Politicians, Writers, and Critique Groups

My dear friend Robin Weeks had a great post yesterday, that got me waxing a little whimsical. You should check out her post before reading on.

Since I work with politicians, am the election official in charge of a primary for over 50,000 registered voters three weeks from yesterday, I must add the following to Robin's theme:

If you want to be a politician, you need to try and please everyone (to get their votes) with the end result that you tick off a lot of people.

If you want to be a writer, you must try to please everyone (because you can't submit anything without feedback so you've got beta readers, critique partners, friends, neighbors, people in line with you at the grocery store, etc. giving you input) with the end result that your ms could wind up without the power and emotion to move anyone (and you are now bald from having ripped all your hair out from trying to conform to what everyone else wants your tale to be).

Hmmm ... seems like everyone needs to accept that if you can't please everyone, you should at least please yourself.

And keep your hair.

But seriously, I've received some good feedback from my betas and tremendous input from my online critique partners. Really. These people are incredible.

Remember that stupid $770 college class I worked so hard to get into last fall because it was a prerequisite for the creative writing class I wanted? But then I got into the class and realized that no way was it going to teach me what I wanted to learn, so I dropped it?

But then I found out about my online critique group (through Robin, btw) at David Farland's Writers' Groups. So I submitted my name to a couple of groups and was accepted by both of them? And now the members (one group is very small and not overly active, which is saving my neck--while the other one is very active and keeping me busy) are teaching me just the stuff I wanted to learn?

For free!

Well, last Saturday, I attended the first meeting of a new in-person critique group.

You know. The kind with real, live people actually sitting in the same room together.

It was a heady experience. They were all at the professional critique session I attended a week ago Saturday, and two of them were in my group. This should be interesting. I've gotten so used to the online format, there will be an adjustment to this live thing.

Do you belong to a live critique group? How does yours work? How often do you meet?

If you don't belong to a live group, do you have on online one? Are you happy with it? How'd you find out about it?

Your Blog

I read this interesting article in Writers Digest about "10 Ways Writers Lose Blog Traffic and Alienate Readers" by Brian A. Klems. The key points are (you'll need to follow the link and read the article for details):


1. Post too infrequently.
2. Post too often.
3. Turn off comments.
4. Be overly snarky.
5. Choose poor photos.
6. Wax poetic about just anything.
7. Neglect to read other blogs.
8. Refrain from comment.
9. Get carried away.
10. Be self-centered.

It got me thinking about what my blog is about. Well, I guess it's about a lot of things. First, it's about my experiences learning how to do this writing thing (ex: here). There's so much to learn and so much I never considered when I first sat down before my computer, feeling embarrassed and a bit presumptuous that I would dare consider that I could learn to write. It's also about having fun. I might tell a funny experience for a blogfest like I did here. Maybe it's sharing information I gleaned at writing conferences like I did here and here (among other posts).

But I do know as I've found blogs I love to follow that they're the ones that shine with the blogger's personality. I love reading what those bloggers/writers have to say. Sometimes it's because of how much I love someone's blog that I'll be sure to buy that writer's book. Other times, a blog's author might write a genre I don't/won't read, but I love his/her blog.

I really am getting to a point here.

What should blogs be about? A sanitized, politically correct Reader's Digest version of the blogger's thoughts and feelings because some reader or agent might be sensitive? Isn't there as much to be lost as to be won by being too worried? I quit following one of my favorite author's blog because I found the stuff she wrote about boring. I'll bet there are plenty of people who love what she posts about, and I still love her books.

“I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.”
~Bill Cosby

What do you think?