By: Suji Bell

Suji Bell — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 03:26:20 +0000

Yes, that has been me. I did take classes, religiously get myself to the Writers Expo in L.A., have had on of my stories dissected thoroughly. At present I work two jobs, so there is no more time for classes…. I’ve re-written a few times, wonder if I can
just jump in??? What are the costs involved in teaming up, and what are the chores ?
A psychic told me the world is waiting for what I have written in “Money Myth Meltdown”.

By: Patricia Morse-McNeely

Patricia Morse-McNeely — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 22:49:25 +0000

I have read your article in support of the ‘teams’ along the way to publication — However, I do want to say this — too many of the writers’ groups start out small and with a genuine interest in the success of each member — but as they grow, something else happens — ‘friends’ become ‘friends only if I am the biggest and best and you accept the least role’ and begin to be infiltered by jealousies and biases that make critiques fall away into plain old criticism (because one does not write like the critiquer! who after all knows best what publishers want — true or not)
A writer should find (in or out of groups) someone capable of being unbiased and able to go beyond personal likes/dislikes to read and edit, critique and judge a piece.Picking someone to critique your work does not mean finding every i without a dot, every comma or other punctuation mark in the wrong place — without considering the job that mark is supposed to be performing (pause, take a breath, set apart as important, etc., etc., etc. A writer should find out, re punctuation, how big or little a job each one is designed to do (too many writers, editors, agents, etc., don’t seem to have learned the extent of the particular mark’s job!) A very wise man once said to me about a comma — it should be handled even more carefully than all the other marks in a sentence, because it can change the meaning of the simplest sentence by being present or not, in the proper place to indicate what follows or not — In a law brief, a comma that fails to do its proper job, keeping clear the purpose of any sentence therein, can cost billions of dollars to the people involved — or even a life!
As to agreeing with you on most of what you said about not doing the whole job alone, there is this to remember: “None goes his way alone….” and that is true just of living in this world. We pull together on anything, or if we insist on pulling alone, we are like to falter and die….. P.M.McNeely

Comments on: Who’s on Your Writing Team?

By: Suji Bell

By: Patricia Morse-McNeely