Finders Keepers: A Practical Approach To Find And Keep Your Writing Critique Partner

The writer’s life is solitary… only if you want it to be. Writing critique partnerships could solve creative isolation, but confusion on the topic abounds. Where do you find one? How do they work? How do you move past a bad experience? We’re critique partners who, over the years, cultivated a process, redeemed our mistakes and maintained our friendship. Finders Keepers is our conversation analyzing six aspects of critique partnerships.

• Defining Critique Partnerships
• Evaluating Yourself for Your New Role
• Choosing a Critique Partner
• Preparing for a Critique
• Giving a Critique
• Receiving a Critique

We’re more than just talk, though. Each topic has hands-on challenges to encourage introspection and strategic action, strengthening your relationship into an unstoppable team. With this dynamic, you can confidently launch more powerful, polished words that reflect your purpose. We find our critique partnership personally fulfilling and professionally accelerating; we desire the same for you. Are you in it for keeps?

JOY E. RANCATORE is an Indie Author and the owner of Logos & Mythos Press in the Greater New Orleans area. She entered the professional writing world at age sixteen with a small-town weekly newspaper where the editor consistently ran her byline as Joe E. Over the years, Joy has written for newspapers, magazines and blogs, worked in public relations, web design and customer support and freelanced as a writer, editor and photographer. She writes fiction, nonfiction and everything between. She is the author of Any Good Thing, 2019, and Plus One Year More, 2020, and a contributing author to The Crux Anthology, 2018. In addition to her publishing roles, Joy is a blogger, speaker, teacher, editor for fellow Indie Authors and co-host of QWERTY Writing Life Podcast. When Joy's not doing horrible things to her characters or dreaming up faerie creatures and fantastic weapons, she hangs out with her husband Tony, homeschools her two children, snuggles her two stinky dogs and lets her cat, Tolkien, do whatever he wants. They'd prefer to live in Middle-earth or Narnia or Hogwarts or in a galaxy far, far away; but, for now, they're living their happily ever after in the Camellia City across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans.

MEAGAN (MEA) SMITH lives in a wooden house on a hill and trips over a multitude of cats while parenting her two rambunctious boys. When her mind floats too far from home, her caring husband tugs on her soul-string and, then, grills her chicken for dinner. Finding joy in a multitude of creative practices, Mea is a published author who co-hosts QWERTY Writing Life podcast with her critique partner, Joy E. Rancatore. Other creative avenues Mea enjoys are visual art, songwriting, photography, jewelry making, and quilting. She speaks to audiences on the topics of creative writing, embracing creativity, nurturing critique partnerships, and writing through grief. Mea earned a Master's in English, though considers herself a perpetual student. Over the years, Mea's nonfiction works have focused on the writing craft and life lessons, delivered with kindness, humor, and honesty. She believes love doesn't deter hateful things from happening, but it always conquers them. Because of this, she continues to create fictional content tinted with hope, preferring her tales set in contemporary and/or fantastical places. Her poetry is based on a true story. Always. If you're in south Mississippi, you can find Mea watching fireflies from her back porch or wandering the aisles of her local library.

Rachael Ritchey is a dreamer who believes in the resilience of the human spirit. She never wants to forget we are not what has happened to us or what we've done. She believes we are deep wells of compassion and strength, and when unleashed, these subtle superpowers can change the world, even if only just one person at a time. She writes with an eye toward exemplifying these attributes. Her YA fiction reflects these qualities with daring adventure and sweet romance that almost anyone can enjoy. Rachael lives in Spokane, WA with her husband, kids, and their dog named Hashtag.