Happy Friday!
I've been getting good feedback from the ongoing Critique Partner Dating Service. Yay! Just a reminder that, as you hook up and get to know other writers, you're not under any obligation to continue the relationship if one or both of you don't feel the "click".
I know you know that. I'm just mother-henning you. Clicks are important, yes?
So talk to me about the clicks in your writerly life. What makes a critique partner "click" for you? What makes a story "click" for you (that you're reading or writing)? And if you are agented, what was the "click" that made you say, "YES! YES!"?
Each of my critique partner relationships grew naturally from a friendship. For me, this has worked beautifully. We "clicked" as friends and then we "clicked" as critique partners. At least, that's the way it is with the CPs I'm still connected to, still read for. Sometimes there isn't a click once you actually read for each other--and that's okay.
As for the Josh Click? It was something about the way he talked about my story. The way he mentioned my characters' names as though they were real. (Well, they are real. I mean...you know what I mean.) The way his enthusiasm OOZED through emails and the phone. His realness. His Yankee-ness (I can't help it. I'm a Northern girl forever.). His vision. And his laughter.
I adore him. And I'll shut up about that now.
Anyway. That's what "click" means for me. What does it mean for you?
Share your clicks!
I have a critique partner who I found through a local writers group. We're kind of a Mutt and Jeff match, but our sincere interest in each other's work has worked well.I've got two people from the "CP Dating Service" that have I a good feeling about connecting with. I'll let you know how it goes.
ReplyDeleteI love how you described your "click" with Josh. THATS how I felt when I got feedback from my current CPs. One in particular really 'got' my heroine and when a major character was unhappily killed off, she mourned for him. Even weeks after reading, when we'd be mentioning parts when that character was still alive, she would bemoan the fact that he was dead.
ReplyDeleteLike he was a real person...because to both of us, he was.
I'm excited about two possible critique partners as a result of the Critique Partner Dating Service. Within just a few emails, we realized how much we had in common including that we both grew up in Texas and we both lived in the DC area. Serendipity or Miss Snark ju-ju?
ReplyDeleteWhat "clicks" for me?
ReplyDeleteGood writing. Words that are woven together in such a way that it makes me want to slow down when I read them, savoring the way they sound when read aloud. The genre matters less to me when the writing is melodic and well-considered. I love when I read a phrase that makes me think "Wow. I have never heard it put quite that way before."
Now I must go prove that I am not a robot.
I fell in love with my agent Pam van Hylckama Vlieg from the very moment I spoke with her on the phone! She was incredibly enthusiastic about my story and a whole lot of fun. We totally clicked!
ReplyDeleteI have both online and in-person crit partners, and we all write YA. We also have become more than just crit partners, bouncing this or that off each other (not always writing-related, either). So trust is a big part of having the right people around you. You really do have to click to make it a clique! ;)
I have one great crit-ter whom I met at my first writers conference. We're a good match b/c we both really admire each other's writing, (I do mostly fiction, she does mostly personal essays and memoir); my edits/crits are just the ticket for her and vice versa. She is impressively published and has been to Yaddo(!) and I am barely published, but she is a true fan of my work and it's very encouraging (she also noodges me to get out there more.)
ReplyDeleteFinding that perfect match where you each "get" what the other is trying to accomplish and know just what to suggest to help the partner move in that direction. An enthusiastic champion who can still see and be honest about all the flaws.
ReplyDelete