Toni

Thanks for the warm welcome all. I'm already pretty familiar with this site, as it's one of the ones I surf when I'm procrastinating (which is every day).

since I was asked so nicely, here goes. I am an aspiring romance writer of both historicals and contemporaries. I am a member of RWA and I have two completed manuscripts that will never see the light of day. My current WIP (post-Regency historical), however, may see some sunlight. My goal is to finish and polish it in time for the Golden Heart.

From what I have been able to find online, I think I have totally unusual (i.e., weird) critique needs. I would like someone to critique on a proposal/manuscript basis rather than a chapter-by-chapter basis. I am pretty confident in many aspects of my writing, but I often want fresh eyes to look at a proposal or give an overall critique of a manuscript (as opposed to a line edit). When I get a critique on chapters, it stifles me and I will go back and work on early chapters while losing my enthusiasm for the whole project. At the same time, I need someone else's input (since I've read my own work so many times) to determine if the whole thing is working. Also, I think it's hard for critiquers to be objective about the whole package when they've seen it piecemeal for so long. The proposal review is for obvious reasons. I need to know what someone thinks of my whole "marketing" package.