Or more specifically, I-think-I'm-a-big-girl shoes. If you've been reading my last few posts, you know that I've been reflecting on my blog's evolution. We've covered the newbie stage, the getting acquainted stage, and the discovery stage. Today, I want to talk about the overly confident stage.
When I first started out, I never thought anyone would be reading, so I wrote pretty much whatever I wanted to write. Then, when a few people began following my blog, I started paying attention to what material I was making public. I also started following other blogs and forming close friendships (if not friendships, then at the very least, common bonds). And eventually, I realized all the information blogging provided.
Now this next stage was not intentional, but it did in fact happen. I took all that information I had learned and started sharing it with all of my readers. My followers increased, and I thought I really knew what I was doing around here. You know, kind of like a fifteen-year-old girl who thinks she knows way more than her mother does. I was a big girl. I knew everything. There was absolutely nothing else to learn.
NOT!
I figured that out real fast. Not only with blogging, but with my writing as well. During this know-it-all stage, I acquired several beta readers/crit partners. Around the same time I realized I didn't know everything about blogging, I also realized I didn't know everything, or even hardly anything, about writing. And I have those beta readers/crit partners to thank for it. And in a direct way, I have blogging to thank for it too. If I hadn't been blogging, the only people who would have read my writing would have been my ever-praising mother and my easy-to-please teenage daughter. I would have gone on thinking my writing was brilliant. Thinking that all these agents and publishers were crazy for not appreciating it. Sulking because the whole business is all about luck and not about talent. (All of these things, by the way, are so not true!)
Anyway, I'd have to say that this is absolutely the greatest benefit blogging has had for me. Don't get me wrong, I love all my friends around here even if they aren't crit buddies. And I still garner extremely important information. But my crit pals...well...they changed my writing. Which is the reason I started blogging in the first place.
Okay, so there's probably already a day for this (there seems to be a day for everything anymore), but I officially declare this day, December 7th, National Thank Your Crit Buddies Day.
So, to my awesome critters (you know who you are), THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!
Anyone else have any critters to thank?
11 comments:
Oh, a good crit partner is definitely worth her weight in gold! Some people think that once they have an agent, they no longer need feedback form their peers. I couldn't disagree more!
Oh I LOVE this idea. I have an awesome CP and beta readers. They've really helped make a huge difference. :D
Oh, I'm so grateful for the eyes that have gone over my work. You aren't kidding...it's certainly made the whole blogging deal worth it b/c that's how I found mine, too.
~ Wendy
I've found a lot of beta readers and close writing friends through blogging. I wouldn't trade the time put in for anything! :)
Susan, Happy NTYCBD! We have both learned how important feedback is. Even when we started out, not knowing what the heck we were doing, we learned (are learning) a lot from each other in the process. It's amazing how sincerely analyzing someone else's writing--what works and what doesn't (in spite of the rules)--helps to sharpen our own writing.
So, Thank YOU!
Great thing to celebrate! THANK YOU, VALERIE GEARY!!! :-)
I do!! And wow have I leaned a TON from them! I didn't have a clue what GMC meant and that I should have goals and motivations and conflict in each chapter. What? Can't I just write a story? They straightened me out fast!
Yay for critique partners! I got mine through blogging as well and I am soooo grateful. They've been awesome and have taught me far, far, far more than I could have ever learned on my own.
I KNOW what you mean by your crit buddies changing your writing. Mine definitely have! And that's a good thing. It's an improvement. :) I'm glad you have great ones too!
And a big THANK YOU is coming straight back to you! I am so thankful we are CPs. And I was waiting to surprise you with this, but now feels like a really good time to tell you that you're in my Acknowledgments for CRACKED!! See, I really am thankful : )
Okay, I'm not quite at the point yet where I'm ready for a crit buddy/beta reader, but when I am, I'll have to remember that December 7th is the big day for remembering them!! ;o)
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