Critique

Hello my fellow Substack readers. It’s been awhile since I’ve last shared a post. Why? Not entirely sure. But here I am now, and sharing about a critique I’ve recently received on my story, Brown Girl in Recovery.

This is my third time to receive a professional critique. This particular one was in conjunction with a writing contest I entered. There was a fee to enter the contest, and then a separate fee to receive the critique. I thought to myself, why not; lets do it. So do it I did.

What has the critique revealed that I wasn’t aware about at all? Well, it’s been told to me before, and now for the third time, that I need to expand on the scenes and setting. I get the concept in theory, but practically speaking it is challenging for me to do. It seems like if I could master this one aspect, then everything else would fall into place better? I did have a writing coach for part of 2024 who helped me with this, but it just doesn’t stick for me when I’m doing it on my own. I feel like I’m doing it, but then I get a critique back like this that says to do more of it and expand on what I’m doing.

I believe most of us have a book in us to write; we all have a story to tell in some way. I am also learning though that the art of writing a book is, well, not exactly art but more mechanical in some ways. There needs to be this in order for that to happen, type of thing. And that is where the challenge is for me.

So what’s next? I dunno. Some more thinking, some more writing. I’m leaning more and more towards trying to do what I did back in 2023 where I published monthly articles with a local magazine. That was something that I was decent at, I think.

The point in me writing my story; sharing my journey; putting it out there, is mostly so other Brown women like me feel less alone. I want them to know they will be ok and that there is nothing wrong with them. They can get sober and stay sober. And, in a way, writing Brown Girl in Recovery is a type of therapy for me as well. So, do I need to write a book? No, not really. Do I need to write? Yes, that I need to do, and that can be done in a myriad of ways.