Writing Friends

My critique group, left to right, Me, Trish Cetrone, Lynn Coddington, Sophie Littlefield, and Cyndy Rymer

Writers who critique are not hard to come by. Pretty much anyone who has been writing for more than a month will have something to say if you put your draft, aka your baby, in their hands.

Whether they offer anything productive is another story. :)

I am blessed to have the best critique group on the planet (and sorry, but no, we are not taking new members). We didn't start out as the best ever, we evolved into our current group slowly and sometimes accidentally. Underlying every meeting, we have each other's best interests at heart, we are not afraid to give criticism but we're also not afraid to ignore criticism (even if we're sometimes wrong in ignoring it!) We each have our own critiquing strength which when put together equals a well-rounded judgement.

I've heard horror stories about professional jealousy from people who are supposed to be your friends. We have managed to avoid that trap because we are geniunely as invested in our friend's career as we are our own. We celebrate our triumphs and our disappointments equally, cheer each other on, commiserate through family trials, go on writing trips and field trips together, inspire and motivate and nag each other when necessary. Such as, thank you Sophie, for the nag, er gentle reminder to write my blog post for the week. :)


So with all the craziness in the world today, I wanted to just say thanks to my fabulous critique group. :)