Is a Writers Group for You by J.Q. Rose, New Release

My Very Special Writers Group
L to R: JQ Rose, WS Gager, Joselyn Vaughn, and Tess Grant

Is a Writers Group for You? by J.Q. Rose

I appreciate my critique partners in my writers group for all their encouragement and support for my writing projects. I would not be a published author without them.

We meet every week in the summer at a local coffee shop. We spread out on the biggest table we can find because there are four of us, eat sweets, and try the different coffees and beverages. Not only do we share our submissions, but also family news, work news, etc. And sprinkled throughout the meeting, are a lot of laughs and just pure joy. 

One of our members was having trouble with stress headaches a couple of weeks ago. She reported to us that after the meeting her headache was gone! 

The Golden Rule of Writers Groups: Treat fellow writers with respect and critique each submission as you would like your submissions treated. Be kind and gentle.

Brainstorming is an essential part of the critique group's meeting.
Photo courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net by Stuart Miles

One of the highlights of our meetings is the brainstorming. I love when we throw around ideas to help solve problems in our manuscripts,  develop a character, decide how to kill off the villain, and more. I sometimes check the room to see if any patrons are eavesdropping when we talk about guns, poisons, ways to murder characters!! I hope they realize we are only using our imaginations!

Our group meets to offer critiques of submissions we bring to share. I like the way we do the submissions. We just bring one copy of the chapter--double-spaced--and pass it around to the members. We have four or five in our group at each meeting. We save paper and ink by not making a copy for each member. Also, all comments and discovered typos are on one copy. So much easier to look through when editing when we get time to make the changes (or NOT make the changes. It's completely up to the author to choose how they want to use the feedback.)

***Other groups meet to share their writing but members don't offer critiques of the work unless the author asks for help. 

I love my crit group for offering feedback in my story such as 

• The mc begins eating her burrito but never ordered it from anyone.
• A joke or a scene doesn't work
• The character's name is Brian in previous chapters and Herb in the present submission. Of course, I have to laugh when they look up with questioning eyes--Who's Herb? (Last week I had missed a few chapters of one gal's story and was reading about Hank. I decided not to ask "who's Hank," so I kept reading. When I read "Hank trotted off with a saddle pack on his back," I laughed out loud. He was a horse, not a man!)
• The same information is repeated several times. Once is enough.
• The action is going too fast.
• The scene needs the mc's internal thoughts

I'm sure you've had similar experiences. And I bet you appreciate the constructive criticism as much as I do.

So what do I hate about a crit group?  For instance, I submitted a chapter where the bad guy and his sister had to go to police headquarters. I had them together in the same room to give their statements. The give and take in the conversation was good, and the body language was fine. However, they informed me, this is not correct police procedure. The police would never allow them to be together to give a statement. Aaarghhhh. That's what I hate--I had to re-write the entire scene. 

So I put on my big girl panties, thanked them for finding this flaw, and re-wrote the chapter in a different setting. To tell the truth, it turned out to be much improved over the first attempt.

Not only can a crit group help you in writing your story, push you to complete it, and submit it to a publisher, but the group can market their books together too. We have made presentations to local groups and shared opportunities to promote our books at different venues. 

In this big world of publishing, it's good to know you have friends who will help you through the roller coaster ride of success and insecurity. Everyone needs someone to be a supporter to applaud your victories and be there for your rejections.

***

MORE INFORMATION--If you are considering joining or beginning a group or decide if a writers group is for you, then click here for my blog post published in February 2017--Critique Groups Points to Ponder. OR watch the video below.

Do you belong to a critique group or have a critique partner? What has been your experience? Please leave a comment below.

Remember to follow the J.Q. Rose blog by submitting your email address in the box at the top. You won't miss a blog post AND you won't get spammed by the Focused on Story blog.

Connect with J.Q. Rose online...

 J.Q. Rose

J. Q. Rose Author Facebook Page 

Google+ google.com/+JQRose

J. Q. Rose Amazon Author Page 

Fellow writers group memberJoselyn Vaughn just released her latest sweet romance, For the Love of Bigfoots and Butterflies. Congratulations, Joselyn!

For the Love of Bigfoots and Butterflies 

by Joselyn Vaughn

Sweet Romance--delightful and entertaining

Back of the Book: For the Love of Bigfoots and Butterflies:

Fighting for an endangered butterfly is what makes Jane Meeth tick and Tall Oaks Development is her biggest adversary. Little does she know that the CEO of the company, Marshall Linden, is none other than the handsome hiker she meets while running on the trail.

After Marshall discovers evidence of Bigfoot, he wants to establish a sanctuary to protect the creature, but he must keep it secret from the protesters of his Tall Oaks projects. He didn’t count on falling in love with Jane making his plans nearly impossible.

When an environmental disaster threatens both of their dreams, they must throw away their prejudices to make the world safe for Bigfoots and butterflies. 

Amazon Buy Link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07KNLDD9

VIDEO: Writers Groups

Insecure Writers Support Group Blog Hop: Love and Hate for My Critique Group

Hello and welcome to  the IWSG blog hop. 

What is IWSG? Founder of the  Insecure Writer’s Support Group and author Alex J Cavanaugh explains the group's purpose is "to share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!" You're invited to become a member of this supportive group.

The group blogs the first Wednesday of every month.  The list of bloggers is always available so you can hop around to the author blogs filled with humor, advice, and thought-provoking topics on writing and publishing. You can find the list of participants at Alex's IWSG page. 

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Love and Hate for My Critique Group by J.Q. Rose

When I re-read the title of this post, I thought it really sounded harsh. Let me explain. I don't hate my critique partners. In fact I love them for all their encouragement and support for my writing projects. I would not be a published author without them.

We meet every week in the summer at a local coffee shop. We spread out on the biggest table we can find because there are four of us, eat sweets, and try the different coffees and beverages. Not only do we share our submissions, but also family news, work news, etc. And sprinkled throughout the meeting, are a lot of laughs and just pure joy. 

One of our members was having trouble with stress headaches a couple of weeks ago. She reported to us that after the meeting her headache was gone! 

Brainstorming is an essential part of the critique group's meeting.
Photo courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net by Stuart Miles

One of the highlights of our meetings is the brainstorming. I love when we throw around ideas to help solve problems in our manuscripts,  develop a character, decide how to kill off the villain, and more. I sometimes check the room to see if any patrons are eavesdropping when we talk about guns, poisons, ways to murder characters!! I hope they realize we are only using our imaginations!

I also love my crit group for offering feedback in my story such as 

• The mc begins eating her burrito, but never ordered it from anyone.
• A joke or a scene doesn't work
• The character's name is Brian in previous chapters and Herb in the present submission. Of course, I have to laugh when they look up with questioning eyes--Who's Herb? (Last week I had missed a few chapters of one gal's story and was reading about Hank. I decided not to ask "who's Hank," so I kept reading. When I read "Hank trotted off with a saddle pack on his back," I laughed out loud. He was a horse, not a man!)
• The same information is repeated several times. Once is enough.
• The action is going too fast.
• The scene needs the mc's internal thoughts

I'm sure you've had similar experiences. And I bet you appreciate the constructive criticism as much as I do.

So what do I hate about a crit group?  For instance, I submitted a chapter where the bad guy and his sister had to go to police headquarters. I had them together in the same room to give their statements. The give and take in the conversation was good, and the body language was fine. However, they informed me, this is not correct police procedure. The police would never allow them to be together to give a statement. Aaarghhhh. That's what I hate--I had to re-write the entire scene. 

So I put on my big girl panties, thanked them for finding this flaw, and re-wrote the chapter in a different setting. To tell the truth, it turned out to be much improved over the first attempt.

Not only can a crit group help you in writing your story, push you to complete it, and submit it to a publisher, but the group can market their books together too. We have made presentations to local groups and shared opportunities to promote our books at different venues. 

In this big world of publishing, it's good to know you have friends who will help you through the roller coaster ride of success and insecurity. Everyone needs someone to be a supporter to applaud your victories and be there for your rejections.

 The IWSG writers certainly fit this need for all of us who work alone. We come together to help fellow writers with their insecurities and do a happy dance when one of us celebrates a milestone in their writing career.

Do you belong to a critique group or have a critique partner? What has been your experience? Please leave a comment below.

Remember to follow the J.Q. Rose blog by submitting your email address in the box at the top. You won't miss a blog post AND you won't get spammed either.

Connect with J.Q. Rose online...

 J.Q. Rose

J,Q. Rose Author Facebook Page 

Google+ google.com/+JQRose

J. Q. Rose Amazon Author Page 

My Writing Career and Yours--Lessons Learned: Author Platform, Critique Groups, Video, Podcasting

Happy St. Patrick's Day! 
March 17

Greetings from sunny Florida!
Hope you'll be celebratin' the wearin' of the green on Tuesday! Tampa, Florida, colored the waterway downtown green for the occasion. Mayor Bob Buckhorn is an Irishman. Chicago, Illinois has dyed their river green for many years. Do you know of any other cities that do this? It's a unique way to celebrate, but I wonder if the water fowl and fish turn green too?

Let's talk. Grab your coffee/ tea and pull up a chair to the kitchen table and join me.

Four years ago in March my first e-book, Sunshine Boulevard, mystery/light horror, was published by MuseItUp Publishing. To me, signing the contract with the publisher and actually having a way for readers to read my work was the official beginning of my career as an author. Previously, I had non-fiction articles published in newspapers, magazines, and e-zines. After publishing this fictional piece, I felt I could add author to my resume because I had succeeded in releasing a story from my imagination. 

Through these four years I have learned a LOT about the business of writing. A few of my realizations are:

• Building an author platform seems to be the first requirement and first step to becoming a successful author--along with writing a great story!
• Building relationships with readers is important. Don't just yell buy my book, buy my book all the time.
•  Good-old fashioned networking with people in the business helps to get your name out there. This is a mutual partnership in which we all help each other to move forward with writing and publishing careers

Lessons Learned by J.Q. Rose

Here are a few points I have learned along the way. Perhaps you can glean a few nuggets of information to help you in your determination to make writing a career.

• Support Group--I have two mysteries published by a small press, MuseItUp Publishing. I would never have been a published author without the support and input I received from my critique group. You need someone to help you with your writing. Don't write in  a vacuum. 
• 
  
• Presentations/Speaking--I joined my critique partners in  two presentations in our local communities. The most important thing I learned at these presentations/book signings is you need a print book to sell. My mysteries (and all my books) are eBooks. I love them, but they are not a product you can sell face-to-face at a gathering. I've tried coupons, but folks don't want to deal with paying for the book, THEN go home to download it. When my first eBook was published in 2011, noone knew what the heck an eBook was. I spent my time educating people on this new reading opportunity, where to find it, and the device to read it on. Nowadays people will actually take my post card and put it with their iPad or Kindle cover to look up the book later. That is encouraging, but not a sure sale like a print book is.

• Guest Bloggers--Guest blogging and hosting authors really does help you get your name out. D'vorah Lansky's Book Marketing Challenge workshop inspired me to get proactive in marketing, so I invited romance and mystery authors to my blog to share writing tips. I thought the series would only be in the fall, but I had such a wonderful response from authors, the event spilled into February. This spring  an eBook filled with the authors' writing tips and new material will be released. You can find out more about my experience with this challenge in my February 26 post, Your Book is Just the Beginning. Subscribe to this blog so you will be updated on the progress and release of the Romance and Mystery Authors on Writing ebook filled with helpful writing tips.

• Videos and podcasts are the buzz words nowadays. They help to build your audience and establish you as an expert/author and expose you to more readers. Videos actually do catch a surfer's attention, and the video will keep the reader at your site longer. You can teach a program or offer an interview.  I've learned to use the audacity.com program for audio and then the audio can be uploaded for a podcast program. At this time I don't have a desire to commit to offering a podcasting program. I have used Power Point to make a video presentation and played with Powtoon.com for a cartoon style presentation. I'm no expert after trying all these out, but I do plan to do more with Power Point in the future. My next big challenge to overcome is interviewing authors on Google Hangouts on Air. I will be interviewing my guest authors who want to "be guinea pigs" this spring and uploading  the Google videos to this site. I had a great time participating in a promotional video from the creative mind of Miss Mae. The official unofficial cyberspace reporter, I.B. Nosey, interviewed me about Coda to Murder. Take a peek.

Video:

Video:An I.B. Nosey Interview with J.Q. Rose

Consider learning how to make some videos for your site. There are lots of helpful Youtube videos from folks who know how to create video.  I especially enjoy watching video expert Lou Bortone. He also has courses available.

• Book Series--After reading articles on improving book sales, the information supports the idea to use a book series to build audience and sales. It makes sense that if people like you first book, they will come back for more and tell their friends. (the best advertising you can get). Plus the more books you have to sell, the more for readers to  buy and read. I'm developing a series on vegetable gardening to try out this theory. And I'm loving it. My husband is the expert and I am the writer.

• Finally, I discovered not to use initials for a pen name.  Yes, it's a bit late for this realization. For instance,  if you typed J. Q. Rose rather than J.Q. Rose, the search will not find my name. Nor will it find JQ Rose, because in both instances, the spacing of the letters are different from the original. Think twice if you are planning to use initials in your pen name.

Now, it's your turn to share what you have learned as you proceeded along the path to publishing? Please leave your comments or questions below. Thanks for joining me today. 

Be sure to leave your email in the box in the right margin to get notifications when the new posts appear on Mondays and Thursdays. I promise, cross my heart, NO SPAM.

This 'n That Thursday: Tip on Saving Lily Blossoms, Critique Groups, Re-writing

Rubrum lily

Good morning to ya'. I know you may not be reading this in the morning, but I am writing it on Thursday morning. A glorious summer morning. I'm sharing this photo of a Rubrum lily taken this week in a flower bed in back of our house. This gorgeous lily had at one time, 18, yep 18, blossoms and buds on the one stem. I never took the time to take a photo of that stem in all its glory, and I'm sorry, but the blooms and buds still on the stem are still breath-taking and the buds have a promise of more beauty to come. 

TIP: If you have lilies, removing the pollen from the center of the flower will lengthen the blooming time and reduce the smudging of the petals with the pollen. We call this "picking the lilies' nose." Remember this tip for Easter time when the Easter lilies are filling your room with their sweet fragrance. 

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My WIP: Critique Groups

My Work in Progress (WIP) received a jolt of energy after sharing the first chapter with a couple of authors this week. Working on a manuscript can become so absorbing that after awhile, you need a break and time to come up for air. Get back in touch with reality and there's no better way to do that than to share the writing with a crit group.

Getting together in person or online with fellow writers can give you the shot in the arm you really need to keep going. Of course some groups can really get you down too, so don't go there. Critiques should be done gently. If a member has a problem with a ms, the member can point it out, but should have suggestions to correct what she perceives as a problem.

Thankfully I am blessed to be associated with writers who can do this for me. And by sharing that first chapter this week, that's what happened. Their excitement about the chapter was contagious and now I'm rip roarin' ready to get that re-writing done. 

Another benefit of critique groups is the camaraderie shared in the meeting. We meet for coffee, share our lives, and just enjoy conversation with real human beings. It's like a breath of fresh air to escape for a bit.

Re-Writing 

I asked questions yesterday about the methods of re-writing from the many wonderful authors on the Insecure Writers Support Group. Please take a look at their in-depth answers  in yesterday's post on how they go about re-writing their stories. So interesting. I really appreciated their taking time to give so much information about their process. 

Next week I plan to have several chapters of the funeral home story ready and available for you to take the first peek. Yes, I'm fired up!!

Have a grand day/evening whether you are just beginning it, in the middle of it, or getting ready to settle in for the night.

Are you in a critique group? Has that been a good experience for you? Share your process of re-writing with us. If you're a reader, do you like to know the author's process of getting that story done and published?

Writers' Critique Groups, This Week

The peach roses in our yard are simply exquisite this year. 
They are blooming graciously and filling the air with perfume.
Sad that a rose doesn't last very long. But then, perhaps that's why we appreciate them so much.

I am fortunate to be able to partcipate in two in-person (as opposed to online) critique (crit) groups.  I have been attending the group that meets at the library for many years. Different people come and go in this group. You never know who will attend, but we do require the submission to be sent in to our yahoo group so we can print and crit it before the meeting.

The second group is made up of four members. When we began getting together no one was published. Now all of us have traditional published books. Each time a book is accepted, we all celebrate the signing. Supporting each other whether by critiquing the stories, talking publishing, or even complaining about the kids, is a huge part of being a member of this group.

Are you a member of a crit group? Is it online or in-person? How's that working for you?

I decided to write this post today because I discovered a great guest post on Karen Cioffi's Writers on the Move blog by Shirley Corder titled Tread Gently--10 Steps to Provide a Helpful Critique. Helpful is the operative word here. Take a peek.

This Week:

Thursday, July 26-- The series on How to Begin Recording Your Life Story Part 2 continues. I am honored to share a lovely poem by Tanja Cilia. Be sure to stop in.