Sunday, July 26, 2020

Are You Looking for a Critique Group or Partner?

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

It's Critique Time Again! The 2020 Summer Group is now open!

So, this morning I realized I'd completely forgotten to re-open the group on July 1 like I usually do. I blame the ongoing distraction of Corona brain. I never thought I'd need a calendar reminder to do this, but clearly, I do. I'll set one for January right after I'm done here.

Without further ado...

Back in 2013 I started a Yahoo Group called "Janice Hardy's Critique Connection" to help writers connect with like-minded folks looking for critique groups or partners. It was designed to help people find long-term, quality writing partners, not just places you can toss up your work and get quick feedback.

It went from a one-time event to annually, and now to every six months (I open it up every January and July). It's switched to Groups.io now, but it's the same group.

If you're looking to join or create a critique group, add more to your existing group, or find a critique partner, odds are you'll find someone here.

Just to be clear, I'm not personally critiquing anything in this group. This is for writers who are looking for critique partners or critique groups for more than just "I need some eyes on this before I submit it to an agent" type critiques. I'm solely a facilitator to help people connect without having to post their email addresses online, which some folks are hesitant to do.

How This Works


If you'd like to join the group, simply email me at janice @ janicehardy . com (remove the spaces), and briefly tell me what you write and what you're looking for (group or a partner). 
For example: "I write science fiction and fantasy for teens and I'm looking for a critique group or a few partners to swap manuscripts with."
I'll send you an invitation to the group and add your information to the master list of members. You'll join and send a hello email, start talking to others and see who writes what and what everyone is looking for.

A heads up--the new Groups.io requires approval for all first-time members, so it might take up to a day for me to see the email and approve it. I approve them as they come in, but if you email after hours (typically 4pm on weekdays),  I won't see it until I get back to my desk in the morning. Thank you for your patience on this. It's a hassle, I know, but they're trying to prevent spammers.

There's a master list of members and what they write in the "Files" section of the group, and I update that daily as new people join and send me their information. Since the list has gotten huge over the years, there's now a "Previous Members" list, and it's okay to look there as well if you don't see a good match on this year's list. You can always ask if a past member is still looking.

This is all private and by invitation only, so random folks googling "crit groups" won't be barging in or anything. You can come and go as you please. Once you find fellow writers to work with, feel free to drop the group if you'd like. It might take a few days for people to sign up, so if it's quiet when you first join, be patient and more will appear. The first week or two is usually busy, and it slows down by week three as everyone matches up. It's always available for members (I don't close it), but it's usually only busy during January and July.

(Here's more on Finding the Right Critique Partners)

Interested in Starting Your Own Group?


One of the tougher parts of creating critique groups (aside from finding people to join) is finding a place to host it. Unless everyone is local, there's no central place for people to share their work.

I switched to Groups.io last year from Yahoo. You can create you own group and invite people to join, have a forum and a site to upload work and critiques, and email the group as a whole. Everything is private and you can control who joins.

Ideally, people will join the Critique Connection group, hang out and meet compatible writers, then break off and form their own group. It's easy peasy to create one, and people can even leave a description of their group on the CC site if they're looking for more members. Of course, they're free to meet up however works for them as well. Partners could just email each other, for example.

(Here's more on The Benefits From Critiquing Are Not Just in the Feedback Given and Received)

Critique Commitments


If you've never been in a critique group before, it's good to know that there are commitments to be made. Each group sets its own rules, but for a group to work and run well, people need to adhere to those rules. For example, I've had groups that turned in X-words every X weeks for works in progress, and groups that read whole projects at once over a predetermined time frame depending on the size of the project (five days for short stories, three to five weeks for novels).

It's not a bad idea to think about what you want and how much time you can spend. A hard-core group that wants to submit a chapter a week won't work for someone who wants a once-a-month schedule. People looking for plotting and story development help for first drafts want different things than writers looking to polish finished drafts.

(Here's more on Harsh Does Not Equal Honest: Pick Your Beta Readers Carefully)

Plus, quality critiques take time. If it takes you two hours to critique a chapter, and your five-person group submits a chapter each every two weeks, that's twenty hours a month for the group. If that's a commitment you can't make, that's not the right group for you (and there's nothing wrong with that, everyone has different needs and available time).

(Here's more on Listen to Me: Putting Feedback to Good Use)

Going in prepared increases your chances of success.

So that's the deal. Anyone who'd like to find some fellow critiquers can let me know.

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