Finding Your People

by Sarah | Oct 16, 2012 | Critters, Writing, writing tips

When I first started this writing journey I had no people.

No, that’s wrong. I had two people.

My two people were (and still are) amazing.  They remain today as my Alpha readers, keeping me going when I wane in energy. Pestering me for more words, more characters, more stories.  Those people, they are my first people. My first line of defense in story writing.  The ones that say “Um, wait…wha?” if i screw up a story line or a character in some way.  They keep me on my toes and eager to write.

But a writer needs more than Alphas.  Needs more than two people (ok, 3 if you count my hubs, but he doesn’t read romance) cheering you on.

So I found a group.  A small group, but they were great peeps.  In my first novel-writing foray before ebooks took over and before I ever managed to reach anything resembling a sell-able novel, they were good to have around.  They were there to critique, but I rarely took advantage as I was new, not thick-skinned, and just didn’t understand the importance.  One person among them (the one that brought me there) saw my novel and gave me critiques.  They were harsh.  Looking back, they were fair, but to my naivete they were very harsh.

After a couple of nibbles on the novel, 3 rewrites and no takers I started something new. I walked away from 5 years of effort to try something new.  At the same time that writers group sort of drifted away into the wind.  No one went to the forum, all was quiet and eventually faded into the depths of the internet.  I’m still friends with two or three of them on Facebook, but for the most part we’ve parted ways.

Fast forward to about 6 months ago.  Changing Tracks had made the agent rounds, I was still waiting on word from a couple of agents and not sure where to go next. I had started working on The Tribe, but not much else.  I’d joined a couple of those writing challenge things, but one had faded into the background (but is now active again, I may participate) and the other…well, they screwed me and my friend over and so we walked away.

My only connection to any sense of the writing world was the #amwriting thread on twitter.  One random day I happened to catch a tweet about a blog post called “Beta Readers, Critters, and Editors Part 2A“.  I didn’t know the author but all I could think was “Wow, I could use some of THOSE” and thus I clicked the link.

The author had me rolling in laughter talking about DFL (Dumb F***ing Luck) and how that’s sort of what it takes to get a good critter.  I responded immediately because I’d just recently posted on twitter about needing some good critters.

Turns out seeing that tweet and clicking on that link gave me the best dose of DFL I’ve ever had.  The original author (Jennifer James) formed a group of critters – 8 people, half published, half not.  We formed a support group of sorts.  We push each other forward, we let each other know about submission calls, or our experiences with certain publishers, bounce ideas off each other and, of course, critique the hell out of each others pieces.

In the 6 months since I met them I’ve been published in horror, received a contract for Changing Tracks (technically 2 contracts, I turned down 1), I’m currently waiting on a response for another horror submission I put in (I know, horror and romance, aren’t I a BLAST?) – and I’ve got one heck of an amazing critique going for my other Historical Western Romance (Masked Hearts) that I’m hoping to sub by the end of the year (Yeah, I totall <3 you, Sabrina).

I used to think I could make it on my own.  That stumbling through this world of publishing could be done just because I’m awesome.  Turns out, I had to find the right group.  With the help of some DFL, and some wonderful people, my entire writing career has changed drastically in 6 months time.

I never could have done it without them.

And I wouldn’t ever try again.

Have you found your people?