Critique partners (CPs) are uber-important to writers. While beta readers read your book like the general public will (looking at the “big picture,” the overall story, the pacing, etc.), critique partners are usually other writers, and they’ll look at the little writerly details for you. They know how to “arc a character,” how to write a “beat,” how to add emotion, how to close your “black moment” and other kinds of writer-jibber-jabber like that.
I met Patti (aka historical romance author Tricia Lynne) in an online critique group I was in in about 2006. She lives in Nebraska. We quickly hit it off, liked each other’s writing, kept up with each other, and finally broke away from the group because we were writing at a much faster pace and had waaaaaaaaaay more pages to critique than the others!
Eight years later, we’re still great friends and still swapping pages and helping each other out. She’s the best CP in the world, I’m absolutely sure. She’s amazing with writing “deep point of view” and descriptions. And she’s great at pulling the best descriptions out of me. (She’ll write in the margin, “But what does this look like? What does it smell like here? Are there palm trees or is it a clear view?” etc.)
She’s seen The Red Bikini through every iteration, and I think she was as excited as I was when it was finally published! She’s definitely the godmother of the book, and I opened my acknowledgments with her.
Thank you, Patti!
Next time: Meet my photographer!
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