The care and keeping of critique partners

Project: TFI

Looked at: Chapter 8-30

Starting word count: 80,886

Ending word count: 79,352

Gain/Loss: -1534

Biggest Problem: The most common mistakes were missing words. Little ones, like "of" and "she". (J.M. helped me find most of them, because my brain was fried at the time.)

Favorite line: He looked skeptical. "It sounds childish."
"Oh, it is," she grinned broadly.

Daily WTF: The entire letter from Aeronth to Jana, and the horrendous last chapter. Both have been fixed.

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This week was something. I haven't done an update on my editing progress in a while. J.M. has been a God send. Not only has she really helped to find the little things that my eyes skip over (but after looking at something for six years, it's bound to happen), she's also really put a fire under my ass to get this done.

I want to talk about the importance of having a partner.

First of all, it's important to have a writing partner that reminds you of a parent, in a good way. They need to be someone who is interested in what you're doing. If the other person is passionate about your work, not only will it help you, but it'll make the work fun for them. It will also give you much better feedback than someone who is so-so about your work. If they don't love it, they won't be able to help.

Second, your critique preferences should match. Make sure each of you know what the other is looking for. This isn't just about the depth of the crit, but also the timeframe for it. Some of us want to get feedback as soon as the same day, while others are happy with once a week, or even once every two weeks! Before committing to a partnership, make sure to discuss these things.

My third point goes back to the parent thing. A partner should be able to look at your work and say, "Okay, I really like this concept, but…" While we may think that all we want as writers is to hear how great everything is, it's immeasurably important that we get the negative things with it. Telling someone their work is perfect when it could use a serious overhaul is damaging to both of you. Not only does it give them a false sense, but it will eventually lead to mistrust. They will eventually see the flaws in their work, and doubt your ability to work on their novel.

Keep an open line of communication. Don't just talk about your novels. Talk about life, get to know each other if you don't already. Be friends with your writing partner. J.M. has been wonderful for this. I'm the type of writer that will see something that doesn't work and will have it revised in five minutes. She's been great about looking at something I sent out of the blue and giving her feedback on it.

You and your partner should complement each other. I'm not talking about back-patting and cigars here. I'm talking strengths and weaknesses in your writing. If you find your descriptions are bland but your dialog would make Elmore Leonard jealous, look for someone whose descriptions make you feel like you're watching a movie but whose dialog makes a first grader cringe. This is a little extreme, but you get the idea.

Honesty. If it sucks, your partner needs to be able to tell you. J.M. loved TFI. She loved it so much she couldn't sleep that night because she couldn't stop reading. She loved it so much she didn't want to stop reading it long enough to write the comment e-mails. She cancelled a doctor's appointment for it. Then she got to the end. And told me that when she got to the last chapter, it would have been thrown it across the room if it wasn't her desktop PC she'd be tossing. I love her for that.

Don't take it personally when someone trashes an aspect of your work, especially when they've enjoyed the rest of it. If all your partner does is point out that everything sucks, it may be time to sever ties and find someone more suited to you. Writing partners are like any agent or reader…they're people. Not everyone likes the same things. I have a friend who adored A Separate Peace. If I had the choice of reading that again and cleaning the animal cages of every zoo from New York to Miami, I'd be putting on some rubber boots.

This was a long entry, but it's also an important topic. It's important to find someone to confide it, cry over rejections with, someone to support you and enjoy your writing.

So thank you, Vic and J.M., for being so awesome.