Critique Partners: Motivational?

From the comments section of the last post:

“The problem with the whole CP thing is if you write very sporadically, you don’t want to try someone’s patience. I’m having that problem right now – my kind-of CP is all on edge for my next chapter, which may not be done for quite a while.”

and

“I so need to take the plunge and find a critique partner but I’m procrastinating because I’m still not writing what I feel is a consistent enough basis (I know lame excuse) between working the full-time job, husband, and a toddler to boot I barely have time to get a few pages in on weekends. But then again a few pages a week may be all some crtique partners can handle and I suppose having a critique partner might somehow make me more accountable, I guess I better go get one huh!”

Maybe you two should work together?

I don’t think there is anything wrong with having an irregular output. Take my example. I gave Marley UTR to read in pieces over last summer, and then I gave her some more work in early December, and then in January I gave her the proposal for SSG3. For C.L. Wilson, I read her entire 1,000 page fantasy epic in January of 2006, and now I’m reading the first half again (it will be published in two volumes).

But then again, we are all using the critique relationship as nothing more than a critique relationship. Not to “be accountable” or to urge us to turn out pages. (We’ve got the deadlines for that.) We do talk about how we love the books and want to read more, but that’s reader love talking. Or maybe I’m just being a commercial old hag?

I can see how that might be a valuable motivation at a certain point in your development as a writer — if you have a critique partner waiting to see your stuff, you may be more inclined to write it — but I have never thought of it like that. (I didn’t put it on my list of reasons to have a CP.) Can anyone jump in here and talk about using CPs as a motivational technique?

I’m my own best motivational technique. Well, that and my landlord, who has this total obsession with rent. I don’t think a CP saying, “I gotta read more,” has quite the same oomph as a utility saying, “we’re turning off your heat.” But, for those of us who don’t make a living from writing, you need something else to push you. Again, I think that push has to come from you, but it’s certainly something you can arrange to work well within the CP relationship. One of my RWA chapters has a yearly bookchallenge in which we report our weekly goals with the idea of finishing a book by our Christmas party. You can make up those kind of challenges with your CPs. Promise them a particular number of pages per week. Sure. But I don’t know if that’s the point of a CP.

Gee, maybe I have grown cynical! Someone jump in here and tell me it’s okay. Julie? Now I think I’m being a bad CP, and I should be spending more time begging them to send me more.

Moving on. So, do you need a critique partner when you are writing very sporadically? Sure. Your work needs critiquing every bit as much when you turn out one book every two years as when you turn out six books a year. I think, all things being equal, I’d rather a CP who sent me too little work than too much!

Of course, if you send them chapter one in January and chapter two in July, they probably won’t remember from before. Keep that in mind.

Okay, signing off now to think about how my soul has shriveled up into a crumpled, ashen ball of cynicism and commercialism.