Recently, I had one of the most productive and I'll be honest, one of the most kick myself in the ass already, conversations as writer with Mo and Terri. As much as they've helped me so much in the past, this conversation really hit home like no other for me and clicked.

Within quite a few a-ha moments during the talk there was a topic that I'd never wanted to approach before, having a real honest-to-goodness CP. See Mo and Terri have supported me, guided me and even helped me with a synopsis or two, but I've never ever considered sharing my work with them for actual feedback and critique  Again, to be honest I've totally shied away from the idea.

Why?

Well as much as I'm a HUGE believer in the idea that a real CP or CP group is a wonderful tool, nay even essential, for a writer I've always felt that I'm just not there yet.

How do I ask someone "I'm a beginner and light-years behind you in learning the writing tools and rules, but would you give me time out of your super busy world to be my one on one CP?"

Likewise, what do I have to offer them? I mean aren't they looking for someone who's light-years beyond them to give critiques?

So all of this came to a head during our recent conversations and it's lit a fire under me. I'm back to really rewriting my first WIP - really tearing it apart and reworking it so that I can actually send scenes for critique. So that I can actually take a big step forward in my writing - the step of allowing myself to be open to feedback. And I don't mean just the "Okay it's good." feedback you get from friends, I mean the brutally honest "You suck at dialogue and need to work on pacing." kind of feedback.

I've come to the epiphany that this is a step along the way to becoming a professional writer. Having a CP and being open to seeing your work from the eyes of other writers is a natural progression and again, I believe an essential one.

This isn't about letting others tell me what to change, and how they hate this or that. It's about having a critical eye tell me where it lags, what writing tools I need to develop more and so on. As a writer our goal should be to get better and better as a writer and I believe a CP or CP group will help do that.

So pirates, do you have a CP? Not just a group you share with or are accountable to, but a real exchange scenes, get critiques, be honest with each other about the writing type partner? If you do, is it helpful? If you don't, why not? Are you scared to death about the critique like I was? 

Lastly, who here is gearing up for NaNoWriMo? Do you have a story idea in mind that you have researched and ready to go on Nov. 1st? Will you use it to push your current WIP forward? 

Come on crew - let's talk, let's chat! :)

"I've gotta go home and dig through my box."

I hear quiet. Then a laugh. "I'd like to hear more about this box."

There was lots of laughter as I walked down the stairs.

"You! You should write about me and a box."

I flopped down in my old, wore-out blue tweed chair and flipped an annoyed look his way.

"A box?"

"You know. A box. How I like to dig around in the box. Me and a box and adventures about me playing with the box. You know-"  He made the motions with his hands like he was digging around in the sandbox looking for buried cat treasure. "You never know what you can find inside of the box."

I had to have a mental moment with myself. Was I actually awake? Or was I dreaming this insanity. I look back over at him and he's grinning. I think I might have rubbed off on him accidently. Can you get insanity by osmosis?

I can't go any further with that conversation without taking it straight down the gutter into perv land. But you get the point. I bet you can guess who had this conversation and what day it was on too. Hellion had a similar conversation. Almost a mirror of a conversation Matt and I had months earlier about the ability to swallowing large things.

Yeah. Scratch that. We can't go there today. I'm talking about writing.

I'm pretty sure I used this title, probably early on in my blogging career with the pirates. But I couldn't resist to use it again after a suggestion from Hellion on Saturday. Once a month Hellion and I get together to discuss *okay, we pretend to discuss* writing goals, critiquing, brainstorming, books, anything that has to do with writing. This gives us an idea what we need to work on for the next month. Gives us an opportunity to have a face to face brainstorm session or bitch session about scenes that aren't being wrote the way you want to write them. *raising hand sheepishly*

Like every monthly Saturday, Hellion and I found ourselves gossiping like two old bitties out front at the local hot spot- C&S (formally known as Price's. I still call it that.) Of course, we mostly gossip about books and were sitting at the B&N while I drank some coffee, but those are just minor details. So see, I can stay on task... sometimes. We actually did more than we think we did. I mean, I did share notes about something I'm planning on working on. I'm making progress on DV (not as good of progress as I wanted to make by now but still, I've got until Labor Day to finish). Hellion is making headway with her WIP's. Especially Lucy and Elizabeth. Love them. We talked out some ideas and had more than a few laughs.

I stiff armed the idea of going into a critique group. I just didn't feel like it was the path for me. I'm a soltary creature by nature. I do well on my own and don't normally play well with others (I guess that truly makes me a pirate, huhzah!) but there are times that I'm really grateful for the critique groups and critique partners I have. It's important to have that backing when things are going wrong and the end of the road is nowhere in sight.

So, for me to write with a partner, it pushes me outside of my box. Since we're talking about boxes. Out of my confort zone. But it's a good thing.

So today, let's talk critique groups/writing partners/sounding boards. How do you like to go about writing? Do you like being outside of the box?