CP Love & Lessons

Back in November before we’d submitted our Pitch Wars contest entries, a Twitter writer friend asked if I’d look over her query and first few pages. She said I could also send her my materials. Together, we’d hopefully strengthen our pitches. From the first few sentences of her query, I was interested in her MS—partly because I had experience with the main plot of her story and partly because I liked her writing. Since then, we’ve been exchanging pieces of and eventually our full manuscripts, sending comments back and forth and making changes. Though we’ve never defined our relationship as such, we’re critique partners and she’s awesome. I love her MS.

When the Pitch Wars mentees were announced and I wasn’t one of them, I wrote a blog post saying (among other things) I wanted another critique partner. Another Twitter writer friend sent me a message and asked if I wanted to join her CP group. My answer was (of course) yes. We had a rough start with the holidays and this cold that seems to be spreading sicknesses faster than we can get over them, but our group now has at least five members, with the promise of a few more once Pitch Wars is over. We’ve traded our first chapters and are delving into our chapter twos. I love reading their stuff.

How much do I love everything my CPs are sending me? Well, more than I love my MS. Sure, yes, that sounds bad. Let me clarify. I love what I’ve written and I’m hoping this MS is THE ONE; however, I also love reading what other writers have written. I can tell them what I’m thinking as I read…whereas if you do this with published authors, you might just end up with a restraining order. I get to make comments and say I LOVE THIS for all these reasons or this might work better if you did this. I haven’t critiqued since my senior seminar in college. Back then, our professor had us print copies of our pages, we’d collect them from his office door, read them, and then discuss them around our tiny table at our next class. I liked it then too, but somehow I forgot about it in the intervening years. Now, I enjoy critiquing so much that I’d rather read what my CPs have written than work on my own MS. It’s FUN.

Why don’t I want to work on my MS? For starters, I feel like that’s much more work and far less fun. Also, as much as I want this MS to be THE ONE, what if I get it ready, start querying, and nothing comes of it? And then, of course, there’s the worry that when I read my CPs’ comments, they’ll say that my writing’s bad or that the story isn’t one that’ll sell (and an agent isn’t going to represent a book that won’t sell). Sure, yes, they won’t put it quite like that, but you get the idea. Overall, I’m more eager to help them than to help myself. When I have a few spare evening hours, I jump at the chance to read more of something my CPs wrote, all the while pretending not to see their emails to me.

Regardless, I need to make more time for my MS. This is the biggest thing I’ve learned since starting this CP experience. This lesson is so important to me that I want to write it in all caps (though then I fear it’s not as important to you readers and you’ll wonder why I shouted it at you). I need to get over my fears—or at least tuck them away in some dark corner where I can’t quite see them—and read my CPs’ comments. Even more, I need to remember why I need these CPs. Soon, with the help of these five(+) people, my MS will be even more awesome. My chances of getting an agent when I start querying will be far better than any chances I’ve had with the contests. And that’s another reason I love my CPs.