KaaVonia Hinton : Who will read your work?

Sometimes writers form writing or critique groups because having readers willing to provide feedback to help strengthen a piece is priceless.

But where do you find a critique group?

Here are 7 places to start looking:

At friends. Get a writing partner. Use e-mail or face-to-face meetings to discuss your individual pieces.

In the community. Join a local writing group. In my town, a writing group meets at Barnes & Noble every third Thursday. Another meets at the Virginia Beach Higher Ed. Center.

At a writing forum. There are lots of great writing forums online. Start with The Writer’s Digest Forum.

At classes. I took 2 online classes at Writer’s Digest University and we were expected to critique each other’s work. The disadvantage might simply be that we were all supposed to critique the assignments the teacher gave. But who was willing to stop us from networking and creating a writing partnership of our own outside of the class?

At writing workshops. Similar to online classes, workshops offer numerous opportunities for giving and receiving feedback. Try Critters Workshop and the Internet Writing Workshop. They have been around for a while and are considered reputable.

At Google. Google circle makes it easy to create a circle of writer friends to bounce ideas off of.

Now that we know where to go, all we have to do is select one option and begin submitting our work and commenting on someone else’s.

Happy Critiquing!

Sources:
Linda Formichelli's "Make the Most of Writer's Forums." Writer's Digest. Oct. 2009, 35-37.

Adair Lara's

Becky Levine's "Be an Online Critique Geek." Writer's Digest. Nov./Dec. 2010, 35-38.

Brenda Miller and Suzanne Paola's

Anne Mazer and Ellen Potter's

KaaVonia Hinton