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I joined CC in 2005 as I began my journey with my first contemporary romance, Time Changes Everything. Back then,I just wrote as a hobby and for the fun of it. I never thought I?d actually take it to the next level. But, CC did that for me. I got better, I grew, I wrote, I critiqued, I learned ? and the rest is history! Read this blog 
June, 2006 was a fantastic month. That's when someone on Critters (another writer site) told me, Arlene Webb, about CC. Within a year, I had a star beside my name, a buddy list, and private queues for a series I?d been working on since 2004. For me, CC isn't just about honing the craft of writing, although I bear testament to how fantastic the site is with thousands of crits given and received. I've made friends that know me better than anyone else and those friends are still teaching me how to write. Read this blog
When you're wondering how good your writing is, the best way to find out is to get comments from at least five hundred readers. A tiny group of readers makes a poor statistical sample. Critiquers at Critique Circle present a better alternative. They will offer an extraordinary variety of insights. Take a look at almost any chapter posted here, and marvel at how the critiques vary. Critique Circle has had a profound affect on my writing. I discovered, both from critiques on my own writing, and from critiquing others, how dangerous it is for anyone to see their writing from their own point of view. Other people will read your books. That's the goal, right? It is not very important that they bring their own preconceptions, biases, misunderstandings and misapprehensions to your writing. It is much more important if your story is so clear to you, the author, that you failed to narrate it. People will fill in the missing gaps, and in the process, they will become angry, confused, and bored. Read this blog
I wish I'd taken up creative writing decades ago, taken it seriously, I mean, really gotten into the craft. It's not because I dream of fame and fortune, or the past that might have been. Writing, as a profession, is much like sport. A few make a fortune, but most folk pay to play. However, we don't need to be pro athletes to benefit from sport. And we don't need to aspire to publication to benefit from writing. To be successful in almost any field of endeavor, we need the ability to deliver our message, get our point across, share our passions. We need to communicate. And what is creative writing in a forum like this, if not communication? We seek, not merely to connect, but to influence, to inspire, to draw others into a world of our making. Read this blog
I use to attend and even host any number of F2F critique groups over my thirty plus years of writing but often felt it was a waste of time. My stories had been read and enjoyed by complete strangers so I felt the plot and character creation was solid. What I needed was help improving my craft. Because of this I tended toward destructive critique groups ? those who would point out the flaws in my work rather than pat me on the head for having written anything at all. What I found most painful with these groups was submitting a work of science fiction to writers where the vast percentage had never read scifi nor cared. Additionally the politics of how often or how much material one could ?burden other authors with? became a constant sore spot for me. Read this blog
My 'overnight success' took 18 years. I wrote my first novel at age 23, after a dose of reality in the brokerage business. This was the early '80s, when executive-level women were virtually nonexistent in the world of finance. My first novel, largely autobiographical, as most first novels are, featured my heroine who made it to the top of a brokerage firm. It was continually rejected on the grounds that I had an axe to grind?and of course I did. Read this blog
All writers—married or single—know that writing takes time and patience. It takes solitude, too: a room of its own. I sometimes feel like an overwhelmed single parent, raising little story monsters. I've learned that I needn't do it all alone, but who'd invite a single mom with three wild "kids" into their home? Who'd want to read my early drafts? No one, except other single parents. Other writers. Read this blog
Except for a very rare, elite few, all writers have another job: the one that pays the bills. So working on your next bestseller (a full-time job in and of itself) has to be squeezed between other obligations of life. It's a bit like walking a tightrope sometimes, trying to fit it all in - walking a tightrope backwards, while blindfolded, carrying a massive bowl of fruit (on your head). Read this blog
Critique Circle is the birthplace of my first three novels, all published within one year. I can honestly say that without the wonderful writers at Critique Circle, I would still be sitting at my engineering job churning code and going over build results and bug counts. I was introduced to Critique Circle by Victorine Lieske. It was Feb 2011 and I had a draft of Michal's Window. My daughter had read it. I had also sent chapters to a friend who said it was good. But in reality, it stunk. I had no clue what I should do next. Write query letters? Find an editor? All seemed so daunting and unapproachable. That's when I sent a note to Victorine on kindleboards. I asked her how she prepared her blockbuster novel for publication. She pointed me to Critique Circle and changed my life. Read this blog
I'll admit that my skin was paper thin when I first signed on, and it took some doing to realize that most comments given were for my own good, and for the good of my writing. My biggest struggle was figuring out what advice worked and what didn't. I came to writing without any training and found the plethora of advice overwhelming, but eventually learned to trust my instincts and my heart. Through it all, I found some wonderful critique partners I've come to trust and respect. Do I take all their suggestions to heart? No. Do I stop and give them thought before dismissing them? Absolutely. Read this blog
We writers — ha ha — we're so messy. We play with words like toddlers with pudding — pudding we assemble ourselves. We have so many ingredients to choose from, and they're all so yummy; it's hard to know what to put in — or leave out of — the recipe. We want to be original. We need to be novel. Especially when we write genre stories, which can seem like "lite pudding" — light on substance, on meaning, on meat. Sometimes our pudding gets bad press (all plot, no purpose). Sometimes thats not fair; plenty of genre stories are loaded with meat. But sometimes its "just desserts." Read this blog
Alister Kunkle believes death is in love with him. A simple smile from friend or stranger is all it takes to encourage death to kill. With his family deceased and a path of destruction behind him, Alister sits inside a mental institution, sworn to silence and separated from the rest of the world, haunted by his inability to escape death's preferential treatment. But when a beautiful psychologist arrives at the institution and starts offering him care, Alister braces himself for more killings. When none follow, he tries to figure out whether he truly is insane or if death has finally come to him in the form of a woman. Alister Kunkle believes death is in love with him. A simple smile from friend or stranger is all it takes to encourage death to kill. Read this blog
I know that this group is unfamiliar with writing for comic books and graphic novels. So I'm bringing forth more knowledge on the craft. First, we'll begin with formats. Full Script-This gives the artist and editor the entire story descriptions of scenes, dialogue, sound effects. Character dialogue is written in all caps. Action descriptions of characters and setting are described in each panel up to several paragraphs or less. Plus, each page should start fresh on another piece of paper with a notion of how many panels. Another thing to take heed are the modifiers. Read this blog
I stumbled onto Critique Circle in 2011 with a handful of short stories I couldn't even convince my friends to read, and within a couple of weeks I had six solid critiques on the first piece I submitted. The people critiquing, were, in most aspects, just like you - the aspiring writer - looking to improve and lift one's abilities in writing. They don't have a University curriculum to appease. They don't have a rule book with guidelines that are comprised from hidden agendas. They are, in essence, great appreciators of storytelling and have an open mind when it comes to personal artistry. Read this blog
Some learning moments are quiet, useful little nuggets, but some come as loud epiphanies, forever changing the flow of a writer's words. My AS moment came like a bolt of lightening. When my eyes opened to this small but potentially hazardous word, it was a great big 'Why didn't I see that before?' I'm sharing this slice of my learning curve pain on the chance a fellow writer or two might need the nugget added to their pile. So they can have their stupid AS moment, too. Read this blog
In all, I left feeling that the Writer's Roundtables were worth the money. I met other writers, got an inside look at what editors and agents are thinking, and got a toenail in the door with two editors at major publishing houses, along with their professional feedback on something I had written. I didn't leave with any illusions that the editors were going to welcome everyone's manuscripts. They promised to review our submissions, but that could mean a lot of things, including that they might read the opening line and delete the email. We were, however, assured by these editors that they had acquired the manuscripts of some conference attendees in the past. Read this blog
I had a slow and rocky start on CritiqueCircle. I'd read books about writing fiction, but wasn't applying what I'd learned. I had situations and character problems in mind, but not much of a story. Critiquers here were kind, with comments like "I don't know where this is going." I thought I was thick-skinned, but I was easily discouraged. Fortunately, I'm persistent, even obsessive. In a few months, I found critique partners who helped me separate the good from the bad. And that's where the real learning began. Read this blog
Language, or at least the corners of it that we can reach, rarely suffices, and it is a truth universally acknowledged that a writer in possession of something to say must be in want of just the right way to say it. It's not like this is news to any of us, of course. But it still scares me shitless every time I sit down to write a new story, and usually I end up seeking refuge in silly openings such as Bigfoot trying to squeeze through a giant photograph, or a drunk teddy occupying Sartre's seat on a bench, or a group of actors pointing rubber chickens at a man. And I've come to accept that; I've even come to appreciate it. I'm a writerly coward, and I disguise it by being an artist. On the rare occasions that I don't, however, when I'm feeling bold and boldly face the inadequacies of my vocabulary head on and challenge it to a fistfight ('cause, come on, honestly, that's how all of us like to picture it), I never forget the importance of considering anthropomorphism. Read this blog
I'm thrilled to be able to introduce my book, Not What She Seems, and tell a bit about how it ended up on the NYT's best seller list. I'm not really a writer. At least, not like some writers who were born to write. I'd always thought it would be cool to write a book, but never got around to it. Then one day I injured my back. It completely seized up and I literally could not move. I was on bed rest for a week, with nothing to do. I'd read all the novels in my house. I had no interest in sending my husband out to get me something from the library (I'm a picky reader). So I decided to write that novel I'd always wanted to write. I stuck a pillow under my knees, fired up my laptop and started typing. One week later, I had a completed novel. I was silly enough to think the first draft was it. I was done! Luckily, when I was looking around online for how to get my perfect book printed, I found Critique Circle. Read this blog
Years and years (and years) ago, the very first time I sat down to write a story, I couldn't wait to tell the reader everything. I love complicated plots, and I wanted to show my reader everything that my main character didn't know: events behind the scenes, the thought process of other characters and the bad guy(s), an overview of events happening in the present, how certain things worked, etc. Literally, everything that happened in the story, as well as a fair bit of research, was included. You can imagine the big mess I ended up with.  Read this blog
The novel system was first introduced to CC exactly five years ago, on January 14th 2007. To mark the occasion of the novel system's 5th anniversary we have just published the first major revision to this system since its inception. For those of you who don't know that this is, every time you see a story on CC with a little blue book icon next to it, this is a part of a novel. This allows you to navigate between chapters at ease and allows the author to add all sorts of important and fun information to her chapters, making the pieces form a complete whole. This system is available to premium members and has been a must-have for many people since it was first introduced. To date we have had over 1500 novels and a total of over 15000 novel submissions go through CC. I wanted to do something a little special with the system to mark its 5 year mark, so instead of adding some simple features I decided to go back to the drawing board and re-architect the system from the ground up in order to add some of the features that people have been asking for, but I've been unable to implement so far because of the way the system was written at the start (before I had any idea how it would be used). Read this blog
Writing is a lonely business. Every one in this industry can use a comrade-in-arms, a place to show their work to receive solid, constructive feedback on writing basics, grammar, and punctuation. Intermediate writers can join for story structure, character arc, sagging middles, metaphor, and form. As one advances, one can get into more nebulous aspects of the piece like theme, dramatic arc, style, voice, story and plot feedback, and overall consistency. Once you're comfortable in where you are as a writer, and you like the group you?re with, find other avenues, be they online or face-to-face meetings, to socialize, grow and get to know one another. It also afford the writer to find an agent, editor, an organization or website to un-kink their project idea they couldn't find on their own, or churn a simmering plot idea with a simple question, conversation overheard, or even a smell to trigger a scent memory. You. Just. Never. Know. Read this blog
I've always been a plot-writer. When I get ideas, it's almost always in the form of some incident or object, and then the character appears later. As a result, they were never as fleshed out as they should have been. I used to read that way, too, not caring so much for the characters as long as something exciting was happening. But I've grown to appreciate a robust, realistic character in the past few years, and that has extended to my writing. However (and that?s a BIG however), that doesn?t mean I had an epiphany and could suddenly write these amazing characters. It just means I knew I needed to write them, so I set out to figure out how. And I discovered that I was far better at writing minor characters than main characters. It seems completely backwards, and it?s taken a long time to figure out why that is. But I think I?ve finally clued in to something? Read this blog
We have just launched a new service at Critique Circle called The CC Digest which I wanted to tell you guys a little about. This is a personalized newsletter-style email that we send out to our members once a month which contains updates that might be interesting. Examples of the type of information the email contains is unread messages and crits, novels you have been critting, the activity of people you have regular contact with, buddy events, news items, blogs, novel updates and much, much more. Read this blog
Now that the year 2012 is drawing to a close it's a good time to take a step back and see how CC has been doing for the past year. With that in mind I went on an expedition into our trusty ol' database and ran some queries and whatnot to dig up some stats. Read this blog
I?m what you call a Pantser, not a planner. When I write, I fly by the seat of my pants and let my characters take over. However, after having to do a ?wholesale rewrite? of my debut novel for my current publisher, Crimson Romance, I realized I needed structure. Read this blog
Since you're reading this blog, you've already found Critique Circle. I've been a member for three and a half years, and love it. But this post isn't about why CC is a great place for writers (though I do recommend it!) In this age of improved technology, many writers naturally turn to the internet to find critique groups. The first time I showed my work-in-progress to anybody was in fact on CC but I've also been a member of a local, live writers' group for about a year and a half. That's where I get the sort of interaction you just can't manage online. Read this blog
I waited up until midnight on the first night and I ended up knocking out 2,271 words. For a first day that is fantastic. I should be incredibly proud of myself, but I'm not. I'm not angry at myself nor am I frustrated with my lack progress, I'm just meh. You read that right. I'm just meh about my writing (I asked several of my online writing buddies for a legitimate word for the feeling "meh" and they came up with "lethargic" and "indifferent"). It's a very odd feeling to have about a hobby that you love dearly. Read this blog
Has your story got juice? Does every sentence make us want to keep reading? If not, is there a vitamin you can take to cure the problem? According to Stephen King, there is a vitamin that will cure the story blahs?it?s Vitamin V. King?s advice about using vigorous verbs is top-shelf stuff, and when applied, it can quickly up the muscle factor of any story. Read this blog
The key to writing fascinating, engaging animal characters lies in learning everything you can about the species you?re writing for. Any story focused on an animal is already asking a lot of the reader?s willing suspension of disbelief, so don?t stretch that further by getting things wrong that you could just as easily get right. Know their biology, social behavior, natural habitats, etc. Become an expert on the animal, so that when you write you can slip into its point of view like a separate skin. Read this blog
When I came across CC ? it was mentioned on a writers' site I no longer frequent?it was like discovering the holy grail. At last there was a place where I could find out what unbiased people thought about my writing. As I began to critique people?s work and they began to critique mine, I discovered all sorts of things I'd never even thought about ? passive voice, mastering point of view, dialogue tags etc What I?d thought was pretty polished writing turned out to be anything but. Read this blog
When PGA expert Stephen Dundas was recently asked how amateur golfers can improve, he gave a rather blunt response: Ask any professional and they will tell you that the most important part of the game is putting. This is where you can save many shots in a round. So why is it that very few golfers actually practice their putting? Probably because it's not as fun as smashing a driver or hitting the perfect iron shot, but putting is where you will be able to save more shots than any other part of your game. Read this blog
All stories are anchored in place and time. As writers, we make them feel real through descriptions of era and locale, which come to life through objects, people, and their emotions. Description is critical to building a world, but it has its? own hazards. Put in too much detail about your characters and whoever is reading may put the story down. Too little detail will turn your characters into talking heads. How do we choose what to describe, and how to describe it? The advice I?ve found to be extremely useful is to stick to details that are relevant to the story. To me it means only using the details that move the plot along. Now, how do I figure out what those are? Read this blog
A writer's learning curve is like the earth's horizon, it never ends, and that's a good thing. Finding ways to improve a novel's opening line, its 'hook', is something every author continuously works on. Great authors make it look easy, but writers know better. Who knew, back when I was a virgin reader, that my favorite authors spent minutes, sometimes hours, thinking about the words and flow of a single sentence? Writing well requires a lot of 'moving parts'. No matter where you are on the journey. Read this blog
I have a confession: I don't read much YA fiction off the shelf. My writing colleagues are surprised when I tell them that. They're convinced I've broken a cardinal rule of the business. I have to read the all new stuff every year, they say, or I won't know what agents are buying. In most categories that's true ? but YA is a very different animal, and the usual rules have less relevance. Read this blog
What the heck is the actual difference between voice and tone ? and where is there an answer that doesn't sound like grammar school gibberish? Read this blog
You know how it is, you're plodding along, writing three pages one day, five the next, ten on a great day. You complete a story here and a novel there. Then all of a sudden a baby comes along. Whoa. Before you've even figured out what the hell you're supposed to be doing with this wonderful little human being who has taken over your entire life, you have another one. Next thing you know you're buried under an avalanche of diapers, glow-in-the-dark pacifiers, Playmobil figures and Moomintroll DVDs; you haven?t slept through the night since 2007 — and one day you realize you haven't written for, oh, four years...? Read this blog
You need to back up your writing! That is the most important advice I can give you (since I can't write actual prose to save my life). If you don't, you will regret it. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life... Read this blog
No need to check your calender, it is indeed August and not October 31st. There are still over two months to go until NaNoWriMo. NaNo is crazy and chaotic, and that's what makes it work - for some of us. Many of us participate every year, but have never reached that magical final word count of 50.000. A possible solution: Setting goals. Read this blog
In our hot topic series we'll be taking a close look at an interesting topic that has recently come up on our forums. Our first hot topic question: Can I use excerpts from song lyrics or a poem in my book? Read this blog
We all eat, and apparently, so do our characters. We may plough through a critique of a stubborn manuscript in progress and feel like eating is all these people ever do. Read this blog
Character is plot. Plot is character. I believe it was F. Scott Fitzgerald who said this, although according to Google it has also been attributed to Henry James. Whoever said it, I have yet to meet a writer who disagrees. Book ideas can start anywhere, from a basic idea, a ghost of a character, a plot twist or a theme that interests you. When thinking back on my four novels, two of them evolved from a plot idea and the other two from a character idea. Read this blog
Well, the first Hook weekend of the year is behind us! We had 48 stories in the Hook Queue, and most of them received between 20 and 30 instances of feedback, ranging from 3 words (such as: "I liked it") to a few hundred. Read this blog
Moss grew on every stone. It was that weird bird again. It had to be missing from a zoo or something. The top of the mountain had never seemed so distant. "Drop that coconut!" she shouted. "Step away slowly!" Some things to consider: Season. Place. Time. Read this blog
Check out this fantastic site: Beautiful Libraries. It has amazing images of all kinds of libraries. Do you have a picture of your library you'd like to share? Read this blog
CC's Daily Story Starters - sometimes all you need is a little push in any direction... Blocked? Bored? Blue? Need a push to start off today's writing? Read this blog
It is a sad (but perhaps strangely reassuring?) fact: all writers have trouble getting to work and staying on track (there is the possible exception of Isaac Asimov who reportedly never wanted to do anything but write....). There are some strange stories out there. John McPhee is said to have tied himself to a chair with the belt from his bathrobe. Victor Hugo had a servant take away his clothes and leave him alone in his office with no distractions from his pen and paper. Schiller liked to have rotten apples nearby as he worked — and we seem to recall some writer liked to stand in a tub of cold water to keep himself alert. Read this blog
About a year ago there was a lot of excitement about the Hook queue, a unique queue for people to anonymously submit up to 1000 words of their manuscript, and receive very short and quick anonymous feedback. The idea is that readers read though the manuscript until they lose interest, much like an overworked editor trying to get through the slush pile mountain. Readers mark the spots where they quit, and preferably make some comments to the writer, reporting their thoughts on the manuscript and why they stopped reading where they did. Read this blog
CC's Daily Story Starters - sometimes all you need is a little push in any direction... Blocked? Bored? Blued? Need a push to start off today's writing? Here are today's Story Starters. Use them as you see fit — alter them to suit your needs, use them as inspiration or as an exercise — or best of all, shake your head in disgust and write a much better line! Read this blog
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