Is there an area to find critique partners around here?

[Camille LaGuire]

I'll be finishing the first draft of my cozy mystery this month, and I realized that I have almost no mystery readers or writers in my circle of writing friends.  Is anybody interested in exchanging chapters or manuscripts any time this summer?  (I won't be able to do heavy critique myself until I finish the book in early June or before - but I could do a few chapters at a time even now.)

If you want to check it out before speaking up, here's a blog post with the first version of the pitch and a link to the first chapter:

http://daringnovelist.blogspot.com/2010/05/may-dare-finish-book.html

Camille

[Camille LaGuire]

Thanks, Dan!

I've been at this long enough that any form of critique is good. Honest is always best. I like to get some contrary perspectives on scenes too. (I.e. a hard-boiled perspective on a romance scene, a romance writer's perspective on the action.)

I'll talk to you by email.

[Gaile Hughes]

Hi Dan,

Can I share some mind candy with you to?

[Karyn J. Powers]

You can try to establish a group by contacting English or lit professors from the closest 2 or 4 year college campus. Sometimes regional writing workshop organizers are willing to share contact information for writers in your area who have said they are looking to form a group. Local highschool English or Lit teachers may be able to direct you as well as a local librarian or book store owner/manager. You can even try the local newspaper to see if they have interviewed area writers in the past. I found a good group in my town, but it's a commitment to read other's stuff and to listen with a closed mouth and an open mind when it's your turn to be critiqued.

Good luck.

[Camille LaGuire]

Yeah, I've taught writing at the university near here for a while. Like I said, I have plenty of writing friends, and no problem finding just a generic critique group. What I am looking for is MYSTERY writers. They don't need to be local. They don't even need to be a group. (I've found a few since I began this topic.)

As I mentioned in another area of these forums, it's really easy to find literary or sf/fantasy writers for a critique group. Those genres are culturally a lot more likely to get into workshopping.

I learned this at Clarion and the sfwa workshops I've been part of. It's great to get all kinds of opinions from all kinds of people - you might even want that most of the time - but nothing replaces the feedback you get from people who really know the genre - where it's been, where it's going, and what problems are specific to it.

[I. J. Parker]

Hmm, I wonder if that has something to do with the fact that new mystery writers are nervous about having their plots stolen.

[Camille LaGuire]

It could be that - we discussed it in that other topic I started in The Main Bar and most people seemed to believe not. After searching around, I think there is just less of a culture of it. And let's face it SF and Fantasy are not just workshop-heavy cultures, they are a culture. Even the tiniest backwater town has organized fans.

After I searched around, I found that there are mystery people who are willing to workshop, but for the most part, they're more private. They like to read. They like to write. They don't form quite so many clubs with bylaws and their own made-up language. (And significantly less likely to start their own X-rated fanzine featuring a crossover between Hercule Poirot and the Continental Op.) Much more into the lone-wolf thing.

I wish I lived somewhere near one of the major mystery convention sites.