Tag: critique partners

Get A Group: Critique Partners Make a Difference

Guest post
by Darlene Deluca

They may push you. They may make you rewrite. And rewrite some more. They might ask you tough questions like, “what’s the point of this scene?” They may be brutally honest. You might not like them very much sometimes.

But, relax, they’re making you a better writer, and your book a better product.

They’re called critique partners. And you need them. Why? Because they’ll tell you if something doesn’t make sense, if you need to chop twenty-five pages of backstory, or if you’ve used the word “just” fifty times in one chapter. Continue reading “Get A Group: Critique Partners Make a Difference”

The First Draft Blues

I have discovered something about myself in the last year of writing. I suffer from The First Draft Blues.

Symptoms include:

– Thinking your story concept is complete rubbish and no one will like your characters

– Believing your writing rivals that of a six year old’s.

– Questioning every turn your story is taking.

– Wondering why you are bothering when it’s the worst thing you’ve ever written and everybody will hate it.

– Laughing at yourself for thinking you could ever make it as an author.

I had a very bad case of it with Betwixt and I am suffering an even worse case of it with my current work-in-progress. So how do I medicate myself against this rampant disease that threatens to destroy my dreams? Continue reading “The First Draft Blues”