Wednesday, November 14, 2012

An ode to crit partners

No, I won't torture you with my poetry! But I'm excited that tonight, I'm getting together with three of my crit partners. We met about eight (or nine?) years ago at The Natalie J. Craumer Writing Workshop in Camp Hill, and ever since, have been critiquing each other's work. I would be lost without them!

Luckily, they are all better writers than me. Between the four of us, we span the spectrum of genres, from mainstream and literary to military and suspense, children's,YA, romance, erotica, speculative... you name it. None of us shy away from experimenting, and because of that, I think our work influences one another's in the best possible way.

We have a great relationship. We are friends, but because we are professionals, we're all tough crit partners. I've known them long enough that I can pretty much hear their comments in my head when I read through my own work, and so I revise based on that. It may save them a few crit comments. :)

Another wonderful aspect is that, though we were newbies when we started, we've all continued to grow and achieve new levels, always pushing for the next level, and then the next. I expect great things from them.


Just to dress up the post a bit, here's a pic I took on Halloween night. It was after the hurricane had passed through, and the clouds opened up long enough for the full moon to shine through. I grabbed my Coolpix and this shot (lightened a bit with Photoshop). Creepy but cool, I think. :)