Worldcon Starts!

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Wednesday, August 19

While we are checking into the Grand Hotel, both other members of our writer’s group appear.  Leasspell is together for the first time…My, but Jason is tall! (or I’m short…one of the two). Was so glad to meet him face to face.

But down to business. Dropped off five books from Tickety Boo Press in the dearlers room to be sold by the Northwest Writer’s Association.  They were great to let TBP sell at their table.  Thank you Jeffery Cook for putting that together!

After that, had to get to my first panel: To Include or not to Include: Evaluating Writing Critiques

This panel recommended that you version control your work…and not version control it.

That when forming a writer’s group, you get a pro to run it…and that you not get a pro to run it.

That you listen to critiques…and that you not listen to them.

This was a good panel with lively discussions.  In a nutshell, it said that you are your own best judge of what you should listen to. So you need to know yourself.  Are you prone to rejecting authority? Are you likely to take advice no matter what?  In the past, what was your first response to a critique you knew was right.  I told how I’ve spent years training my husband to be a proper critique.  When I know he’s not right, I can just think, yeah yeah, move along.  But when he’s right…I get mad at him.  Damn it! Why won’t he just let me sweep that under the carpet?  Grumble, Grumble.

A good policy is to read the critique and then put it away for a week.  Often times it’s not as bad as you remember.  Now you are likely in a better place to address it.

If one person makes a comment about something, think hard about changing it. If several people make the same comment, take a closer look.  Even if each person says something different is wrong, if they say it at the same place, likely something is wrong there, the readers just couldn’t put their collective thumb on it.

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