Transform your story by mining its hidden gems.

One of the many reasons I adore my critique groups is that they push me to tell better stories. When I slack off, they call me on it. When I miss something, they point it out. When I’m not sure what works and throw all kinds of gunk into a scene, they tell me what worked and what needs to go.

After a while, their words started echoing in my head even when we weren’t meeting. When I slack off, miss something, or have too much gunk, and I hear what I know they’re going to say when they read those pages.

Which makes me change it.

Granted, I don’t catch everything, and my changes aren’t always the right changes, but it’s made me much more aware of what I’m doing when I’m drafting a novel. I’m much better now at spotting the gems hidden in the rough words and turning them into diamonds (or at least cubic zirconia).