Today is the release day of the third book in my Bayou Boys series The Road to Bayou Bridge, but since I like to hog Ruby Release dates, I’ve decided to share the day with a person who started out writing at the same time I started, someone who has shared the path with me for a while.Image may be NSFW.
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Long ago when I started writing, I was lucky enough to be taken under the wing of a wonderful group of writers at varying degrees of experience. One had finaled in the Golden Heart and taught writing classes at a local community college, another had umpteen thousand finals on the contest circuit, the other was published in historical Texan romance (I think that’s a category). And then there was me. Or technically it should be “And then there was I” but that sounds so weird, so anyway, I was the lone newbie who this group who vowed to help me learn to write. Cause the book I had written was a book, but not a book-book. It was garbage and I had lots to learn about how to turn trash into treasure.
So each Tuesday we’d meet for lunch at a restaurant and we’d critique, and I learned so much from those women. But eventually, as they worked on their wips, I felt like I needed to find someone like me, someone who was new and learning all she could the way I was. Enter Keri Ford.
I met Keri at a local conference when we gathered together in some horrific, scary cold read session with an editor. Sweat much? Dear Lord. It was horrifying but so informative. Keri and I sat next to one another, and then after getting our manuscripts ripped to shreds, we sat around comparing notes about contests, online groups and craft. Then and there, we decided we’d suit.
The funny thing is that at the time we were both working on Regency pieces. We truly were the blind leading the blind, but there was a beauty to it. Okay, not beauty. More of a necessity. As if we had to waffle about a bit, making mistakes, calling each other out, and getting through those first few years together. It’s like Freshman orientation where you don’t know where you are going and you look like a dork, but, hey, at least you’re in it together. Through Keri, I found my voice, found what I liked about my writing, what I didn’t, and where I was meant to go.
We did set forth some guidelines in regards to critique partners. Keri found them somewhere, but we modified to fit our needs. So I’m going to share a few valuable ones:
1. Don’t rewrite your partner’s scenes. DON’T DO THIS! Make suggestions, underline word choice issues, and use ? for things not understood.
2. Respect the premise. It’s not your book. Don’t try and change the overall plot. You can suggest rethinking certain elements, but don’t impose your ideas on your cp
3. Be timely on your critiques – if you say you’ll have it done in a week, have it in a week.
4. Set limits together. One chapter at a time? Two? Whole book? Decide first how you want to operate the critiques.
5. Look at other critique partnerships that work and figure out why. Don’t be afraid to model your partnership after successful partnerships.
6. Don’t be afraid to walk away. Sometimes no matter how much you like the other person, a critique partnership can stifle and do more harm than good.
All of the above were things I had a great deal of problem with. It’s the greatest flaw of a writer – wanting to rewrite, impinge and force oneself on another’s piece of work.
After about two years of critiquing each other’s work, we sort of drifted apart. Not as friends. But as critique partners. I think we both realized we weren’t helping each other grow, and this was no big decision on either of our parts – we just slowed in sending each other work. And eventually, we just stopped. Keri has since found a new critique partner who she loves, and I have found a brainstorming partner who meets with me each week to write and vet our plots. It’s working for me and her, but at one time we needed each other.
And what fun today is! Today we both have books out. For me, The Road to Bayou Bridge, the last book in the Boys of Bayou Bridge releases TODAY! And the second book in Keri’s Roughneck series Rough Play released last week. For two gals who didn’t have a clue, we managed pretty well.
From Keri: (Because we got our lines crossed on this holiday weekend)
Thanks Liz for having me here today and for wanting to talk a little about the cp relationship!
Liz and I critiqued for each other once upon a time. We were both young writers. Not far along our destination and fumbling our way around each other in the dark. We weren’t each other’s first.
I’d critiqued with a few other people and Liz had as well. We learned from each other, always a good thing. And we quickly learned we did a lot of things alike. Not so much in writing style. Liz just has this flavor in her writing I would never be able to pull off! With plotting and characters and that whole thing, we did a lot of the same thing. We would pass chapters back and forth and find strange similarities that were taking place. Not the same conversations, but the same motivations or actions or reactions.
Looking back, I wonder if that isn’t part of why we moved on? The cp relationship is something that’s flowing and moving, but also challenging. I can’t recall telling Liz to make big sweeping changes to make improvements…because she was already writing the story the way I would want it told!
While we didn’t make the perfect cp relationship, we did make a great friendship and a great support system. We may not talk every day, but if she needs something, she has my email and phone number and everything. And if I need something, I know only need to contact her.
You hear a lot about relationships in the writing world. The agent-relationship, the editors, the critique partners. The author-reviewer and author-readers. Liz and I created our own new relationship of just a strong support system, waiting to help the other. I’m glad to have her.
ABOUT KERI: Keri Ford was raised in South Arkansas on a farm surrounded by family, horses, cows, donkeys, ostriches, emus, chickens, ducks, Canadian Geese, and enough dogs one would think they were a pound…and then she bought a Cosmopolitan when she was twenty-two. She doesn’t recall the fantastic sex tip that drew her to the magazine, but she vividly remembers reading an excerpt of Christina’s Skye’s Code Name: Princess. One elevator scene and quick thought of, I didn’t know people wrote stuff like this… and her life would never be the same. For more info and excerpts on Keri’s books, go to http://keriford.com/
Leave a suggestion or observation about a critique partnership, and we will give out prizes! I’ll offer up a choice of the Boys of Bayou Bridge series and Keri will offer up a copy of Rough Ride, book one in the series!