I met with my critique group last night. We had a new person which is always interesting. It's fun to hear a new perspective, and a new person's work.
I myself am sold on the idea of critique groups, but I know that a lot of people are against them. If you're pre-published as Lynn Oliver head of SCBWI calls it, then I highly recomend being in a critique group. If nothing else, you'll have a reason to get something prepared at least once per month. If you're not a published author or even if you are, but you have another job, it's easy to get distracted and let your writing flounder.
My critique group has been great. I've learned a ton from them. I remember my first meeting. I'd written my manuscript, typed it up, had all the commas in the right place. I was sure that they would tell me to get this in the hands of a publisher as soon as possible. Instead they said, "I don't understand your point-of-view." I was shocked. Worse than that, I had no idea what they were talking about. I had to reasearch, read, study and ultimately re-write the whole manuscript to clean up my POV. And still I'm contemplating changing it from multiple POV to just one.
Ultimately, it's my decision what I do with the feedback I get from my critique group, but if not for them I would have wasted a lot of people's time, and spoiled my own chances.
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