draft of my historical YA (feeble “working” title: Caro’s Story). Several writing friends are sort of getting to that place where we need to write, and we’re talking about pulling out all the stops in June and blasting through our first drafts. On one of our hikes this week, my husband and son helped me brainstorm some story problems (hey, you NEED something to talk about when you’re trying to climb 3,000 feet in 3 miles!), and, boy, their help was HUGE! I had several recordings on my cellphone with ideas about the ending AND the middle. So I’ll be more than ready to go in June. (I know, that’s officially summer, but prep will happen in May!).
  • Going back to the picture book I started this month. I did some basic plotting of the beginning and end, and wrote a few hundred words of early ideas. Next step: figure out some problems my heroes can face across the middle.
  • Start getting organized for my RESEARCH TRIP to Chicago this summer. My YA is set there in 1913. My sister lives a couple of hours south, and the plan is to take a couple of days in Chicago to hit museums, visit neighborhoods, talk to historians. We think we’re even going to go by the apartment where our grandmother lived as a little girl. I am so excited about this–it’s going to be better than the Peter Pan ride at Disneyland. And, you know, that’s the best.

It’s been a tough, long winter. Not for us, thank goodness, but for so many people all across the country, and the world. I want to face this Spring with optimism. I want to stay open to whatever new things may come along.

What about you? What projects–writing or otherwise–are you gearing up for this Spring? What’s calling to you?

 

April 14, 2009

When the Itch Hits

Posted by beckylevine under First Drafts, Getting Organized, Outlining, Plot, Research, The Writing & Critique Group Survival Guide | Tags: , , , , , |
[12] Comments 

Do you scratch it?

I’ve been talking a lot online about the research & planning I’m doing for my YA historical novel. It’s been going great. I’m learning tons about my characters, about their wants and their conflicts, about their back-story and their future. I know there’s more I can learn.

Except I’m itching to put all this aside and get writing.

I promised told myself I would finish Donald Maass’ Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook before I started writing. I said I would do a bit of plotting before I dug in. There are at least a third of these

researchbooks

that I haven’t read yet, and more I need to add to the shelf.

I can hear you all now. “Just write it!”

And here are your very good reasons:

  • I’ll learn more about your characters as you draft their stories.
  • The plot will change no matter how much time I spend on it.
  • I’ll narrow down my research needs as I write.
  • If I do too much planning, I’m putting handcuffs and chains on my muse.

Yep. So I’m going to write.

Soon. I’m still learning from Maass, but I’m giving myself permission to go a bit more quickly through his worksheets. I’m putting a few more tags on pages that need to wait until I have a draft to revise. And I’m letting myself relax away from the research a bit, so I can keep my actual characters at the forefront of my brain, instead of too many historical details/facts. And, since I still will have revisions to do on the critique book, I’m telling myself that any plotting I do has to be fit in between those changes. I’m not allowed to put the writing off, just because the whole outline isn’t complete and comprehensible.

When? I’m thinking June. A few other writing friends have first drafts looming, and we may all hit the keyboards together.

I’ll be MORE than ready.

So when do you start? What’s your comfort zone between knowing any/all of your story and needing to get those people on the page and moving? I’d love to hear how you do the balancing act?

Posts may be a bit thin on the ground the next few days–we’re in the middle of spring break over here. I’ll be back in force next week, though, and I’d love to start doing a little more talk about critiquing and critique groups. So if there’s a topic you’re “itching” to dig into, let me know that, too!

 

March 15, 2009

Agent or No Agent: My Two Cents

Posted by beckylevine under Agents, The Writing & Critique Group Survival Guide, The Writing Path | Tags: , , , , |
[14] Comments 

A few weeks ago, Shawna at Just Another Day in the Life gave me the Honest Scrap reward for my blog. I still need to pass this award on to seven other bloggers, which I am going to do soon, with pleasure. But I thought of the reward today, as I was coming up with an idea for a post. I’m still in recovery mode from the plague that has hit my house (which is why I was pretty much absent from here the second half of last week), so I was planning to just point you all to some other blogger’s links.

Then I thought of the reward, and I realized I’d better live up to it. Which is why I’m going to tell you, today, that–yes, I think writers should try to get an agent to represent their work. I know this isn’t always the most popular opinion, and that you can find an unlimited number of horror stories about agents on the blog and just by talking to other writers. My thoughts assume we’re talking about a good agent. And self-publishing is another conversation, with pluses and minuses, but obviously the agent question doesn’t come up there.

Here are the thoughts & ideas that have led me to look for and in one case, find an agent; in another case, not yet find an agent.

  • I want experts to do their work for me. I don’t do my own taxes, because I am lousy at math and legalese. I ask my critique partners to read my manuscripts thoroughly, because they’re better reviewers of my writing than I am. My husband trims our small trees, but we hire a wonderful tree-cutting company to climb around in and take out the really big ones. I now ask my taller-than-me son to get the dishes down from the high shelves.
  • I want to write. I don’t want to negotiate contracts. I want to be able to ask my contract questions to someone who isn’t creating that contract, but who is looking at it to get me (and them) the best deal possible.
  • I want my manuscript submitted to the right editors. I have NO way of knowing who those are. I can read their websites and submission guidelines, sure, but–what does “funny” mean? Humor, like so many qualities, is subjective. An agent will have worked with editors and know their senses of humor–and their senses of tragedy, suspense, edginess. I won’t have a clue.
  • I think that having an agent ask to represent me or my project means that my manuscript has reached a certain point. I know, what about my own self-confidence and my own sense of my strength as a writer? Well, let’s just say I’m open to a little extra reinforcement of that sense–especially from a professional who knows this business.

As I said above, one of my hunts–for a nonfiction agent–has been successful. And the experience of working with Jessica Faust on the contract for The Writing & Critique Group Survival Guide gave me everything I’d hoped for. Jessica is professional and efficient. She answered all my questions clearly (and without making me feel stupid or naive once!). And–for those who worry about that 15%–I’m not going into details, but the negotiating she did .

The other hunt hasn’t had the same success rate, but I’m not ready to give up. My first novel, a middle-grade mystery, went the rounds to agents for about a year. I got lots of compliments, but no takers. I was struggling to decide what to do–whether to go on to submit to editors and hope for the best, whether to find a new revision path, or whether to put it aside and work on the YA historical that had been calling to me. And guess what–I got the best, most clear-sighted advice I’d had yet…from an agent. One of my last queries returned me a wonderful letter from an agent who explained why she thought my book wasn’t being picked up…and it was a market reason. I don’t think I was just grasping at happy straws (because she wasn’tsaying the problem lay in my writing!), but the reason made perfect sense with what I know about the kidlit market. The lightbulb went off brightly, and I was able to pick which direction to take on my writing path.

Agents know what they’re talking about.

I really believe this. Some agents make a lot of money, sure. So do some writers. Overall, though, nobody takes any job in this industry for the high salary; they take it because they love books, they want to work with words, and they want to help add to the pile of reading choices in the bookstores and libraries.

So what do I think this means for writers? I think it means that, along with writing our manuscripts, we need to be doing research about agents. We need to be reading up on who represents our kind of project, on who has a trustworthy record in the industry and with other writers, and on the standard of work we need to be ready to present when we make that initial connection.

Obviously, if I had a direct, clean path to an editor, and I had a project that I thought was ready, I’d be emailing them and asking if I could submit. And if they said yes and if they wanted the book, guess what I’d do? I’d go back to all the research I’ve done, and I’d contact my “top” agent choices and ask them to represent me in negotations. Like I said, I want those experts around who will make my life easier.

What about you? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this conversation.

 

March 11, 2009

The Book Cover is Here!

Posted by beckylevine under The Writing & Critique Group Survival Guide | Tags: |
[18] Comments 

Writing & Critique Group Survival Guide