Day #3 and the letter C on the Blogging from A to Z Challenge...and my topic is:

Critique Partners

I have some truly amazing critique partners. Seriously.

Most have been around for a few years, while a couple are more recent - but regardless of our time together, they are all still amazing.

If you're a writer, then you already know the importance of a good critique partner - and even more so, how a good one is hard to find. And if you're just getting started on sharing your manuscript with others, here are my top 5 reasons why my CP's have been invaluable to me:

1. Each one of my CP's is an actual writer themselves (vs. a relative or friend), and we're all pretty close in the timeline of where we are with our writing and the road to publication.
2. While everyone has a full plate, they all give willingly of their time and expertise - but it's reciprocal, and I owe it to them to do the same for their stories. Lately, I could definitely take note of this point, as I've been slacking on my CP duties!
3. This one's a tough one - but each CP knows when I need the hard truth and when I need to hear encouragement, and they make the encouragement sound like honest praise. None of them comment, just to comment and nothing is said with a spiteful tongue.
4. They're great for brainstorming new ideas. Sometimes that brilliant idea you have in your head, isn't so brilliant when you flush it out with your CP's - and sometimes, it gets even better!
5. They are my friends - and while I've only met one of them in person - they all care about me and what challenges I face on the long journey of becoming published. I will have no issue calling each one of my CP's out by name, at the back of my book in my acknowledgement section - cause yes, they have been that helpful!

There are many great resources out there, on finding the right CP for you - but here's a post I wrote last year, on an amazing writerly group I belong to, The Write Brained Network. I also happen to spearhead their YA group - YAwesome Writers, where we have a pretty fantastic critique group set up for those writing in the YA / MG genre. Hop on over if you're interested - the more, the merrier!

Critique Partners - what are your thoughts? Do you have any you just couldn't live without?

Well hello fellow YAwesome writers!

I'm part of an a-mazing on-line writers group, The Write-Brained Network, or the WB for short. And within that group, I head up the Young Adult writers subgroup, YAwesome Writers.

So far the YA group is kicking butt and taking names (there are 31 members so far!), but I've done very little over the past few months, in regards to setting up activities for everyone.

With that being said, and based on how popular our group is, not to mention that of the YA genre (and not just for all of us that write it, but read it as well) I'd love to open the door to all of my fellow YAwesome writers, and see if anyone out there would be interested in forming a critique group?

I know many of you are already a part of other critique groups / beta readers, so who knows what kind of response I'll receive? But...I'd love to see if there is any interest!