I may post the four basic ideas in here tomorrow just to get some feedback, if anyone's up for it.

Oooh, yes.

Also, asking someone you'd just met to read an entire manuscript and give detailed feedback for free? Not cool

Very not cool. I have some Trusted Peeps who I send stuff to, but it's with the understanding that feedback would be awesome IF THEY HAVE TIME TO DO SO.

I've read books for people, and will again

And it's really appreciated :)

Yeah, it's not very cool. Maybe she could ask the group in general if anyone wanted to swap chapters instead of asking somebody for whom it's a job.

To be clear (and fair), she's very nice, although she's pregnant with Baby #4, and the other three are under five, which automatically makes her a little foreign to me. Not bad, just ... hard to relate to.

And this is a first novel she's pulled out to rework/revise, and I think she wants it done quickly. I think, given what I've read, she should just start something new, but that's harder to say. Nicely.

Tough sitch, Amy.

Problem is, to tell a nice someone you just met and will be interacting with "If you truly want to be a published writer, you are going to need to develop a thicker skin for critique, and the ability let a project go when it's time,"...that's awkward.

But I get her side of it, too; I've pulled some boner moves, because I just didn't know what I was asking was Not The Done Thing. I look back, wince and try to move on. And not repeat it.

Oooh, wincing now in memory. EESH. (If I have ever unknowingly pulled a boner on Buffistas --uh, metaphorically -- please forgive me!)

I've pulled some boner moves, because I just didn't know what I was asking was Not The Done Thing.

I'm sure I have as well.

My writing group (online, there's no way I could do one in person with my schedule) annoyance is that I've just done two reviews, one of them pretty detailed, and I've gotten no acknowledgement at all and I know they've been buy because they've posted on the forums there quite a bit. I think it especially grates me because it's been a very long time and many,many reviews since I haven't gotten a nice thank you (and sometimes a polite discussion) when I've done one.

ARGH! Boring Novel Is Boring. ARGH.

Are you the most...established writer in the group, Amy? Cause maybe she's waiting for the Secret Handshake or something.

Yeah, I just didn't know! If someone had smacked me down gently at the time, I would have been upset, but I would have been the better for it in the long run.

I have the most experience, if that's what you mean, erika.

I think she's reacting more to my editorial experience than my writing, since she's never seen my writing, as far as I know.

Still, kind of a bold move with someone you just met.(I suppose I did that with Herself and some Buffy fic once...I had an idea that I was psyched about and she said "Yeah, cool," and I took that to mean "I'd love to read more--RIGHT NOW.Luckily for her, I write slowly so she was able to say "Nice start, but people usually *ask*) But I sort of knew her. I think it's weird, for all the articles about how isolating the internet is, all of us typing in our lonely, ticky-tacky boxes, the thing I've noticed is that the sense of public and private is getting a little skewed...maybe cause it takes just a few clicks to call someone a Friend.