Austin SCBWI Critique Workshop

You’ve just typed the last line in your novel. Now what? You know you should let it sit awhile before you gaze at your brilliance. But you can’t. You pick it up and decide that it’s ready to send out. Children everywhere should have your story on their shelves. Editors and publishing houses will fight over your work. You can see the headlines in the newspapers now “Cat Fight Over Debut Novelist.”

Actually I guess that could happen. But highly unlikely. More likely you’ll see something like this:

Dear author,

We regret to inform you that we are passing on your book, WHO DUN IT.

We feel it is our duty to tell you that you should not give up your day job. If you have any other skills other than writing — follow them. Because your chance of becoming a children’s author is slim. Less than slim. Actually “Slim” just left the building screaming into the night right after reading your manuscript. No really, he did.

Take my advice, don’t write another word.

Best of luck as anything other than a children’s author.

Sincerely,

Top-Dog Editor

All joking aside, you might not receive a letter quite like the one above, but if no one has looked at your work and offered you some constructive feedback, you’re apt to quickly find your mail box stuffed with rejections.

So before you slip your manuscript into that brown envelope and send it via FEDEX, share it with another writer. Ask them for a critique. What’s that? Well, if you don’t know the answer to that question than you need to be at our critique workshop, Beyond the Basics: Applying and Analyzing Constructive Criticism and it will be led by Top-Dog instructors, Austin’s own Texas Sweethearts and Scoundrels.

Art work by illustrator Erik Kuntz

And to get you even more excited about the leadership you’ll receive at this workshop, check out a recent interview by Donna Bowman Bratton with PJ Hoover (Texas Sweetheart) and Meredith Davis, and don’t miss her other blog posts on critiquing with authors, Emily Kristin Anderson and Lindsey Lane and Samantha Clark, Shelley Ann Jackson and Cynthia Levinson .

See you on July 30th with the Texas Sweethearts! Register today at Austin SCBWI.

Carmen Oliver

Austin SCBWI Critique Workshop

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