Routines and critique groups

There's nothing like having guests in the house for disrupting routines. Since Monday 23rd we've been playing host and fun as it was, I'm now cream-crackered, or knackered, in the vernacular. It may take some time to recover! I've managed to steal a few minutes here and there to keep up my blog or attend to the e-mails, but  I haven't done anything with all the crits I've received, or had time to do much promotion of my books. The trouble now is that when I'm tired, the part of me that does the writing just flaps about, too tired to do anything. Give me a few days, and I might be up and running again.

On the other hand, today is the start of a new, guestless week. I shall get my eyes tested this afternoon, as I'm certain my sight has changed and I need new lenses and glasses, and my hair cut on Thursday. Tim will start taking the pills the vet gave him because harvest mites have bitten his toes and he is biting them....and I shall concentrate on writing to the exclusion of everything else. Maybe I'll start slowly, by reading the crits of my story, and see how it goes.

I may have bitten off more than I can chew with being on two crit groups, but at least I have the same story going through both. All I have to do is remember which crits came from which groups - and do 3 critiques for members of each group in return. The critiques vary enormously - one person wants  less description which slows the story and more action; another wants more description of the sea voyage, a third loves the description of the countryside and characters...it can be confusing trying to decide which comments are useful, and which to ignore. What it does give is a cross-section of the sort of reaction readers have, which is always useful. If several critquers are saying the same thing, it is wise to take their comments on board and do something about it!