Writing Groups and Critique Partners: The Good, The Bad, and The "Why Did I Agree to This?" (S01E17)

In this episode, we welcome our guest, Anne Wells, to the show to talk about writing groups and critique partners. We share our very different experiences: Meagan's unicorn-level luck with her supportive four-year-old writing group, Kirk's unfortunate writing-group curse, and Anne's adventures in a Meetup group where the rude go to die.We also dig into what makes a writing group actually work, how to find one that won't make you miserable, and why some writers seem weirdly drawn to tearing others apart. (Is it their kink? We're not here to kink-shame, but also, yes we are.) We also talk about where to find your people: Discord servers, Blue Sky, conferences, local guilds, boring weddings maybe? And we share tips for keeping a group healthy long-term, including the most important question you should ask yourself: Are you miserable?In Hot Goss, we discuss a BookTuber's garbage take that Romantasy readers are "not the brightest sparks" and tools of the patriarchy. We also touch on why attacking a genre and its entire readership is, like, not cool, man.Welcome to Bad Lit Friends. We're glad you're here, even if none of us know what we're doing.Bad Lit Friends was created and is hosted by Meagan Thompson-Mann and Kirk Rafferty.Show email: [email protected]: @badlitfriends.bsky.socialThreads: @badlitfriendsInstagram: @badlitfriendsWebsite: https://www.badlitfriends.com/