Friday, January 22, 2010

A New Critique Group!


I don’t know about you, but I love a good critique group. As writers, we need this almost more than we need an agent or a publisher because without the beta, critter, or reader, our writing may never make it to agent level.

So it’s with that in mind that I want to let you all know about an awesome, new online critique group called Chimera Critiques!

They have a very interesting set up. Currently there are five staff members and you can read their bios, samples, and critique philosophies to see if they match the type of work you write. I can vouch for their work because if you click on each bio, you will see a sample of the first chapter of my wip, DWELLERS that I let them critique for the site.

Make no mistake, I didn’t just hand over my chapter to a bunch of strangers. I met Zellie Blake about a year ago on Absolute Write (you’re all familiar with that site, right?) when she answered my call for a beta for Light Bringers. We hit it off immediately. I liked her way of critiquing and she obviously liked that I didn’t whine about her comments-lol. I will say that it’s because of the help I got from Zellie that I was able to shave off 30k words from the original manuscript. And I believe her comments helped me get the attention of agents like Kate Testerman, Graig Tenney, Joseph Veltre, Emmanuelle Alspaugh, Bernadette Baker-Baughman, and Robin Rue, who all requested fulls!

I’m not bragging, trust me, because none of those ended with representation. But Zellie’s insight helped me step into a place that a lot of writers never get to see, a place I hadn’t been able to get to before. I still have work to do obviously, but I’d say check them out because maybe their help will get you all the way in the door.

It’s free and you can take a look at how each of them critiqued my chapter (which was a rough draft) and who matches you best.

I’d be really interested to follow up with anyone who uses Chimera Critiques and see how you liked them! When I’m finished Dwellers, I’ll be handing it over to someone there…well, if they agree to the whole ms-lol.


I was not paid for this endorsement—lol!

13 comments:

Natalie Murphy said...

Thanks for the link! I might just check them out =]

Sarah Ahiers said...

Ohh this is a timely post for me, i'll be searching for a new crit group soon...

Shannon O'Donnell said...

Thanks for this info and for the link. I'll check it out. :-)

Jemi Fraser said...

Sounds very interesting :)

Karen Denise said...

You're welcome, guys. Hope you all find the critiques as helpful as I did!

Possum said...

I don't even write fiction (as in... like seriously) this is good information to know just in case!

Sharon K. Mayhew said...

Great post...I've never heard of them. I'm definately going to check them out. Every critique is valuable. Thanks, Karen!

A.L. Sonnichsen said...

Wow, this sounds really cool. I'll check them out. Thanks for the tip!

Kelly Lyman said...

Thanks for posting this! I checked them and sent in my first chapter. They choose it to critique! I can't wait to hear back from them...although I'm a bit nervous too! Thanks again!

Karen Denise said...

Cool, Kelly! Let me know how it goes.

Christina Farley said...

I heart my critique group. I see you've posted Debbie's picture on here and she's in my group. I don't know what I'd do without them.

Amna said...

I think Critique is very important part in helping a writer grow! Nice links!

Whoa ! said...

read the mahabharat---the hindu epic if u have the inclination and the energy. althou not a devout i would recommend it