Ahoy, revelers!
I’m
sure the holiday feasting and partying has begun.
Mighty
thanks to everyone who commented on the last post about my critique- group
misadventures. Seems I struck a nerve. Your stories made me slightly seasick
with their storminess!
But
take heart. This post, my friends, is the antidote to queasy critique stomachs.
Before
I launch into the when, what, why and how, let me thank my critique group, Lit
Chix, for giving me permission to post actual pages of critiqued work, mine and
theirs. Some of you will enlarge and read the pages. I expect the curious to do
that. It will also show you our process.
And for this post, I dispense with my usual pirate chatter. The subject warrants it. Aie.
A Short Lit Chix
History
We
first formed in 2003. (Thank you, Chris for being our historian and hostess!)
How did we find each other? Two members were already meeting to share their
writing. Patsy Hand, my co-coordinator for Mid-Valley Willamette Writers
Speakers Series, and I were invited to join because we knew one of the women.
Our fifth member came on board via another writers group. (Writing
organizations, networking, attending writing gigs: that’s how you meet other
writers.) The five of us wrote fiction and one wrote screenplays. After two of
our members left, we focused on our novels, although we also write and critique
short stories, memoir, and recently a web site bio. Even though I write poetry,
I wouldn’t bring it to the group. And personally, I don’t think I did justice
to the screenplay form because I didn’t know it. I did, however, study
screenwriting on my own to be better informed for the feedback I gave.
PatsyHand (who is also a fabulous artist),
Chris Scofield, and I formed a triangle of
bonhomie and solid work. We’ve all published short work. I’ve
had two agents in that time and am currently with the Zimmermann Agency, a
boutique agency out of New York. Helen tried valiantly to sell my last novel,
which I’ll rework after I finish my current work in progress (WIP). Patsy
already has agents interested in her new novel and is putting a final polish on
it. And this year, the prestigious literary agency of Donadio & Olson chose
to rep Chris and her novel Shark Curtain. Her agent, Carrie Howland, has the manuscript out with NY editors.
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| How I track my chapters with the group |
|
The Name
“Lit
Chix” was our way of poking fun at ourselves and an industry that created the
Chick Lit category.
I
turned Chick Lit around to Lit Chix because I thought our group was “lit” in so
many ways—shining with literary madness, lit as in too many cosmos, lit with
excitement, lit as in “our day in the sun will come.” Okay, well, maybe I
riffed a little too much on our chosen name, but I remember when Chick Lit was
first used as a title to a book on post-feminist writings. Check out the
fascinating history of
Chick Lit on Wiki.
(I,
of course, wonder why not “dude lit” for the male category of “searching for
meaning in a wastrel world” or “dick lit” for all the testosterone-driven
suspense novels featuring crime-solving uber-males? Don’t get me wrong. I love
men. I’m not bashing them. I’m just asking the publishing industry, you know?)
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| Chick Lit |
The Stuff You’ve
Been Waiting For
Let’s
jump to what I think makes our group work.
1)
Respect: we don’t attack the work,
the person, or the person’s ideology in the work; as different as we all are,
we do, however, have common ethical, spiritual and political beliefs and this
makes a huge difference.
2)
Humor: if writers can’t laugh at themselves or the world, we’re screwed; I’m
sure writers endure a similar level of physical and emotional risk and stress
equal to firefighters and police; we do, however, get to endure it in our
pajamas.
3)
Chemistry: yes, this is a major component of our success. Like finding a
marriage/life partner, a group needs “chemistry,” whatever that is. We like
each other. We love each other. We have come to a point where we can’t imagine
not being in one another’s life.
4)
Commitment: we, as my dear friend Jessica Maxwell says about successful people,
“suit up and show up.” No excuses. Only birth and death seem to keep up from
meeting. We come prepared.
5)
Equal Level of Craft: we are at similar levels of development as far as craft,
knowledge and the definition-elusive “talent.” We are obsessive students of the
writing craft. We spent one day at Patsy’s house watching, then discussing,
Michael Hogue’s five-hour DVD on writing screenplays in order to understand the
screenplay three-act structure, helpful in writing novels. We watch movies at
our writing retreat, such as Glengarry Glen Ross, to dissect what makes the dialogue work so brilliantly.
Our Process
Writing
groups have many ways to critique the work. Ours works for us and isn’t the
only model. But we do have our reasons for doing it this way.
We
meet twice a month on Tuesdays at Chris Scofield’s house. We decided early on
that meeting at someone’s house works better as we won’t disturb anyone else,
don’t need to find parking, can bring our own food (as sometimes our meetings
go for 4-5 hours.)
We
either send by email or give our chapters to each other before the meeting. We
don’t read out loud. We read like readers would. We put all our comments on the
page and a summation at the top of the first page. Chris is a master at using
different colored pens for different reasons (she says this comes from working
with school kids), and I liked this so much, I adopted her method. We first
write what we love about the work, what worked specifically, and then follow up
with what didn’t work. We don’t cover line editing or small suggestions in
group, just on the page.
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| Chris's notes on my problematic pages |
When
we first sit down at ten o’clock, we catch up with what we’ve been doing and
where we’re at with the work. We then schedule our meetings to get them on the
calendar, especially tricky around the holidays. If there’s a writing event we
want to attend together, such as Wordstock, we talk about it and assign tasks.
We plan ahead to arrange writing retreats together at Oregon Writers Colony’s
Colonyhouse. We also discuss any marketing we’re doing or what we need to do to
get our names out there, such as social networking. As an added bonus, Chris
always gives Patsy and me newspaper and magazine clippings on subjects she
thinks we’re interested in.
And,
yes, we do talk about personal situations. When it affects us, it affects our
writing, and we give each other support and sometimes advice, but we don’t let
this take over our meetings because we love
talking about the work.
 |
| Patsy's notes on my pages |
Our
critique process starts with someone saying, “Let’s look at ___’s chapter.” No
hierarchy. More like what chapter is pulled from someone’s folder first.
We
have no set rules for what happens next. It generally goes like this:
1)
The writer listens to the other two give feedback in whatever organic way that
happens. Kudos first. Show a page with lots of positives—stars (Chris), cross
marks (Patsy), check marks (Val). Someone then starts the discussion of what
needs work or what isn’t working. When this is a common problem, a discussion
ensues. The critiqued writer can join in, but defensiveness isn’t allowed.
Questions are encouraged.
Usually
this process resembles more of a brainstorming session of how to work out the
problem. Sometimes it feels brutal at the time because it can be a large problem that seems insurmountable. But we all know
that this goes away after we go home, re-read the comments and notes from the
meeting, and then sit with it for a while. It’s just all part of the process.
We know this. Writing can be frustrating to the point of tears. We’ve all felt
one of the following many times over:
What
if we screw it up so badly, we can’t turn it around?
What
if we’ve written pure crap?
What
if I can’t pull this off?
What
do I do with the comments and how do I fix it?
If
we’re doing our job in group, these questions rarely come up because we’ve not
only talked about what doesn’t work, we’ve discussed why it doesn’t work, what
the issue is (needing a deeper emotional understanding of the characters,
ordering of information, too much narrative [telling] and not enough scene
[showing], too many side trips, lack of conflict/story arc, etc.), and what
could solve the problem.
 |
| What I live for! A note from Chris. |
For
example, last week, we discussed a problem in the last chapter of my novel.
Something was missing, a deeper note that would heighten the ending without
making it sentimental or too finalized. We brainstormed. When I lit up with an
idea and threw it out, Chris and Patsy pulled back, tilted their heads
together, and rolled their eyes. Their mannerisms are so different that when
they did this Tweedle-dum/Tweedle-dee move, I said, “I guess that’s a big
no, right?” We laughed so hard that we almost cried. We
continued batting ideas around until Chris came up with a brilliant idea that,
at first, she thought wouldn’t fly. The more we talked about it, the more it
seemed perfect. And it still does.
I’m
sure I’m missing a few points I intended to make, but this is our general
process.
An
alternative for those who can’t find writers in their area:
I
also work with a dear Seattle friend, Randy Sue Coburn, over the
phone, reading chapters with each other.
For example, when we’re working on a chapter, she reads a paragraph, then I
read the next. This has the effect of reading work aloud, while dialogue
passages come alive with two different voices for the characters. Clunkers are
instantly recognized. This process does something that doesn’t happen in
LitChix—gives immediacy and doesn’t require all that prep time.
One
last comment: LitChix is not
accepting any new members. We also agreed that, if we were to open
to new members, that would not include men as we all write primarily for women
readers.
I’d
love to hear from you. What works for your group? What methods do you use
successfully? Let’s hear your positive stories of critique groups. Any ideas
for those looking for a group? If you email me, I'll post your comment to the blog if you're having trouble using the comment section.
I leave you with this:
I’m
reading We Wanted to Be Writers: Life, Love, and Literature at the Iowa
Writer’s Workshop. For those who always
dreamed of attending the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, this is the next best thing to
being there. I learned of this book from Diane Prokop on her blog where she
reviews books. I will be featuring an interview with her in a few weeks. Stay
tuned!
Aie,
we’re a good lot, we writers! Stay true!
Captain
Val
Coming Up!
End of Year Celebration with Jan Eliot: Always Reward
Yourself
2012 New Year’s Goals
Interview with book reviewer Diane Prokop
My Research Trip to Paris: How to Let Go and Follow your
Instincts
Confirmed Gossip and News from the Writing World
