By Duffy Brown
Critique group is two
words, two parts. The group part builds your story; the critique part ruins it.
Brainstorming with others develops, creates and unites; critiquing destroys
frustrates and separates.
There are boatloads of how-to books
out there on the basics of writing and lists of workshops that can hone skills,
but when it comes to writing your story, it must be one-hundred-percent told in
your voice. If you let a critique group at your story, you get
book-by-committee. It’s sliced, diced, and put back together to suit them, not
you. Nothing fresh and new comes from working with a group. Fresh, new, and
exciting comes from deep inside the writer when she has an idea just bursting
to get out.
Critiquing is like
throwing a rock through a window. The original work is shattered. Brainstorming
is like throwing a rock in a pond. It lands and the ripples start building from
small circles to every widening ones that seem to go on forever. The
brainstorming group forms a pool of creative energy where great ideas feed off
other great ideas. Goals, motivation and conflict of the story are explored in
ways you never even thought about.
Brainstorming an entire
story doesn’t mean someone else writes my book. It means you come with the
basic premise, characters, maybe a beginning and end and some turning points.
You bring these ideas to
the group, ply them with chocolate-chip cookies then write down their ideas as
they suggest ways to fill in the rest of the story. Do this in three
stages--the opening and beginning of the story, the middle action and turning
point, the climax, black moment and epiphany. You explore what makes the story
unique, the characters unique, what hooks fit and how pitch the story to an
editor.
You can take notes but a
tape recorder is better. You write down and take into consideration all the
ideas, even ones you think will never work. What sounds crazy now may very well
be what works the best when you’re actually writing the story. One idea often
sparks another idea that you’d never have thought of on your own.
In brainstorming, the
most important things to remember are there are no wrong ideas, no one insists
their idea is best or someone else’s won’t work and pass the cookies.
Brainstorming doesn’t
have to be for an entire book. Maybe it’s the beginning or end or a scene that
needs help. Perhaps a character’s gotten into a mess and you don’t know how to
get him out of it. Maybe he needs to get into a mess and you’re looking for the
right motivation.
A fun and incredibly
productive way to brainstorm is a brainstorming weekend. This is not a
vacation; this is work. In fact, when you get back you’ll need a vacation.
Being with other authors lets you see how
they plot and create wonderful intriguing characters that bring their stories
to life.
Brainstorming is far
better than critiquing. It’s a positive experience, not negative in any way.
Editors say, write the book of your heart—not lots of people’s
hearts. It has to be your story told your way
in your voice. When that editor buys your book, the most
important thing they buy is your voice. The way you tell the story...not the
way the group tells the story.
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Duffy Brown loves
anything with a mystery. While others girls dreamed of dating Brad Pitt, Duffy
longed to take Sherlock Holmes to the prom. She has two cats, Spooky and Dr.
Watson, her license plate is Sherlock and she conjures up who-done-it stories
of her very own for Berkley Prime Crime. Duffy's national bestselling
Consignment Shop Mystery series is set in Savannah and the Cycle Path Mysteries
are set on Mackinac Island. Connect with Duffy at her website www.DuffyBrown.com
and on Facebook: Facebook.com/authorduffybrown Her
latest book is a Consigmnet Shop Mystery, Demise in Denim.
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