This started out as a comment on Frankie's post and got way too long:
What I love about our group is that we don't feel like we have to cushion every criticism or suggestion with a compliment. That doesn't sound very mushy, but here's the reason -- we have such genuine admiration and respect for each other's work that we understand that the compliments come as naturally as the critique. Our group is so nurturing and supportive, not catty or competitive, that I never feel threatened by criticism. We are so excited by each other's work that it helps to hone our comments perfectly, because we share this common vision of our characters. This is not to say that we don't disagree with each other sometimes. We even occasionally give conflicting advice, but that's always fun.
Our characters are our babies, and I love when we're critiquing my chapter and one of the other girls says "Oh Maddy wouldn't say that" or "It would be so awesome if June _______" and it's absolutely perfect because they so get what I'm doing. (And I'm pretty sure that Frankie wants my character Paul to jump off the computer screen and be her boyfriend, but that's a different story.)
In conclusion, I heart my ladies!
This is great! I think this is a difficult thing to achieve in a critique group but we have an amazing amount of trust and friendship in our group for which I am SO thankful.
ReplyDeleteI remember one day after a particularly brutal beat down on my current draft which was wayward and problematic (Ive seen the error of my ways), Janine called to make sure I was ok because she realized I hadn't gotten any compliments. It was so sweet! And of course that critique day sucked for me, but it also goes to show how strong of a group we are that we aren't afraid to -not bash- but critique each other with...tough love and we still love each other the next day.
Also in my pre-order of the Magnetic Kama Sutra I'd like a Paul, accessorized with vegan pizza, plsKthanx!
Yeah... sorry for the beat down that time. Did I ever mention sometimes I'm too brutally honest? (Yay Janine for balancing me out and being super sweet.)
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