I've had some goals to meet this week, and they've kept me busy! The wip is so close now. I've read through it start to finish, making edits as I go. After a short blogging/getting kids off to school/grocery shopping break, I'm going to go through it one more time (hopefully much more quickly this time!) before dropping it in the laps of my first line of beta readers: my mom, my dad, and my husband.
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I know what you may well be thinking: Not such a good idea to depend on family critiques of my work. Well, my poor husband is being forced to read it for technical content. This wip includes guns and knives and cars. While he's not really an expert either, he knows a lot more about them than I do. He probably won't have much to say about the writing or the story itself.
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My mom and dad, however, can and do provide invaluable feedback. My mom reads more books in a month that I probably read in a year, so she knows a great deal about what constitutes good writing. And she's not afraid to be brutally honest. She's one of my biggest supporters, and she's realistic enough to know I need honesty, not an ego boost. She also knows she won't hurt my feelings. I've learned from past experience that I don't have to take every piece of advice I'm given, and that the critiques I do receive are a gift, not a personal assault (I suppose sometimes they may be, but I've never received one of those - thank goodness!)
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Late as always, I missed doing a Mother's Day post, but I've included a picture of my mom with me and two of my three sisters above. Can you guess which one is me? Happy Belated Mother's Day, Mom! And thanks for all your love and support over the years.
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So what I'd like to toss around today is this: who are your first round critiquers? And do you ask your family to read and/or critique your work?
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I know I haven't been around much this week, not posting or commenting nearly as much as I'd like. I even considered taking another blogcation, but I honestly miss you guys too much so I didn't want to do that unless I had to. But with a little luck and a lot of hard work, I should be able to get enough done today to spend some time in the blogosphere tonight.
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And don't forget to enter T.J.'s Famous Friday Contest! I probably won't be entering this week (I don't have much creative energy left after a week of heavy editing), but I'm looking forward to reading/watching the other entries! Especially because Jen over at unedited says she made a video and it has my name in it. Eek - I hope that's a good thing! :)
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Late Breaking News: I just signed up for the Let's Talk Blogfest over at Fiction Groupie. On May 18 post a short excerpt of your favorite dialogue scene. Roni's even giving away a $10 Amazon gift card. I hope to see you there!
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P.S. Does anyone else have trouble getting line breaks in between paragraphs in Blogger? I had to put those asterisks between my paragraphs because it wasn't recognizing my line breaks and ran everything together. Are there any tricks to that I should know about?
