Critique Groups

I went to a meeting of my critique group. I haven’t submitted anything yet for critique because I’m scared. People are submitting the third, fourth, eighth draft of the same chapter. No one seems to move on unless they wrote a short story. A critique group is supposed to help an author understand what issues a first draft has so that they can be corrected and then move forward. I have tead some chapters three times already.

How can a writer get better through a critique group? Listen to the comments, take what you like, leave what you don’t, and move on. If a person needs to do eight or more versions of a chapter, how can they ever get finished? If a person can’t get past one chapter, what does that say about the writer and their ability to write?

Don’t get me wrong. I like the people in the critique group but I don’t think I’ll ever submit anything. I care too much about the written word to keep ruining the same few paragraphs.