A Kick-in-the-Pants!

If you're a writer, you already know this. But I want to say it again. A Writer's Group (Critique Group) is very, very important! A good group will offer excellent feedback on your writing, will share industry information, and provide a consistent outlet for your work.

This last one is what I needed most recently. What I needed was a Kick-in-the-Pants! Winter hit me hard this year, plus I got very busy. So busy, in fact, that I hadn't written any new material in weeks! (I apologize to my blog followers for being so LAME lately. This will change as of now.)

I didn't bring anything to our November Pita meeting. I didn't want to show up to our December meeting empty handed either. I saw the date getting closer and felt the pressure to produce. This is self-imposed pressure, but very motivating. I didn't want two whole months to slip away without some useful feedback from my fellow writers!

I bet the reason the Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month) takes place in November is because November sucks! (You can see my obvious bias here. I live in a state where November comes early and hard and makes me want to hibernate like the bears.) But, seriously, a significant outside motivator like Nanowrimo gets people writing more when they might be writing less.

So, I dug out the chapter book I was working on and re-looked at the Hermit Crab chapter. Thank God for Hermit Crabs and the Flaming Pitas! I feel like I'm back on track.

Writing Retreat

Recently, I had the wonderful opportunity to go on a three-day writing retreat with 3 of the 4 women in my writer's group. This was actually the first time I had ever gone on an official writing retreat, and it was well worth it!

We stayed at "The Sequel", a beautiful, cozy cabin on a lake. It was cold and rainy, then snowy. But, frankly, that was fine with me. I was less inclined to go exploring outside and more inclined to happily write away the afternoon.

Before the retreat we planned out a schedule for each day. Our day looked something like this:

8:00 am - Breakfast

9:00 am - Writing Exercise, then Free Writing Time

Noon - Lunch

1:00 pm - Hike and Write

3:00 pm - Free Writing Time

6:00 pm - Dinner

7:00 pm - Free Writing Time

8:00 pm - Games

We each came prepared to lead one writing exercise. These included exercises on character, setting, plot, and story starters. Writing exercises were kept fairly short so that we could optimize free writing time.

The other, extremely wonderful thing we did that helped optimize our writing time, was that we hired a great chef (and friend) to cook for us on the retreat. We were all so happy to have her with us!

All in all, I got a lot of writing done and had a great time. In fact, all of us had such a good time that we plan to go on a writing retreat twice a year.

If you (alone or with your writing group) can put together some kind of organized writing retreat, I highly recommend it. What a great way to get some concentrated writing accomplished and have fun along the way!

Critique Groups

For any serious writer, a critique group is a very important part of their writing (and revising) process. Writing all alone is important at times, especially when you need to get your initial thoughts on paper or write a first draft. But, when it's time for digging deeper and revising, a good critique group is essential.

I've been with my critique group for many years. We all write for children - picture books, novels, fiction, nonfiction, poetry. There are five of us. We started out as four and later added our fifth member. When we started we were all at the beginning of our writing journey. Now, we all have at least one children's book published!

It's great to have other people who know me and my writing so well. They have seen the good, the bad, and the really bad! Plus, we are all serious about improving our writing and trying to publish.

We meet once a month at a coffee shop with ample table space. We each have a chance to read our work and receive feedback. We also save time for news and writing related updates. We have sometimes slipped into too much personal chatting, but then we re-group and use our time focused on the writing.

Our critique group meets in person, but some groups meet online. My friend, Laura, is a member of an online writing group and finds it very helpful.

So, how do you form (or find) a critique group of like-minded individuals?

- Take a children's writing class. At the end of the class, ask other class members if they would like to form a critique group. (Our original foursome met at a Loft class.)

- Look for an existing group to join. Local SCBWI chapters often post groups looking for new members.

- Join an online group through the national SCBWI website.

- Attend conferences and workshops. You're likely to meet people in the same place you are - ready to step out and join a critique group!

Who knows, maybe a few years from now you will be attending each other's book launch parties!