Writing Life Speed Dating for Crit Partners

I've never had a computer class but I have some computer security training at the hospital where I work. This workshop was eye-opening and very useful/helpful in many ways. Thank You! Great reference notes.

I’ve had so many failures at keeping on track with my goals that I doubted this class would make a difference for me. Luckily, I was wrong. Leslie’s honesty about her struggle with goals was refreshing and has clearly led her to a highly informed way of helping others. Leslie led me to boil down my goal to its essence: establish and maintain a consistent writing practice. From there I came up with modest 5-day-a-week goals that I have been able to keep to in 2020. When I accomplish my daily goals, I allow myself to feel satisfied. If I do more writing in a day, it’s just a bonus. Per Leslie, I know in the back of my mind that if I stop reaching my goals, it’s time to readjust my goals instead of beating myself up. These tweaks in mindset have already made a big difference for me; and greatly reduced the notion that I’m not doing enough, quickly enough. I’m thrilled that this course also introduced me to the Savvy Authors’ 2020 monthly goals accountability group. I’m excited to try out this tool!

I found this a very useful class and was able to take away a number of good suggestions. I could tell a lot of work and care went into the class.

This workshop was definitely eye-opening. I had quite a bit of trouble with techy computer stuff, but that's pretty typical for me. I struggled through and learned a whole bunch. Leslie was very patient and helpful thoughout the entire session. I'm hoping to put into practice some of the things I learned. Thanks for a great workshop.

The class was well-organized and informative. It contained much useful information on how to find keywords, how to generate them for a book, and how to use them on yours. My only suggestion would be to provide a URL to an article -- or articles -- containing more information on keywords, and perhaps even information on the basic concepts of HTML.

A very well organized presentation - especially for those that are unfamiliar with the importance of keywords. The handouts are great.

A very informative workshop that, figuratively speaking, took this tech-challenged artistic type by the hand and walked me through the whole business of finding and using keywords relevant to me and my work.

A great deal of information to go through. This seemed to be wonderful and extensive knowledge passed to us.

I agree with Jan, I enjoyed the class and the exchanges that I did receive, but there wasn't enough time to interact with everyone (as a couple of my potential partners couldn't get back to me due to work/life issues). Thanks though and I would be interested again if you do it in the summer.

This was a good class, but I don't feel like I walked away with a critique partner. I think there could have been more communication between the critiquers and that might have helped. I enjoyed the pieces I critiqued.

In theory, it seemed good. I was paired with someone who was a different skill level. Their work was comparable to a first draft with many easily caught errors and on the inverse, I wasn’t able to use much of their suggestions.

An interesting experiment to find a compatible crit partner. Meeting new people and reacquainting with others was also great. Worth the time required.

I appreciated the added bonus of critiquing instruction/ideas on top of matching up people for critiques. It was fun to read other people's works, not just those I critiqued. I also really enjoyed seeing how others tackled critiquing. The instructor/facilitator was very responsive and engaging. I plan to do it again, if it's offered.

I enjoyed the workshop. It was what I had in mind when deciding to do the workshop. I valued the feedback given by many of my matches and enjoyed the varied work posted. However, I felt there could be more consistency, such as the workshop leader/mods ensuring people posted in time and responded in time so people's time was not wasted. We were also told that the workshop leader would do the occasional critique but none was done. I felt that it would have been good if at least one was done as it would have been an example for many to follow. Overall many did lengthy critiques taking all aspect of story telling into consideration, however on occasion you can tell when someone was not bothered to do justice. Then there were people posting the same story again and again without working on it and you wonder why? is it to waste people's time?

Overall I liked the critique workshop. I have made contacts with like minded people whom I hope to continue working with.

I really enjoyed having different people reading and critiquing my posts; I felt it gave me the chance to see different points of view, as well as showing me people I really would and would not like to have an ongoing partnership with.

I did feel, though, that the moderator(s) might have stepped in at certain points. For instance, one attendee posted the same passages every week without making any attempt to edit their work. So at least 3 people gave her the same comments -- it was fairly obvious where improvement was needed. I also felt the last pairing was pretty far off track when there was still another historical writer I could have been (and hoped to be) paired with.

Overall, an excellent idea and a great experience.

The class was well thought out. I miss understood where the lectures would be posted, therefore I missed most of those until the end of the fourth week. The instructor was thoughtful about coordinating critique partners, and answering questions. I would recommend the class to other writers and already have.

This was a great event, and I learned a lot. I would be happy to do it again.

I had great hopes for this class--not only to find a crit partner, but to open a door to a fellow writer so my room isn't so lonely. That didn't happen, unfortunately. I understand that this type of event can be difficult to pull off. I hope some of the writers were successful matches. My recommendations for a future crit-partner event: 1. offer multiple crits per person each week. My third crit felt like a duplicate of my first--thus a waste of time for both of us. This will offer various perspectives of the same piece and if someone backs out (especially without notice), then the person still has responses. If it means the piece has a lower word count to accomplish--that's okay. 2. Offer that if another person (not chosen) wants to crit, they can. I found some I would've liked to comment on, but felt it would've been pushy. There was a person I would've liked to received a crit from, but I was never partnered with her. It's hard to know in the isolation of my computer screen what's acceptable behavior. Crossing the line might offend some--which my bluntness tends to do anyways. 3. In the introductions, consider asking people about their backgrounds. I've studied writing for ten years--I may have offered a crit to someone who's only studied for a month and my responses might not be as in-depth. Has the other person published? I don't know--especially if the person is using a name other than their pen name. The last person didn't even seem to offer anything--I'm assuming it's because she was new to writing and only wanted her work critiqued. Maybe I was too harsh...IDK.
I tend to mark what I see and her curt, simple crit made me think I offended her. So, with 5 crits possible, two tossed out as worthless, and one person didn't respond the week before for her crit--so she didn't show up for mine either. That left two crits of any substance--and one clearly didn't care for my writing style. While my rating isn't high--based on my personal experience, of course--this type of event has great value and I hope you will consider offering it again with modifications. Thanks.

I really enjoyed the critique partner event. I got a lot of great suggestions. I would suggest sending out a separate email for partner requests. The way I read it in Lesson 6 was that you’d be doing that. I just went back and reread it and saw my mistake. If it’s not too late I’d like to add mine. I would be more than happy to have TammyBurke, Giffmacshane or NC as a future partner.

If you’re having a hard time getting precise matches you might consider changing it up a bit. If someone requests somebody, you could just send that person an invite.

Thanks for putting this together. I know it was probably a lot of work. I also wanted to comment on your huge success with Pitch Fest. I participated last year too. You had tons more submissions this year.

Great class and lessons. However, it was several weeks before I realized there were assigned partners for each week for the class. I never got one partner to work with as she must have been like me and didn't see the list. Is there a way to tag/alert members to look in a different section other than the main course for things like this? Thanks.