Real People
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Want to improve your writing? If you learn the art of critique you become a better editor. Since roughly 70% of the writing process is editing, become a better editor and you become a better writer.
I’ve run a writers’ group since 2013 where writers come together to read-and-critique each other’s work. This is a powerful process of sharing writing and developing the art of critique. The benefit members get from group has been a noticeable improvement in writing and the comradery of interacting with other writers (Testimonials).
Why is it difficult to edit your own writing?
It's a secret!
No. The answer’s not a secret. It’s your secret.
Your writing is your creation. You know everything about it. Though much of it may never show up directly in your writing, it remains locked away in your mind. That's your secret knowledge and why it’s difficult to edit your own writing. You make all sorts of assumptions that the reader will know what you're writing about, when you've never let them in on your secret knowledge.
Why is it easier to critique someone else’s writing?
Because you only know what the writer tells you. You bring no secret knowledge to the reading. As a result you take what's written on face value. When you encounter confusion you can see it because there's nothing in the back of your mind to explain it away. In your own writing you may not see confusion because your secret knowledge tells you that you know what's going on. Naturally, you assume the reader will also understand.
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Here’s where a group with real people in real time pays off with real growth. When you have six to eight writers reading your piece they quickly expose when you're withholding valuable secret knowledge from the reader.
Learn the Art of Critiquing through repetition
In my group you do more critiquing of other people’s work than getting critique on your own writing. That's how you learn the Art of Critiquing. You spend more time analyzing and critiquing other writing, learning to become a better editor, which makes you a better writer.
Real-time interaction is critical
In the world of AI chatbots and asynchronous messaging, the human connection becomes more important than ever. As a writer much of your time is spent in isolation. That’s the nature of the work. Today AI provides you with the ability to have a writing partner and collaborator. You can brainstorm and query anytime you sit at the computer. This is fantastic and it can be very helpful.
However, while it provides many benefits, it lacks humanity. You can feed AI your writing and ask, “What do you think?” or “How can I make this read better?” You’ll get back responses, but they’re all based on the large learning model (LLM) that trained the app you're using. That means you’re getting similar feedback that anyone else can get since they're using the same AI app.
You can ask AI, “How does this make you feel?” or “How does this resonate with your experience?” AI can’t answer these questions with any degree of human nature because obviously it lacks emotions and life experiences. It will do its best to synthesize an answer, but the result will sound hollow and soulless because there’s no humanity present.
Come join me for a real-time, interactive, human experience
Come and benefit from a real-time interactive experience. Breakout from the isolation of writing. Spend some time away from AI chatbots and asynchronous messaging. Enjoy quality time with real people who are writers very much like you. (Here's a link to my short story about the isolation of writing and secret knowledge.)
It doesn't matter what type of writing you do, whether it's fiction, creative nonfiction, essays, newsletters, notes, business, or technical writing. If you want to improve your game, increase clarity and better express your intent, I highly recommend seeing what I can do for you. You can read what others have said about my read-and-critique writers' group since 2013.
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I really enjoy seeing writers interact with each other and how it improves their work. And I want to help you write better. That’s why I’m offering several different Zoom-based options for you to interact with other writers:
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The Writers’ Roundtable Critique (WRC) is a free, weekly, two-hour group session.
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The Writers’ Roundtable Critique (WRC) Program, which is an advanced nine-week paid program for learning the art of critique.
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One-on-One Macro-Zoom developmental editing and consulting sessions.
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One-on-One Micro-Zoom Interactive editing sessions.
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Follow the links for more information about my offerings. Feel free to contact me with questions and see how I can help you write better.