Purple Hearts

Check out Jessica’s post below on her conference experience. I’d like to second everything she said.

After the conference, my is-adorable Critique Partner stuck around for a few days to pound through some pages. It’s the first time we’ve done this and we learned a lot about structuring our visits. Here’s the Top Ten List we came up with at 1am.

1. You never need as much junk food as you think you do when you’re standing in the grocery story
2. Sometimes, not having the Internet is a very good thing
3. Sometimes, not having the Internet is an absolutely horrible thing
4. Goals. Goals. Goals.
5. Sleep is completely overrated
6. Sleep is your friend, try to get more of it
7. When having to do the dreaded synopsis, having your CP sitting across the table from you waiting to see it forces you to stop crying and write the darn thing
8. If you aren’t agreeing on a critique point, often getting away from it can make you see what your CP is trying to tell you – She’s often right, that’s why she’s your CP
9. Don’t tie your visits around another big event – the conference she came for was great, but we focused so much of our energy on it that we were too beat to get everything out of our visit we would have liked
10. Critique Partners are a unique relationship. I have amazing women who crit my stuff online and also my week-by-week CP, Ann. If you’re not building these relationships, get out there and do it. They are invaluable. We both agree, we learn as much working on the other person’s stuff as we do our own.

Now, stop thinking about visits and meetings and conferences, and Go Write!
-bria