Me and My CPs

[Joanna Campbell Slan]

I meet every Tuesday with my critique partners, Judy Moresi and Donna Ross.

Today I brought along the first 10 pages of my newest book. I asked Donna, "How often have you read this starting chapter?"

She laughed. "What? Maybe, oh, five times?"

Yes, and that doesn't count all the times I've rewritten this without her knowledge.

Not long ago, someone asked, "How often do you rewrite a book?"

The answer: As often as necessary. Here's the deal: Those first ten pages are the set-up for all that follows. It's my job to get the tone, the characterizations, and the plot zipping along from the git-go. (I now live in Missouri. We have all sorts of neat words here that are new to me. And I like "git-go." It feels good on my tongue.)

So, yeah, Donna and Judy had read these pages many times before. Ah, but this time, they read the set-up and pronounced it, "Good." (Well, Judy wrote, "Great" on page one.) Am I happy? Yes, I am.

[Joanna Campbell Slan]

Absolutely, Kathryn. We can't judge our own work adequately. The problem is: Most people only want to hear how good their stuff is. Finding people who have the experience to really help can be hard. Most importantly, if you have access to those people, don't fight the criticism! A lot of published authors refuse to critique the work of non-pubs because non-pubs get all huffy. In fact, I think I'll ask a friend who had exactly this experience to tell us about it.

[Kathryn Lilley]

I rely on my critique group, as well! I actually go to two--one reads my current work, the other the earleir sections. I know once I can get an approval from both these groups, I'm in pretty good shape!